[Music] [Anthony Burrill] Hi. My name is Anthony Burrill. I'm a graphic artist, and I'm going to talk to you about how I work with analog printmaking techniques, old digital means to produce my work.
I work primarily with typography and letterpress type in particular. And this is something that I've kind of developed over the past 20 years since I graduated from college.
So my work is kind of primarily concerned with visual communication. And I use type to kind of create messages and communicate the words I want to say.
So for me, it's really important to communicate in a very human way, to make really strong connections with my audience. So I use typography in a way that reflects my tone of voice.
So I think letterpress type has got a kind of human quality. It's slightly imperfect, and it's got a real character that-- Well, it's kind of hard to replicate digitally. So all my source material comes from analog means really, and it's something that is connected to me as well as an artist and as a designer and as a person. And I think it kind of dates back to when I was at college.
In those days...
We'd kind of make work using the photocopier and like make things by hand essentially.
So yeah, this is me when I was a student, a long time ago. So this is when I was just learning about art and my place in the world. So this is my studio at college. So as you can see, it's a very kind of messy, creative environment with lots of shined objects stuck to the wall.
It's quite a contrast to the studio that I have now, which is very minimal and clear. So I think in those days, I was kind of like searching for meaning in my work and messages, but I still wasn't sure how to communicate.
So I'd experiment a lot with font type, with rubber stamps and stickers, and letterpress type and typewriters. And I'd paint things, and all of this material would be photocopied on an photocopier.
So yeah, it's very analog, and it's very handmade and very raw. And that was the kind of work that I was really interested in making.
So my connection to letterpress began at college. I learned how to set type and to print letterpress. And this is something that I've kind of maintained throughout my career.
So where I live now, I live on the South Coast of England in a town called Rye.
In the town, there's an amazing letterpress workshop that I've been working with for, yeah, a long time. And I've kind of developed a really great working relationship with the printers there.
So I'd go in and select type that I want to use, what letter and then it's printed on our press that's from the 1950s. So yeah, it's very archaic and kind of very old fashioned.
But I think the way that I use it feels contemporary in some way, but I'm using the type in a very simple and direct way that connects with the communication that I want to make. So here, this is the wall in the workshop, so you can see the ranges of work I've made.
As well as letterpress, I use a lot of screenprint to make my work.
So this is me in the screenprint workshop. Again, I work with a printer. I've worked with-- I've developed a really close working relationship for the past-- Over a decade. So I kind of-- When I'm printing the screenprint, I like to experiment with layering and to kind of create different textures and kind of mentally the type and the image that I'm creating work as one together.
So this is my main body of work. These are screenprints. So I've taken the letterpress type and created a layout in Photoshop. So this is where the link between analog and digital happens.
So over the years, I've taken impressions of lots of alphabets of letterpress type, and I've got a really great library now, really large scale scans that I can then bring into Photoshop to create layouts that I'll then screenprint. So in a way, the work begins analog, and it kind of goes through a digital section in the middle, and then it's created analog to make the final print. So it's a really interesting journey, and I think a journey that you can see in the work, you know, you can see its analog roots, but you can also see the flexibility in the way that I use type to create layouts that have got scale and repetition and the way that the-- Yeah, the way that the type connects with the messages is super important. So I want the words and the letters to communicate their message. That's my aim, really. Okay. So now I'm going to go through and show you how I create the layouts that I make for prints.
Right back to the original letter scans. So as you can see here, I've got some letters prepared, ready to go.
So if we just have a close look at the scan, it's very large. So if you can see...
The size of the image, it's scanned at 600 pixels per inch and scanned as 40 centimeters high. So I take impressions of the letters...
In the letterpress workshop. And then I bring them to the studio and scan them. So I've just got a standard flatbed scanner, which I make the scans from.
And the quality is incredible. I think, as you can see here, there's all the texture of the ink and the paper and all the specs are the riff sections of the letters which, I think, gives it its character and unique quality.
So this letterform is approximately 60 or 70 years old. And so it's been used lots of times to print posters over the course of its life. So that's what's given it its character and its roughness. And this really can't fake this kind of natural patina.
So I've got the scan the air all nice and clean, ready, lined up So I'll go to the Magic Wand and then just select the area I want to work with.
