#printer

[389]

Specimen, Fanette Mellier Context: Pôle graphisme de Chaumont, 2009 
Printed by: Imprimerie du Petit-Cloître
 Description: 120 × 176 cm

This poster, announcing a series of “graphic design and publishing” themed shows, isn’t a conventional image. It’s more of a printed object linked to its subject. The front, fully saturated with color and technical elements related to printing (scale 1), is offset printed with a very thin raster. This space saturation, like an obsessive canvas, presents graphical tools that are a common vocabulary for books makers. The title and info are printed on the back. The fold lets the title appear: the poster becomes informative and evokes at the same time the delicate materiality of a page.

[breakfastbaron]

The silly idea android in it's entirety, Dot! HEAVILY inspired by the works of @birdsandrobots, @eggnogo, and @prokhorvlg!

[mothgirlpanties]

I've seen yall talking about the eroticism of the machine and I think it's time for my two cents;

A printer, is not a brat. She is a good girl. She is trying her best. Sometimes (most of the time), her best isn't enough.

You send a document to print. She looks at you, embarrassed. Something is wrong with the drum unit, the tiny display reads. So you pop open her plastic casing and pull out the drum unit.

Nothing appears wrong with it.

You blow off a few specks of dust, carefully slip it back into place, and close the casing once more. She beeps happily, the pages begin to run through her, and you both carry on with your work.

That's how it happened the first dozen times, anyways.

Now, it looks more like this:

You send a document to print. She turns to you, face as red as her indicator lights. You sigh and pop open her casing, not even bothering to read the display.

You jiggle her drum unit roughly; you already know nothing is wrong with it. She makes a breathless little noise and reaches out, putting a hand on your shoulder to steady herself.

Every move you make is practiced, in a rough and careless way. You handle her with exactly enough force not to break her.

She was built for this, anyways. The entire point of her design was easy access, easy service. She was built for your hands to root around in, because everyone knew this was always going to happen.

And of course it's not her fault. But this is the third time in as many hours and if things take much longer you'll miss your next break.

You judge her drum unit has had enough jostling for the time being, and unceremoniously slam her casing shut again.

You keep your hand on it as you look up at her; it's not quite a threat, and if her heavy breathing and wide eyes are any indication, she took it as a promise.

After a long moment, her indicators return to green. The pages begin to run through her, and you both carry on with your work.

But you both know you'll be elbow deep in her a few more times before the day is done

[vintagehomecollection]

Simple, coordinating furniture gives this office an uncluttered, efficient ambience. The rolling file cart keeps paperwork accessible and organized.

A Portfolio of Home Office Ideas, 1998

[digitalfossils]

[geocitiesdig]

Miscellaneous ads, from the page of Geocities user Gsuprik1.

[kply-industries]

[fruitiermetrostation]

Vista Icons

[onikoseo]

A night to remember

[fuzzyghost]

[microgeneration]

Communications Cornucopia (1998)

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I bought a book from the supermarket and all it had inside was loose, old filled-out exams and cmyk printer ink tests.

[breakfastbaron]

Hey!

I want to thank you all for all the support the Dot drawing received! I started working on the idea for Dot nearly a month ago, and chipping away at the design helped ease me through some loss and sad times this past February. I'm not used to getting such explosive reception to a post, but I'm thankful for all the love and support.

Anyways, off 'me soapbox- here's a little appreciative Dot.

[catfindr]

[vintagehomecollection]

Drawers that once held printer’s type are an effective means of displaying anything small enough to fit within their many partitions. Don’t be afraid to mix old with new or feel obliged to stick within one category - the more varied the assortment of miniatures, the better.

The Good Housekeeping Complete Guide to Traditional American Decorating, 1982

[blueiscoool]

Remnants of a Legendary Typeface Have Been Rescued From the Thames River

Doves Type was thrown into the water a century ago, following a dispute between its creators.

