Ian Schaefer

It is a small pedestal machine.

Friedrich Deckel. Type G.I. Machine No. 2751.

A close-up of the pantograph arms with engraved graduated scale.

The spindle mechanism.

The spindle is easily removed from the machine.

Top half of the spindle assembly, disassembled (gulp!)…

…and the bottom half of the spindle assembly. Spindle arbor and pulley should separate but are too tight to remove by hand.

A very few samples of recent work…

Digital illustration, printed letterpress from metal plate, private commission. Click for detail.

Wood engraving, hand set metal type, copper photo-engraving for 2nd color, printed letterpress. Click for enlargement (~200kb).

Handset wood and metal type, printed letterpress, private commission.

Linoleum cut with handset metal type, private edition & Amalgamated Printers’ Association bundle submission.

Hand set metal type, Amalgamated Printers’ Association bundle submission.

Some wood type in the composing stick. I perpetually grapple, doodle, diddle, shuffle and fret over the words that might describe what I do. “Image & Type” is one recent candidate. It sets a nice tone, I think, but it still needs to be qualified by a title like

Ian Schaefer, Designer & Letterpress Printer.

Yet does any of this fairly cover my efforts in web design? Brand identity?

Posted some photos of the old Deckel pantographic engraver that I recently brought into my shop. It needs some work, but will eventually, hopefully, be used to cut matrices or punches for the creation of new designs in metal printing type.

The scene is always changing in this shop. This is how it looked in February, 2005—a little cramped. On the right, in the background, is the recently acquired, pre-war Deckel pantographic engraver , which I am hoping to bring back to life. Someday it will be used to engrave brass matrices—or punches which in turn will be driven to form matrices—for casting new metal printing types of my own design. Casting type will eventually be accomplished with Monotype equipment like the composition machine that arrived here last spring.

A view of the shop, February, 2005.

Works in progress, a.k.a. piles of type.

Knowing how seriously delinquent I am in showing some examples of my letterpress printing on this site, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of my recent submissions to the Amalgamated Printers’ Association (APA) bundle is shown on the APA website. As you will see if you follow the link, this “Title Page Project” required participants to use only the copy provided, and to print on a 5 × 8 page.

I thought this was a great study project, not only because I have a strong desire to print books, but also because it presented a few realistic constraints from which a myriad of solutions would evolve. Looking at others’ solutions in relation to my own is very revealing to me. I would really like to see the APA sponsor more of challenges like this one; it may help to encourage the development of real skills in budding printers like myself.

Here is the solution to the typefaces wordsearch puzzle I composed for the yet-to-be-published 2004 ATF Conference keepsake. I think it is a fairly tough puzzle: a 15 × 15 grid containing 31 words. You can generate your own wordsearches, and many other types of puzzles with Discovery School’s Puzzle maker. It used to be free.

ATF Conference 2004 – Typefaces Wordsearch

I hope you’ve enjoyed my typefaces wordsearch from the 2004 keepsake. How many faces did you find? Ten? Twenty? Don’t give up yet! There are a total of thirty-one arranged forward, backward, upward, downward and diagonally. Below you’ll find the puzzle—minus the unused letters—and the list of words hidden therein. If you simply can’t wait any longer, the solution is posted here.

A special nod to Discovery School’s very nifty Puzzlemaker for help arranging so many words in such a tight grid.

Blado

Bulmer

Caslon

Deepdene

Eusebius

Fournier

Garamond

Hadriano

Homero

Ionic

Janson

Kaatskill

Klang

Legend

Louvaine

Metrothin

Nicolas Cochin

Old Dutch

Orplid

Perpetua

Privat

Quadrata

Rhapsodie

Rondo

Scotch Roman

Solemnis

Tippecanoe

Trajanus

Union Pearl

Vanity Fair

Zapf Civilite

I first became aware of the American Typecasting Fellowship several years ago. I learned of the organization—which aims to continue the tradition of hot metal typography—through Mike Anderson, who urged me to join after I had spent several exhilarating days in his printing shop and typefoundry. Mike also urged me to apply for Monotype University, which I successfully completed in August of 2003. I realized during that intense week that everyone involved in Monotype University—including some of the students—was a member of ATF as well. The two are essentially inseparable. It is the vast body of experience, passion for the craft, and desire to pass it on to a new generation that brings them together.

Did I mention that the biannual ATF Conference is coming up, September 3-5?

Monotype Foundry

I’ve been studying—albeit sporadically over the past several years—the design and manufacture of once-commonplace metal printing types. I hope that this section will someday reflect great progress in my efforts to establish a small, working typefoundry in my letterpress shop. Recently, a new ‘Monotype’ Compostition Caster was acquired for the foundry. There are some pictures of the successful move.

The Engraving Machine

Yet another project—an old pantographic engraving machine in need of a little attention. More here.

A ‘Monotype’ Disaster

On Tuesday, May 11, 2004, I received a long awaited shipment from Georgia. The freight was three pallets of machinery which I hoped would be my first ‘Monotype’ system, the centerpiece of which was a very fine and relatively new, British-made, 16 × 17 ‘Monotype’ Caster. Then, the story takes a horrible turn…Take a look at the pictures.

Typefoundry Inventory

Since the arrival of my second ‘Monotype’ machine, I’ve started to record an inventory of what’s in the foundry .

In the two weeks since the Monotype Disaster, I have received a great deal of support, both moral and practical, from various members of the American Typecasting Fellowship. Many of these folks also happen to have been my instructors at Monotype University Five. I must thank Mike Anderson, Paul Duensing, Rich Hopkins and Jim Walczak for their continued efforts on behalf of my would-be typefoundry. This is quite a community.