Tired of high-gloss images? Over-designed layouts and futuristic fonts?
Then take a look at Serrote, a Portuguese design team that invigorates printed media with simple, back-to-basics designs and an old-fashioned technique. Serrote, aka artist Nuno Neves and designer Susana Vilela, produces notebooks, cards and invitations using old letterpress machines. Despite the two-tone designs and gentle air of nostalgia emanating from rediscovered moveable type icons, their work has a fresh, quirky flair with an unpretentious appeal.
You have just produced two new notebooks.
Tell us about how you started
producing your notebook series and what is special about the “tablecloth” notebook.
We started our project as a personal exploration, aiming to work with letterpress machines. We were
familiar with the technology, but we hadn’t had the opportunity to play with it—and wanted to before
it disappeared. After a good deal of searching, we found a few traditional printers tucked away in the
old neighborhoods of Lisbon, where typesetters were still printing invoices and business cards the old
way.
We proposed our first project: a notebook that used old metal types and ornaments hiding in their drawers, left untouched for a long time.
This first notebook titled “plain” had a two-color cover. We set up a website to promote it, and there was good feedback from a number of stores in Portugal—and articles in a few newspapers and blogs.
Given the positive results, we then decided to produce a “squared” notebook, and soon after a third filled with vellum paper in a numbered edition. We expanded our notebook series, and our editions increased from 500 to 1000, 1500 and 2000.
Our most popular project was “toalha de mesa,” a notebook filled with the traditional tablecloth paper used in restaurants. This paper has a nice texture, and people usually scribble on it after meals.
Do you collect moveable types yourself?
We have recently started to buy some moveable type and ornaments from printers that have closed down
(and our office is piling up with lead). We have already used some of our collection in our last few
projects.
Recently NEON magazine commissioned their Christmas card from
you. Why do you think there is
such a popular response to your old-fashioned, “Gutenberg” method of printing?
Today everything comes out of a computer, but this old technique employs mechanical
machines and work
by hand, and the result is a beautiful and unique printed product. There is continuity in using the
same types and figures from decades ago, and there is that wonderful tactile feeling of the ink on the
paper and the texture created by the pressure of the press.
Do you experience certain limitations in your designs due to
the letterpress medium?
Yes, but these limitations are what inspire us.
Our projects depend on our “lead -database.”. For instance, the “theophile” letters for a Swiss birth
announcement card were created from ornaments and not type.
What have been some of your favorite moveable type discoveries?
Our last discovery was a beautiful type made from pieces of log. We are anxious to print a new notebook
with it.
Who are some of your favorite designers / printers?
Our main inspiration comes from the anonymous Portuguese graphic artists who used to design packaging
for tuna fish, toothpaste, soaps, candies, old traffic signs and store signs. We are also very fond
of comics, illustration and pixel art. (Tove Janson,
Chris Ware, Paul Cox, Susan Kare, Eboy, etc.)
Link:
http://www.serrote.com
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