The depths of the river Thames in London hold many unexpected stories, gleaned from the recovery of prehistoric tools, Roman pottery, medieval jewelry, and much more besides. Yet the tale of the lost (and since recovered) Doves typeface is surely one of the most peculiar.

A little over a century ago, the printer T.J. Cobden-Sanderson took it upon himself to surreptitiously dump every piece of this carefully honed metal letterpress type into the river. It was an act of retribution against his business partner, Emery Walker, whom he believed was attempting to swindle him.

The pair had conceived this idiosyncratic Arts and Crafts typeface when they founded the Doves Press in the London’s Hammersmith neighborhood, in 1900. They worked with draftsman Percy Tiffin and master punch-cutter Edward Prince to faithfully recall the Renaissance clarity of 15th-century Venetian fonts, designed by the revolutionary master typographer Nicolas Jensen.

With its extra-wide capital letters, diamond shaped punctuation and unique off-kilter dots on the letter “i,” Doves Type became the press’s hallmark, surpassing fussier typographic attempts by their friend and sometime collaborator, William Morris.

The letterforms only existed as a unique 16pt edition, meaning that when Cobden-Sanderson decided to “bequeath” every single piece of molded lead to the Thames, he effectively destroyed any prospect of the typeface ever being printed again. That might well have been the case, were it not for several individuals and a particularly tenacious graphic designer.

Robert Green first became fascinated with Doves Type in the mid-2000s, scouring printed editions and online facsimiles, to try and faithfully redraw and digitize every line. In 2013, he released the first downloadable version on typespec, but remained dissatisfied. In October 2014, he decided to take to the river to see if he could find any of the original pieces.

Using historical accounts and Cobden-Sanderson’s diaries, he pinpointed the exact spot where the printer had offloaded his wares, from a shadowy spot on Hammersmith bridge. “I’d only been down there 20 minutes and I found three pieces,” he said. “So, I got in touch with the Port of London Authority and they came down to search in a meticulous spiral.” The team of scuba divers used the rather low-tech tools of a bucket and a sieve to sift through the riverbed.

Green managed to recover a total of 151 sorts (the name for individual pieces of type) out of a possible 500,000. “It’s a tiny fraction, but when I was down by the river on my own, for one second it all felt very cosmic,” he said. “It was like Cobden-Sanderson had dropped the type from the bridge and straight into my hands. Time just collapsed.”

The finds have enabled him to further develop his digitized version and has also connected him with official mudlarks (people who search riverbanks for lost treasures, with special permits issued) who have uncovered even more of the type.

Jason Sandy, an architect, author and member of the Society of Thames Mudlarks, found 12 pieces, which he has donated to Emery Walker’s House at 7 Hammersmith Terrace. This private museum was once home to both business partners, and retains its stunning domestic Arts and Crafts interior.

Much like Green, Sandy was captivated by the Doves Type story, and mounted an exhibition at the house that displays hundreds of these salvaged pieces, including those discovered by Green, as well as mudlarks Lucasz Orlinski and Angus McArthur. The show was supplemented by a whole host of Sandy’s other finds, including jewelry and tools. An extant copy of the Doves English Bible is also on display.

“It is not that unusual to find pieces of type in the river,” Sandy said. “Particularly around Fleet Street, where newspaper typesetters would throw pieces in the water when they couldn’t be bothered to put them back in their cases. But this is a legendary story and we mudlarks love a good challenge.” The community is naturally secretive about exactly where and how things are found. For example, Orlinski has worked under the cover of night with a head torch, to search for treasures at his own mysterious spot on the riverbank.

For Sandy, the thrill comes from the discovery of both rare and everyday artifacts, which can lead to an entirely new line of inquiry: “The Thames is very democratic. It gives you a clear picture of what people have been wearing or using over thousands of years. And it’s not carefully curated by a museum. The river gives up these objects randomly, and you experience these amazing stories of ordinary Londoners. It creates a very tangible connection to the past. Every object leads you down a rabbit hole.”

By Holly Black.