Audrey Solomon [AS] started getting interested in letterpress during her bachelor in visual communication and product design and one of her internships that was heavily focused on typography. The more she read and saw about letterpress, the more she really wanted to extend her knowledge in this field. After finishing her master in publishing she is now working in the field of editorial design in Munich. Audrey and I talked about how TPP helped her to build a foundation of (typo)graphic understanding for her daily—mainly digital—work.
What were your expectations of the program? Why did you participate?
[AS] «Firstly: I wanted to get my hands dirty and be in a workshop again, learning a new «tool». Secondly: I wanted to learn as much as possible about type and was interested in Dafi’s design process, having seen his work.»
How was your experience at TPP?
[AS] «An absolute blast. Admittedly, I was pretty exhausted when it was done, but it was definitely worth it. Besides a lot of new knowledge of design processes and typography and letterpress, it was the people I met that made the course so enriching and fun. And of course, now I got a cool poster for my portfolio.»
What useful lessons did the traditional analog process teach you?
[AS] «Firstly: Detail makes the difference. I learnt to allow a process to take the time it needs and invest care and attention into the smallest detail to obtain good quality work. Secondly: Prepare every day of work and step well, no «cmd+z» on a letterpress printing press ;) You learn from your mistakes but you also stay more attentive that way. Thirdly: Know the (typographic) rules and where they come from, even if you then decide to break them.»
How do you apply these approaches in your daily digital work?
[AS] «We have so few constraints when it comes to digital work and we are pushed more and more to work at an incredibly fast pace, and I do not mean in a very productive way. The course really helped me appreciate how physical constraints and the before-mentioned care and preparation needed in a letterpress workshop and in analog production, can actually enrich your process and design. When I feel lost in my process when working purely digitally, I often return to analog methods, some of which acquired during the TPP, combining them with our digital possibilities nowadays.»
What is your concluding advice for future participants?
[AS] «Apply, have fun, be open, absorb it all and make sure you get everybody’s number and email in the end.»
Images by Audrey Solomon, Dafi Kühne and Sabrina Öttl.