Presses stop me. When I worked at a newspaper, on breaks I used to go down to the press room and watch the huge rolls whir through. My favorite is the sights and sounds of letterpressing – the hands-on spinning of wheels, the metal plates and the wet ink, the impressions in the paper.

In Charleston, Courtney Rowson, Amy Pastre and Virginia Gregory of Sideshow Press create pieces one by one, designed with all sorts of graphics and type – of insects, antlers, flora, dress patterns, topo maps, tool guides, and more. They’ve got a new website, and I’m so pleased that they included some of my copy:

The idea is simple – to press type into paper.   The machinery is outdated, replaced in the mid-20^th century by offset – and eventually digital – presses.  But for design purists, no other machine gives artwork and letters such a distinct tactile quality, mechanically pushing metal plates into the fibers of each sheet.  You can feel the type.

In the last decade or so, there’s been new interest in the old machines across the country, with vintage letterpress equipment put back to use by designers looking for creativity away from the computer.  In Charleston it took three women to bring one of the iron and steel contraptions to town, to figure out how to use it, ink it up, and start printing. Together they are Sideshow Press.

– Sandy Lang, December 2009

Since mid-summer, I’ve been collaborating on a project with Stitch Design Co., and the first pieces are now in print and online. The materials are for the 2009 InShow, the AIGA of South Carolina’s annual design awards. The website is up, and this week the printed call-for-entries was mailed to designers across the state.

We’re having a lot of fun with this project. Everything has a retro-grocery look, and the remaining pieces include an invitation to the Grocer’s Gala in November (the awards party). I’m hoping there will be dancing in the aisles.

– Sandy Lang, September 2009

This is so cool… an article I wrote last year for Garden & Gun was read by a filmmaker who says he was inspired to create a short film.

On Friday I had the chance to talk with Tim Sutton, who’s an art director with Getty Images and a good friend of G&G editor Sid Evans. Tim’s five-minute “Cypress” shows a visit with Aaron Wells, who lives near the Suwannee River and builds kayaks and canoes out of narrow strips of cypress. The film takes me right back to Aaron’s workshop, to the North Florida blackwater scenery. It was shot and edited by cinematographer Chris Dapkins, with music by Moondog.

You can see “Cypress” here, on the Garden & Gun website.

Besides his work with Getty, Tim has directed music videos for The Raconteurs, Brendan Benson, Sam Prekop, and The Sea and Cake. I love this one for The Sea and Cake’s, “Weekend.”

– Sandy Lang, June 2009

Great news… the December issue of PRINT magazine – the 2008 Regional Design Annual – includes my business cards and letterhead as one of the best-designed print pieces in the South. Big congratulations goes to my friend Amy Pastre, who was the designer for this project.  Amy is also a co-founder of Sideshow Press, and she and I often collaborate on creative projects. This is our second work to be featured in a PRINT Regional Design Annual.

This from the PRINT website:

… the volume of entries into this year’s Regional Design Annual—a tribute to traditional media if there ever was one—attests to the value of print for delivering a tactile, portable, beautiful message that can be easily read, referenced, and archived. As the floodgates opened in April and the thousands of boxes arrived in our office so that we could sift through the tens of thousands of entries, eventually winnowing them down to this year’s final selections, we witnessed print in all its glory once again. For now, we’ll pause during the cacophony going on next door to toast this year’s 863 winners—and our cheers are still louder than the din.

Above are some samples, which aren’t done justice, of course, without holding the pieces in your hand.  Amy was able to include photography, letterpress printing, color and a star… all features on my wish list for the project. (Ever since creating my first business cards as a knock-off of a 1950s Elvis concert ticket, my collateral has always included a star.) If I haven’t yet given you one of my business or notecards – and you’d like one – please let me know.  Send your post address and I’ll put one in the mail. (No matter how much digital media grows, I’ll always be partial to the look and feel of type on paper, and to the U.S. Post… another classic.)

– Sandy Lang, November 2008

Earlier this year, another website I worked on with Blue Ion went live (love the guys over there), and I’ve been clicking through it again today. I’ll attach a few screen grabs here. The site was for Seamon Whiteside + Associates, a well-respected South Carolina firm of engineers and landscape architects. From the first time we met and visited with SWA, it was clear that the pro staff has a sense of life and fun, even though the work is challenging. Throughout the site we tried to show their creative side, that human element. Here’s my opening copy

Beyond the blueprints and plans.

Beyond the regulations and codes.

Beyond the gravel and dirt.

We see people.

Other collaborators in the project were designer Courtney Gunter and photographer Peter Frank Edwards, along with David Wood, Robert Prioleau and the rest of the team at Blue Ion.

– Sandy Lang, November 2008