Coffee anyone?
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Our second labour of love is complete and ready to be enjoyed by all. We won’t mention the poor judgement on measuring and counting blocks but instead how good it looks in our new space. Big thanks to Peter for helping with the base.
I want one!
[...] wood type coffee table would be the perfect addition to our [...]
That is horrible! As graphic designers shouldn’t you want to preserve the techniques of our profession’s history? DIY letterpress is spreading like wildfire, but with the amount of type and equipment being ruined and turned into home decor it is getting more and more expensive. I totally understand the beauty of pieces like this table, as I also decorate my basement with wood and lead block type, but my decoration is type sorted in trays for actual use. In fact, you could have bought a REALLY nice designer table for the amount of money you could have brought in from some of the wood blocks you used. A lot of bigger blocks (over 6in) can fetch up to $100 a single letter. Maybe more if it’s rare.
What you did there, while it is absolutely gorgeous, is like killing a small piece of graphic design history.
Next time you find a box of wood type for sale or laying around somewhere, shoot me an email, I’ll take it off your hands in the name of Letter-Presservation.
A bit hasty no?
These are from my personal collection of wood type and they are 100% removable. These were the first blocks I had when I put my press together and now they are a nice little reminder in my new studio of how much I love the smell of ink and fresh prints. To be honest – I’m more offended at the thought of selling a piece of my history and the gentleman’s who gave me these specific blocks many years ago. Nothing ruined here – maybe you should ask first instead of imply the worst.
And in regards to history – you should see how many people I’ve been able to share the history of letterpress with just simply by having this table in my office. Preservation is in knowledge – not useless blocks sitting in your basement.
Yes, hasty. Very hasty. My bad. I all too often find it being the worst case and it has quickly become a pet peeve. I have seen the rarest of fonts ripped from their families to make “Live. Love. Laugh.” and “XOXO” wall hanging joined together with gorilla glue. It’s enough to make my skin crawl.
Glad to hear you print and have built this table so the type could still be used. In fact, with a sheet of glass over the type it’s actually a really good solution for storing your random type, that like you said you just can’t part with because of the history, but still use from time to time.
Here is me being the pot calling the kettle black… I might even think about building a table like that for my print studio (where no block sits useless).
Learned my lesson today. Not everyone (just most) making type block home decor is cluelessly ruining history. Keep printing and spreading the good word of letterpress.
I WANT one of these!! What an awesome table.
Absolutely beautiful! AND so inspiring! (and especially since you can remove them to use every so often!) Love, love, love it!
A couple of years ago, I created a large wall hanging that was similar to this. I set all the type inside a tray and packed them in tightly so I wouldn’t need to use glue. The thing weighed a ton, and when I went to hang it on the wall, the wire snapped and the whole thing came crashing down. All the letter blocks have remained in a box since then, but you’ve inspired me to try my hand at a table!
Great idea and so gorgeous!
wow, AWESOME. I totally want to steal this idea!