Copenhagen-based designer Ishac Bertran has a “soft spot” for typography. Some time ago his friend brought him a set of vintage letterpress types from Italy and he was delighted.
Together with typography, Bertran also loves analogue processes and old machinery, and especially letterpress printing.
Bertran thus decided to build a small letterpress printer as a way to use the types. The entire letterpress was realised using only scraps of material from past experiments. The materials Bertran used were three blocks of (mahogany) wood, little brass rods and some copper. These materials ultimately determined the shape of the letterpress.
The ink brayer on the letterpress was made with some parts of an old cassette player. While the letterpress is very gimmicky, Bertran admits that the accuracy isn’t what it needs to be: “This type of wood is really had and thin drills were bending.”
An interesting idea, nonetheless. Here’s a video demonstrating the process.
