Designing for Letterpress
While letterpress printing is super, crazy, amazing and awesome, it is not appropriate for all layouts. Given the equipment used (vintage presses and photo-polymer plates) and the way they are operated (by hand) there are several things to keep in mind when designing for letterpress printing.
Come spend your lunch with Lily Smith+Kirkley of Lilco Design + Letterpress Studio and Meredith Clampitt of Clampitt Paper Co. These two will discuss the top 10 things to consider when designing for letterpress printing including paper selection and how ink, paper and pressure must sync perfectly for a optimal outcome.
This will be a detail oriented (super nerdy!) presentation and will include examples of successes and failures, file prep tips, hands-on show-n-tell and Q&A. Also, there will be a giveaway — limited edition memo books made of one-of-kind make ready press sheets.
Lily Smith-Kirkley
Lilco (lil-co) is owned and operated by Lily Smith+Kirkley. Lily is a native Texan and graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland. With ten years of design experience, Lily has worked for companies both large and small, including Tsang Seymour (NY), Bergdorf Goodman (NY), Neiman Marcus (TX), The Matchbox Studio (TX), Fossil (TX) and Banowetz + Co (TX).
In 2003, Lily and her partner, artist Kim Cadmus Owens, moved to Brooklyn where they lived and worked for three years. In 2006 they returned to Texas, and Lily bought her first press, a Vandercook SP-15. Initially Lilco was launched as a side project, but after winning the Scion/Motivate contest in February 2013, Lily has put all her eggs in one basket and now runs Lilco full-time.
Besides working, Lily enjoys swimming, dumpster diving and running.
Meredith Clampitt
Meredith is Clampitt Paper Specification Representative & Paper Lover. Clampitt Paper is a family owned and operated company that was started in 1941 by Max Clampitt. It is now run by his youngest son, Don Clampitt. Clampitt is an independent paper merchant that sells direct to large and small scale printers as well as creative designers and artists. Clampitt Paper will be celebrating their 75th Anniversary in 2016.
Meredith is in Specification Sales at Clampitt Paper in Dallas and has been with the company for almost five years. After graduating from The University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science from the William Allen White School of Journalism in Strategic Communications she moved back to Dallas and began working at Clampitt Paper in Customer Service.
