Looking to expand your letterpress skills? In this class, we will explore improvisatory ways of creating multicolor prints on the Vandercook without locking up typeforms on the press bed.
Freestyle letterpress printing is an improvisational approach where type and ornamentation are inked by hand in different colors and creatively placed on the press bed (without using quoins or furniture to lock them down). This gives you the opportunity to quickly and easily create unique monoprints as you play with type and combinations of color.
To begin the conversation with our tools and materials, we will:
• discuss historical precedents for creative letterpress printing by H.N. Werkman and Jack Stauffacher
• learn how to safely print metal and wood blocks without locking them up with quoins and furniture
• discover strategies for inking individual blocks, layering colors, and ghost printing
• and explore approaches to improvisation using text prompts, game structures, and group interactivity (e.g., exquisite corpse, call-and-response, etc.)
At the end of the workshop, you will go home with a collection of monoprints that reflect your own aesthetic explorations using the Center’s vast collection of historic letters, numbers and ornaments.
Materials to Bring
None. All tools and materials will be provided.
About the Instructor
About the Instructor | Gino Robair (he/him)
As a sound and visual artist, Gino Robair explores how nonrepresentational imagery influences interpretive performances in music, dance, and theatre. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis, developing performative approaches to papermaking and letterpress printing. In November 2023, a collection of his most recent prints was exhibited at the San Francisco Center For New Music.
Past Student Reviews
"It's a refreshing and liberating approach. Dispensing with the most painstaking aspects of the printing process fundamentally changes both the experience of creating the prints and the character of the prints themselves."
“Gino was an excellent instructor! Great introductory lecture with fantastic, inspiring print examples. I loved how we all had our own presses to work on and we started printing right away. I had such a wonderful time and I think the rest of the class was also enjoying themselves. There was such a positive print energy happening. Gino was there to answer questions and he was very attentive to all of the students."
"Gino is an inspiration. He is creative, original, knowledgeable, fearless, and infinitely good-humored. Spending time with him in the print studio lets me try anything without worry."
Location
San Francisco Center for the Book
375 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Registration Policies
Please read over the SFCB Registration Policies before signing up for a class. Registration will close approximately three days prior to the start date of the workshop to allow the instructor time to prep materials for class. We recommend you not wait to register, as workshops that don't meet our minimum enrollment will be canceled, sometimes as much as a week in advance.
Workshop fee
(includes materials fee):
$180
Prerequisite:
Introduction to Letterpress or other Vandercook press experience
Class session:
Sunday, July 20, 2025
9:30 am-5:30 pm
If this workshop is full, please click this link to add your name to the waitlist. If a seat becomes available, we will contact you.