Mark Pavey 0:02
I’m good. Thanks for joining me. No problem. I was absolutely terrified because that we were I emailed you last week. And we were just chatting about times are like scheduled to end. We had daylight savings kick in Sunday. And I have like, absolutely no concept of date, day time, year or anything anymore. So I didn’t think to like, factor it in. We’re working out the kind of time difference. I was like, Oh, is it? Yeah, I’m glad that we’re both doing this at the same time. And yeah, thanks for joining me for that nine o’clock. Where you always Yeah, yeah, nine o’clock, I got my coffee somewhere. But you were you’re an educator as well as it do you work at a university alongside your kind of practice?
Ryan Molloy 0:52
I teach graphic design at Eastern Michigan University. I’d say that’s my full time gig and then my like occasional freelance, and then just making type on the side is my research slash creative, scholarly, whatever
Mark Pavey 1:06
I like the kind of work you’re kind of in CNC work is that when you say scholarly work, is that as part of like, a kind of further degree? Or do you mean, it’s like a kind of professional?
Ryan Molloy 1:17
Or just a professional research? You know? Yeah, yeah, we, they consider making a form of research.
Mark Pavey 1:28
So that’s the benefit of a career in graphic design teaching, isn’t it that that research is messing around with a laser cutter or messing around with it like a CNC machine for light? Right, exactly. Making use of all those very expensive University resources? Yeah. Yeah. I guess I’ll give you a little bit of kind of context to, I guess, just who I am. And like why I wanted to kind of chat with you. So I’ve been printing move for, I guess, about the last 15 years since I graduated. So I’m 35. Now. So in that sort of 15 years, I’ve traveled around places, so about 1010 or 11 years ago, like I traveled around the state and I printed at Hamilton, and then at hatch show print, I interned there and then interned at at yeehaw for a period before that kind of dissolved, been over the wayzgoose a couple of times. Taught print tours that afternoon, like evening courses and letterpress printmaking at the London center for book Arts in the UK, all alongside kind of my own kind of stuff. And more recently in the last three years actually teaching so I I’m a lecturer at a graphic design course in Southampton and I’m just moving that sort of part time and I’m now moving into a full time role place called Bournemouth arts university. So as kind of part of that, like transitioning into a kind of full time undertaking a Master’s drama, kind of, I guess, formalize all the kind of stuff I’ve been doing just in my spare time for the last kind of like 10 or 15 years. And I’ve experimented with 3d printing before, like laser cutting, all that kind of stuff that you know, everybody dip their toes in. My focus for my Masters has been so I don’t know how I how much information kind of gets out of the UK these days as we seemingly are now so secular and kind of cut off from everything. But be just sort of, again, how it’s reported. But we’ve been in various states of complete lockdown for almost a year. Exactly. Now it’s so my master’s is a to two year course. And I’m now in the kind of Final Four to be the final six of it. So various kind of little modules. And now this is the big kind of chunk where you ask, it’s like you either choose to do an essay or you choose to do something kind of practical. And last year, yeah, as we transitioned into, like fully online learning, I was really missing having that kind of physical interaction with students actually like being in the print room making things at Solon where I teach you got a really amazing print studio. It’s literally we’ve got our kind of clean studio, and then a wall and then our messy studio with a couple of Anna cooks down the cord or laser cutter woodworking and I was like, Oh yeah, this is gonna be the best summer ever getting access to all this stuff. Also the students are gone. And then obviously, yeah, locked down here. And that never happened. So I started, we had a digital module. So I started making some digital type design tools, which is something I made in p five j. s, I sort of JavaScript. All that I’ll just screenshare if you want to kind of show you my Go for it, kind of where I’m at with it. Do you know us been so many different the last year teaching about every single different video platform possible zoom is the one that I’ve used least I think they should be. Yeah, we will transition to teams for the kind of last seven or eight, eight months. So that’s where I’ve kind of been out. So yeah, this was something that I made for one of the other projects, and it was a it’s kind of what I’m choosing to take on further from my actual proper master. So I’ve just got to call the project of foundry as being a kind of playground for kind of letterforms. I think playground is the sort of best name for it that I’ve got so far. Because there was a kind of realization that I love type agafay. But I don’t also wouldn’t class myself as a typographer. I think, looking at some of your work, I think I saw a similar what, maybe as a question here, do you class yourself as a type or prefer? Or do you class yourself as somebody that uses type?
