[4256] in APO Printshop
Re: Letterpress printing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Leonard H Tower Jr.)
Sat May 19 01:53:41 2007
Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 01:53:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Leonard H Tower Jr." <tower@alum.MIT.EDU>
To: Mitchell E Berger <mitchb@MIT.EDU>
cc: apo-printshop-journeyman@MIT.EDU, jtu@MIT.EDU, kbyers@MIT.EDU, riv@MIT.EDU,
spang@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <200705182050.l4IKoqOh013692@byte-me.mit.edu>
Hi All,
I'm cc:ing the brothers Mitch mentioned.
ps: http://www.design.upenn.edu/commonpress/ is worth a glance. Not
quite the hot bed of letterpress printing that Yale is, but nice work
- though not all of it is letterpress. {ps == pre-script ;-}
* We have, in the past, let experienced printers in the MIT Community
use the press if a journeyman was willing to supervise hir, and they
pay the usual press use fees.
The first time, the journeyman was expected to exercise the same
care as s/he would in a qualifying run, as well as keeping the
APOffice secure.
In most cases, no one came back a second time. In any case, I don't
remember this ever being a problem. Does anyone else?
* If AX can do someone a service at no real risk to the Chapter it
should.
** There are many jobs that could be done, if brothers really want to
do more printing. We do not need Prof. Montfort's job.
* Prof. Montfort is likely to be a better printer then most of the
brothers qualified to use the press. If he does the job, he'll be
happy with the quality.
* It never hurts AX, to have another friend on the faculty.
As a new Asst. Prof, he will be here for at least several years
(most likely four), and if he gets tenure, for decades. (I'm
assuming he using MIT's definition of Assistant Professor.)
* It's possible that he might steer donations of type toward the Shop.
Offers from outside are as likely to find him as us.
* It's likely that whomever works with him, will learn from him.
(I learn from everyone I train, or help print.)
So my recommendation is that we don't change prior policy on this, and
let him use the Shop, if a journeyman can make arrangements with him.
If our consensus is to allow him supervised access, I be willing to
work with Prof. Montfort on this, unless another journeyman wants to.
I assume Mitch would also let him know the press is old, and some of
the type is worn.
Mitch:
Do you how he heard of the press? It be useful to know.
yiLFS -len
Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 16:50:52 -0400
From: Mitchell E Berger <mitchb@MIT.EDU>
Several of us (me, jtu, kbyers, riv, spang, maybe one or two
others) briefly discussed this on -c apo earlier. We're basically
of the opinion that letting someone unaffiliated use the press
rather than giving us a job doesn't really benefit the chapter,
especially since our rules would require that we babysit them while
they're using it.
So, I'm inclined to turn him down politely, and offer that he could
give us the job and/or take a tour if he wants.
Do any of you see some reason we might want to make an exception
for him that would be beneficial to AX?
I'd like to reply sometime this weekend, and would appreciate
feedback from one or two of you either way before I do that.
Thanks,
Mitch
> Hi -- I'm writing to ask about APO's printing services. Do you indeed have
> a letterpress there, as someone suggested you might? And foundry type? If
> so, would it be possible for someone like me to use the press for a
> project? Of course I would expect to provide my own ink and paper, and of
> course to clean up and put away the type afterwards.
>
> I am joining the MIT faculty this summer as an assistant professor of
> digital media. I have a bit of experience composing, typesetting, and
> printing at the University of Pennsylvania's Common Press.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Nick Montfort <mail> nickm@nickm.com <web> http://nickm.com