So you can see I've made the selection, and it's picking up all the detail, so all the little mix and scratches, all of that stuff is kind of picked up in this selection. So I'll make a new layer...
And I'll fill it with black-- Sorry, wrong button. Fill it with black and then deselect. And then I can get rid of the Scan Layer.
So I'll just make a new layer of white and pop that behind so we can see there.
So I'm really happy with that. I think it looks great.
The level of detail in there is really great. The only problem I can see is this kind of missing bit of the letter here. So I think that's slightly-- I think I need to fix that. So just kind of-- I'll show you how I do that.
So just going to select the area that I want to replace and I'll just delete that, get rid of it, and then move the selection along a little bit and then copy a bit of that. Copy and paste.
And that selection, I can bring it across and just carefully lay it into position now.
So you can-- Oops. So I can-- So key up and just move that. Da, da, da.
And that gives a really good little patch in there. So I've kind of selected a bit of the letter to kind of fill in that patch. So, yeah, looks great. I'm really happy with that. So just connect those two layers. And yeah, there's my letter all ready to go.
So just go-- So, yeah, I'll save that before I lose it. So I'll just go through the rest of the letters that I'm going to work with and select all those so I can go through this a little bit quicker. Y, O...
U...
And the ampersand...
And new.
Same again. And it's coming-- At this point, I can just go through the letters really quickly and kind of have them all ready to go.
So, yeah, just switch off the old layers. See, that one hasn't kind of worked very well. So I'll kind of go back and then select another area.
Layer, new.
Fill it. See there, that's much better filled. So, yeah, compare it to that one, which is kind of quite faint. This new one is much stronger. There's quite a lot of texturing there. And one thing that I can do is...
Just adjust the contrast. So I'll just bring the levels down a little bit just to make it a little bit darker like that. So maybe the scan was just a little bit light. So I can select that, make a new layer...
And we can have a look now. So, yeah, you can see how much better that is to kind of work with. Something you can always do is...
If you want it to be even denser than that, you can kind of make the levels ease or even more extreme, kind of give it real lot of contrast like that, and then select it and make a new layer again.
Yeah, so you can see you've got different kinds of textures and impressions. So really dense one here through to a really light one. So you can kind of play around with levels like that and kind of create different characters for each letter.
So, again, yeah, that's okay. But I think I could make that slightly better levels just go better it, make it more contrasty.
See how that happens. So that's great. I think those kind of little specks in there are a little bit distracting. So I'll just fill that area and brush that in.
Sometimes it's kind of quicker just to do it like that. And, yeah, that kind of fixes that. I'll just do a little bit down here. So I think I'll just do this. Slide it down and you get all the ink like that.
So just delete that section, move around, copy and paste. Oops.
Which will copy and paste.
We'll put that back in.
Yeah, look, I just changed the position. That looks great. So, yeah, I'm happy with that. So, yeah, I've retained most of the texture, but it's-- But, yeah, I think those things were a little bit distracting. Seeing how that looks, good.
This one looks-- Yeah, that looks good as well. So now I'll go to the layout.
So I'll take my first character, drag it into the...
New layout. So this is when I can actually start adjusting around the letters and putting them in position. So if you hold down the Shift key, it kind of snaps it in the same place. So everything's on the same baseline. I've got this little guide here so I can see where the characters are going to go.
Next letter is U. Just bring that one in, hold down Shift, pop it in.
And, yeah, that looks a little bit high, so just kind of bring that down. So you can make little adjustments in the current layer.
Bring the ampersand in. The ampersand is always my favorite character. I think, yeah, it's really interesting little form.
M, bring that in.
So you can see what it's going to spell, YOU&-- YOU&ME.
So that's how we kind of create the layout. So with that, now I'm kind of-- Yeah, I'm happy with how it all looks. I think I'll just-- I'll just, yeah, have a really good look at it and see where I think-- It's always tricky between characters to kind of get them looking good but still kind of returning character. So with that, I can group together the individual words and then I can start to-- We can start playing with layouts. So I've got the words grouped together, the three elements that I'm going to be working with. So I'll, first of all take the first word and put that into my layout.
So I'm working-- The size of the print is going to be 50x70 centimeters.
