Type Truck

[avapilot]

So what is the type truck?...you ask!....a portable letterpress studio on wheels...Kyle Durrie the owner of "power and light press" in portland oregon decided to take her passion of letterpress printing and road trips and share it with the world.

she purchased a 1982 chevy step van and converted it into a rolling letterpress studio...what is letterpress, you ask?...according to wikipedia:

Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image.

It was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. In addition to the direct impression of inked movable type onto paper or another receptive surface, letterpress is also the direct impression of inked printmaking blocks such as photo-etched zinc "cuts" (plates), linoleum blocks, wood engravings, etc., using such a press.

ok, so now we have that out of the way.....kyle has a mid 20th century sign press and an 1873 golding official #3 tabletop platen press....she has logged over 11,000 miles in the "sweetheart of the road" her step van and many more miles to go.

kyle's "tour" includes letterpress shops throughout the USA and Canada and craft venues....recently she was at "Craftland" in Providence RI and visited with my daughter kristin there.....

reading her blog, reminds me of the trip john steinbeck took around the country with charley, his poodle....hence his book, "travels with charley" a must read for anyone with the wanderlust DNA......

how kool is it to take to the road, meet new and interesting people and share your passion with them...i know a lot of you have thought about doing that at one point in your life...i know i did.....anyway

her website is Moveable Type | Cross-country Adventures in Printing

check it out and go visit her when she stops by you!!!!....i am going to meet her next week when she is in NJ....so i decided to create a puzzle for her as a momento of her trip and visiting NJ.....

and no comments about new jersey!!!....remember it's the home of the sopranos and we will find you!!!...LOL......

i took her logo from her website and surrounded it with different font letters with a solid background, closely matching the colors in her logo....this was accomplished in "adobe - in design" which is a desktop publishing program.

i also included a lot of figurals, sorta like a "remembrance" of some of the places she has visited....new york city - the big apple.....the rocky mountains....the silver fox....yada, yada, yada!!!

the puzzles is 8 x 10 and i have not counted the pieces yet.....so here is the image before cutting it up!!!!.....as always criticism and critique welcome....


bob

[avapilot]

here is the puzzle....i included her initials "K D " and have a dropout with the letter "D".....I also included some jewels for the tires of the truck...you can also see the merlot (gotta have wine on the trip), flowing from the bottle to the wine glass....a toast to letterpress printing!!

[avapilot]

so here are the figurals in all their glory...by the way kyle has been to all these places, except NYC, where she will be next week....

the nations capitol - washington dc
sailboat - newport ri
mountains - rocky mountains
state of oregon - home state
KD - her initials
apple - the big apple nyc
type truck - 1982 step van - in 2 pieces to symbolize her work at getting the van ready for her trip
bottle of merlot and wine glass - no explanation necessary!!!
silver fox - always ready for a road trip

[avapilot]

some closeups of the type truck and wine bottle within the puzzle....and as always the flip side of the puzzle....

enjoy


bob

[wood-n-things]

I like it all, especially like the wine bottle and the flowing wine into the glass. Nicely done!

[Carter-Johnson]

Really clever, Bob....let us know her reaction...

I vividly remember Mr. Middleton who taught printing in the 7th grade. He had a volatile temper and would get so mad that he'd dump a whole carriage of type onto a kid's head and make him pick it all up. Despite that I learned a lot in his class and we had fun making "business" cards and other stuff.

Carter

[jerrog]

This is the way printing was done when I entered it some 58 years ago. First day on the job learned how to sort hand type and put it in the proper cases. Later, learned how to operate the Ludlow and Linotype. Stayed in typesetting, progressing thru the years to computerized typesetting on the Bedford system. Amazing what can be done now on the average computer. I still maintain that the Linotype is the most amazing machine, considering when it was first invented. Glad to see there is still some interest in the old ways.
Jerry

[Powakee]

The story, the puzzle and everyone's add on story is what this whole thing is about. Bob, you've done a wonderful thing here because of Kyle. I love it!

John

[Bob Coltharp]

Very interesting and a great puzzles too.
Bob

[avapilot]

yesterday i visited the type truck in atlantic highlands nj....and kyle was totally blown away by the puzzle.......i just love putting smiles on peoples faces.....

bob

[Scrolling Days]

Really awesome work, Bob! Thanks for the interesting post, too. Great stuff!

[marshall]

Very good Bob ........enjoyed it ......