Typeface - a documentary film about old wooden type making and printing

Posted by prosperity
Typeface film poster designed by Nick Sherman.  
Check out our post on FlyerGoodness for more of Nick's work.
Available at the Typeface store.



Typeface prints designed by Dennis Ichiyama, a professor at Purdue University who appears in the documentary.  Prints available at the Typeface store.



Typeface print designed by Ashley Pigford. 
Available for $20 at the Typeface store.


Typeface print designed by Jason Early & Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff
Available at the Typeface store.


Typeface print designed by Stacey Stern.
Available for $25 at the Typeface store.


 Poster from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and a photo of the press below.



Here is a really nice letterpress poster designed for the UK screening, designed by art student Alex Fowkes aka Pone.  Check out his website or his Flickr for much more.

Alex even made custom invitations and tickets which are downright awesome.





Here is a short time-lapse video of Alex's process in making the poster


One of the movies I actually look forward to the DVD release of, Typeface is a documentary about the tradition and art of wooden type design and printing, focusing on the historic Hamilton Wood Type Museum.  Here's what the documentary website has to say about it:

Here are some bits from the Typeface synopsis:
"Typeface focuses on a rural Midwestern museum and print shop where international artists meet retired craftsmen and together navigate the convergence of modern design and traditional technique."

"Typeface, Kartemquin’s latest documentary in progress, will bring this fascinating junction of historical and contemporary, as well as rural and urban America together for enjoyment and contemplation. This film will be of interest to art and graphic design enthusiasts, to teachers as an educational resource, and to anyone looking for a film about perseverance and preservation in the heart of America."

Here's the trailer for the film, due out on DVD this Spring. You can also check the website for screenings.



"The Hamilton Wood Type Museum in rural Two Rivers, Wisconsin, a struggling industrial town on Lake Michigan about an 90 minutes north of Milwaukee, houses over 1.5 million wood letterforms. Currently, these letters are not behind glass or partitions, but are instead organized and available for the layperson or artist to consider, hold, and if they attend a workshop, use for printing. The Museum occupies a portion of the original Hamilton Company type factory building, residing there free of charge to heighten Two Rivers’ cultural status."

Here's a video clip from the film, showing what it's like inside the Hamilton Wood Type Museum:


For another informative video about the museum, check out this youtube video by a local public tv station.

Apparently the place is chock full of over a million pieces of wooden type.
Here are some photos inside the museum, from the Typeface photo gallery:
Get ready for some typographic goodness:







Photo from the Typeface photo gallery.
 
 

 

Check it out!  I'll have to drive over an hour to see ascreening towards the end of the month (note:  they're currently not scheduled for Los Angeles).

LINKS:

- Official website of the Typeface documentary
- List and updates of Screenings