So that's the area that I'm working in. And I've got some little guides in there to switch that off.
See, I've got some little guides in there and they're at two centimeters in from the edge. So that gives a real nice border to work within.
Sometimes as well, I'll just give it a little center line...
Vertically and horizontally. So yeah, it's good. And then you can start to visualize the layout and the space that you've got. So I'll bring in the first word...
Which is huge. So you can see how-- I'll just delete that. So you can see how big the scan actually is.
So I'll scale that down. So just hold Shift, kind of keep the proportions.
And just line it up with the guidelines...
So that that occupies the kind of top half of the layout. And then I'll bring the other letters in, the ampersand and the word Me, bring that into the layout.
Just wait for it to load. So yes, you can see that's a really large scan as well.
So just scale that down, get it into position.
And this is when I can kind of start playing around with the type a little bit. So I want to kind of fill the area as much as possible. So I want to make me, the word "ME" quite large, but that means I've kind of run out of space for the ampersand, so I'm just going to reduce that in size slightly to fit in that space. So yeah, it's kind of-- It's just about juggling, really. And for me, this is about the part where I can really...
where I can really start to get into the detail of the layout so I can adjust the kerning of the letters, increase the space of these, and just start to get the balance right, really.
I don't really distort the letterforms too much. I kind of try and keep them...
As kind of true to the original as possible, really. So just get rid of the guidelines. Yeah, I'm happy with that. So I'll save that one.
Okay, so that's saved.
So now I can kind of start playing around with the letters. I'll bring the guidelines back in. And I want to use the same words, but I'll just spell a different phrase. So I'll take YOU, bring that down, and then I'll bring ME and YOU-- And move those up.
Then I'll move ME along there...
And the ampersand. Oops.
Move the ampersand along.
There we go.
So you can see, I'm beginning to play with the letters and kind of create layouts that are new but still using the same letters. So I'll save it as number Two.
So then, from that, I can scale that down and start to play with the repeat.
So scale that by, let me see...
About, yeah, 40%, 50%. Let's go with that.
Start at 100% again.
So scale that down by 50%...
And it fits into that proportioned space. And then I'll go to the other layout...
That I've saved.
Again, I'll group all those together. Now I'll reduce it by 50%.
And I'll bring it into the layout and start to make a new design using the same element. So it's almost like these are kind of building blocks, really...
To create a piece of work. So it's kind of-- For me, the typography acts as something to kind of play with and experiment. So I've just duplicated those layers and I've created this pattern with the type.
So that's really quite satisfying the way that it did it. It kind of all fits together. So it reads horizontally, ME & YOU, and it reads vertically ME & YOU. And there's a repetition there. And I think that repetition is interesting. You see the ampersand kind of running through the letters, and yeah, it creates a really satisfying layout. So yeah, really happy with that. So this layout, I used it-- I've used it. Yeah, so when I had a commission to create a mural.
This was the plan of the building. So this was given to me by the architect. And I was commissioned to make a piece of work for the side of this building.
So it started off-- So I had this design idea.
So if I bring all these-- If I bring this design, kind of connect it all together and then I bring it into the elevation drawing.
So on this drawing, I've got the actual drawing, the line draw, and then I've made a mask so that I can drop different elements into the plan.
So I'll bring in this design behind the mask.
So now you can see how the type is going to work on the side of the building. And I think it's really interesting how I kind of created this design as a kind of never-ending loop, really. So, yeah, I want the type to look like it's disappearing off the top and bottom.
So there we go. So that's how the type fits in. And then I feel it'll it make it even more impactful if I put it on a black background and reverse the type out.
And that was the design for the billboard-- For the mural on the side of the building.
So yeah, I hope that's given you a really good insight into our work.
It's been great showing you my technique. It's a very simple and straightforward use of Photoshop. I don't use any of the huge technical features of Photoshop. I use it as a very simple tool to kind of create layouts where we want them and kind of keep the design very simple and strong. And yeah, I think when you're working with typography, it's really important to kind of keep things simple to, yeah, let the letterboards kind of guide you into the layout and allow you to make interesting and engaging work. So yeah, thanks very much. I hope you've enjoyed this presentation, and see you next time.
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