If you’re a typenerd like myself, you enjoy things such as serifs, kerning, ligatures, logotype, mean line, metrics, multiple master font, orphan line, outline font, just to name a few. I went to school for this stuff, so don’t hate me for dropping typenerd lyrics on you. If you have ever experienced the craft of a letterpress, I don’t have to explain to you how cool it is. I got into the newspaper industry after the letterpress was pulled away and replaced with computers, film machines and direct-to-plate technologies but the relics were still around, plus it was mandatory to experience it in college typography classes. The design process of an age-old letterpress process is this: you arrange type and “cuts,” or artwork, on a press bed, lock and ink the type, then print.
Video and screenshots after the break.
LetterMpress, by Kickstarter John Bonadies, lets you do this exact method, except virtually, on an iPad. With the app, you will be able to create unlimited designs, with multiple colors, using authentic vintage wood type and art “cuts.” And you can print your design directly from LetterMpress or save it as an image for import it into other applications. Why would you want to do this? I could name 1,000 reasons, but this app isn’t for everyone, and the people that it does apply to will want this badly.
John Bonadies runs his own graphic design business in Illinois. He started his career in the mid 80s and after being reintroduction to letterpress, through collecting wood type, he has created a path to this Kickstarter project with his friend and programmer, Jeff Adams.
So why would Bonadies want to re-create an “obsolete process” for the new technology of the iPad? “A letterpress and an iPad operate similarly when it comes to manipulating objects in a composition. Just like placing blocks of wood type on a surface, you drag the type images across the iPad, and then move them around to create your design. This is why the iPad would make an ideal platform for people to experience the creative aspects of letterpress and typography.” The cost of this project is much more than creating a “standard” iPad app because Bonadies is collecting authentic wood type and vintage “cuts.” This out of date technology is not easy or cheap to come by, so the financial goal set for this project is $15,000. Seem like a lot? Well, just so you readers now, the project has already raised almost twice that, or $30,000. People interested can still contribute up until April 20. For more details, see the KickStarter page.
The goal of this Kickstarter project is to give designers, artists, students, and typenerds the ability to produce their own authentic letterpress designs and artwork. Here are some details about the iPad app: $5.99 will get you the base version with 12 typefaces and 50 “cuts” and even more upon each update, so you can expect some in-app purchases for more typefaces and artwork. Another cool feature of LetterMpress is that Bonadies will have physical access to the type and cuts, so he will eventually offer authentic prints from the user’s LetterMpress designs. I could see a site dedicated to people showing off their iPad-made LetterMpress designs (hint, hint).
Like most Kickstarter projects, you get benefits if you pledge some hard earned cash to this project like limited edition letterpress art prints, wood type, and the opportunity to name your own typeface in the LetterMpress App.
I could go on and on about this project but I’ll stop now, so please visit the LetterMpress page, get more details, pledge if you’d like and we hope you’re all as excited as I am about this project.
