Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

NOVAES DE REZENDE, Andre
Figure 2. Correlation between the letterpress plates and color proofs (photo by
Andre Novaes de Rezende).
One difficulty in dealing with these “originals” was the inability to
fully simulate the camera art process, but having to rely on a scanner
to digitalize the images. Another complicating factor was having
to rely on small-scale images as the printing proofs available did
not correspond to the original scale. Nevertheless, these limitations
did not divert attention from the main purpose of this experiment,
which was to experience the characteristics of a defunct process
and see firsthand, its most characteristic material properties.
To conduct the experiment, I counted on the assistance of Marcos
Mello of the Oficina Tipográfica São Paulo [São Paulo Letterpress
Shop], where the print job was performed. The experiment took
place on July 29 and 30, 2010 on a Catu printing press (Minerva
type) with manual paper feed. The entire process was documented
by means of photographs and film.
A fundamental component of the experiment was an analysis of
the order of printing the colors and their properties of opacity and
transparency. Since printing inks are opaque, impression starts
by choosing the color that remains on the final plane. Because of
the opaque quality of the ink, added to the physical characteristics
of the letterpress plates, colors won’t usually mix during the
Figure 3. Printing proof and register of the colors green and red (photo by Andre
Novaes de Rezende).
Figure 4. Final print (photo by Andre Novaes de Rezende).
overlay of each layer of printing. Thus, we started off by printing
with the color red, followed by green, beige and black. For the tree
trunk represented on the cover, the color brown appears. However,
according to the original technical condition, a new plate was not
used to print a new color. Instead, we concluded that we had to add
a transparent white to the green ink so when it overlaid the previously
printed red surface, the resulting appearance is a brown
shade (fig. 3).
The printing overlay of each one of the colors resulted in a reproduction
of the Firebird Suite album cover, with a analogous process
used by Alex Steinweiss (fig 4).
5. Conclusion
The results of this experiment brought light to technical issues that
may have limited Steinweiss’ creative process, whilst also helping
him to characterize it. The limited number of colors and physical
characteristics of the letterpress plates encouraged him to adopt
a certain simplification of the figurative character of the image, so
that, in a certain way, it corroborates the visual discourse of the
modern poster.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 402