No. 3 - Hate - March 2025

Hand Set - Handset unknown Gothic wood type of mixed heritage and Tourist Gothic Bold (72 pt.) - Linoleum and Masonite - 8½” x 11” - Printed on Poco No. 0 - Run of 50 - Available by print or subscription.

I like limits and boundaries. They keep my work consistent and introduce challenges that I might otherwise avoid. When I had this broadside planned, I had no budget—none—to flesh out this job in a conventional way. At one point, I planned to have a plate made of the E.M. figure. I was designing a plate for a commercial project, and E.M. was to share some space. In the end, I decided there was more important (and less expensive) artwork to include.

This design also called for a technique that I use in digital and drawn graphic design often—a figure punching over and partially blocking the text. This cannot be done on a press without cutting type. I wasn’t going to give up my design or destroy type.

I decided to go to the roots of underground printing—gritty, fast, and cheap. Not one penny—except for ink—was spent on producing this project.

E.M. is carved from linoleum with knives. Old school AF. You probably spent some time doing this in a childhood art class.

I recreated the “HA” in HATE by cutting the letters in Masonite—cut with a scroll saw—and trimmed (very) loosely to E.M.’s arm. These were mounted about type-high on a scrap of poplar from the woodshop. (This little mixed-up, beat-up font is growing with every project.)

The backgrounds are also cut, with a scroll saw, from Masonite, in two parts.

This broadside was printed in four passes. Most jobs of this nature require one pass for each color. As E.M.’s image was mounted on a large (scrap plywood) base and crossed into the text area, I had to print black twice—once for the type and once for E.M. I printed every color on clear acetate to facilitate the (admittedly very loose) cregistration. The two background plates were traced from these films, cut and mounted, and printed last.

I like the finished broadside. It does look like something that may have been printed in Greenwich Village in the early ’60s. You’ll see this style again… but I’ll have to buy the linoleum this time.

Price includes shipping.