The presses never rest

Lately Em Space positively hums with preparations for the Postcard Show (opening Friday night, Oct. 5), the Letterpress Printers Fair (Saturday, Oct. 13—you know it), and Design Week in general. I've been spinning out the prints on the Vandercook there, and also getting ready for a gathering of local Scripps alumnae next month.

Because the college founder, Ellen Browning Scripps, traveled avidly starting in the mid-1880s, covering Algeria and Europe, then Cuba and the wilds of coastal California, writing stories along the way for her local paper stateside, it was suggested that we make travel journals for the annual celebration of Ms. Scripps's birthday.

I made a prototype (my current fave nonadhesive) and with a lot of help from two very nice Classics department professors from Reed College, I massaged the college's usual motto, Incipit vita nova (Here begins a new life), to Incipit nova via, or Here begins a new path (or journey). With a little Lydian Bold Condensed and some Scripps green ink, that makes a cover.

What are you doing October 13?

Join us on Saturday, Oct. 13, for the Letterpress Printers Fair, held at the do-it-yourself art paradise of ADX (417 SE 11th), during Design Week, which already sounds like a whole lot of awesome happening all over town. Em Space even gets a special showcase Oct. 10.

But the letterpress fair—moved now to avoid the extreme weather events of Portland summers—is the real deal: lots of cool stuff you'll see nowhere else; mingling with people who've come from all over and love design, type, and old machines; and a chance to check out ADX and its offerings (laser cutter, CNC router, and so on, for all your high-quality fab needs).

See you there.