Ryan Molloy 6:03
Ah, I don’t know, I think I classify myself mostly as a designer, then necessarily typographer? I don’t know, I would say most of my graphic design work that I do tends to be type focused. Even like, if I’m doing client work, I tend to do more type, like typography usually is the central focus of it over like image base. So I guess I could consider myself typographer. But, no, I think I just consider myself a general just a designer.
Mark Pavey 6:35
I mean, is it Yeah, cuz I feel that looking at your work. Like, I feel like you’re kind of unrestricted by maybe more of that conventional. I’m a type designer with circular glasses and like a turtleneck kind of vibe going on. So I’m actually
Ryan Molloy 6:53
currently doing the type with certificate program. So also, in six months, you will be a typographer. Legally classified as a typographer? Oh, yeah. So I think like that was partly driven from the fact that I’ve been designing type and realized at some point, I had hit limitations of my own knowledge. And just felt like I would like to expand it. So I, and it was offered online, which was a good opportunity for me to kind of jump in and be like, Hey, I can now do this program online. I don’t Yeah, in California, or New York to do it.
Mark Pavey 7:33
I mean, it’s this sort of, there’s been so many awful things about the last year. But one thing as you know, as as debilitating as well, I don’t know how much online teaching you’ve had to do. But yeah, we’ve been yet fully in Twitter for the last nine months. And I sort of debilitating some of that is Yeah, the benefits of online. Yeah, online courses, online lectures, every like conferences, everything being so accessible to students has been, yeah, genuinely amazing. So this was Yeah, I taught this is all built with something called p five. So I’m a kind of web designer in my, I guess that’s what pays my bills is web design. So I wanted to teach myself like a new new coding language. And this is a couple of different sets of digital tools for you to be able to create. Well, the aim is to create kind of let letterforms so the this is the sort of one which has got everything in so you can kind of draw on it, you can move around, Why call these kind of foundation shapes. And it’s trying to give you those kind of restrictions that I think make letterpress printing, so kind of enjoyable as that kind of cathartic process, you know, have you, okay, I’ve got my, I’ve only got what’s in the drawer, I’ve only got these kind of spaces, I’ve only got a kind of a binary on or off of ink. And then that’s also sort of moved into more of a, that was where I was just seeing everything that I could do with the process. And this is now more of a kind of slightly more of a strain chronic grid based. But you’re also able to draw on it with these. And it’s like it introducing randomness to it as well. So this is all kind of randomly shaped, blah, blah, blah. So what I’m looking at doing is, I knew I wanted to make sure that for my laptop and master’s project that I wasn’t completely digital. I think in order to stop going insane. I have to have some element of physicality in my work. And I’d originally planned to do a whole kind of thing of taking some of these forms and looking at your sort of laser cut angle. Creating, I guess the most obvious touch point is p 20. twos alpha blocks, you know that that kind of like modular system or or having a brain fart or sports the other one Keepo like an Italian
Ryan Molloy 10:18
super people do potato velhos. Yeah. Which I learned about it. I like recently. Oh, is amazing. Yeah.
Mark Pavey 10:29
Like I had a lecture. So the last, I guess, like 10 years, I’ve been going to the letterpress workers printing conference in Milan. And somebody from familiar plumbers gave a pechakucha about super cheap or villas about five or six years ago. And they had, I think, because it is a Spanish typeface, originally, they had a lot more access to the actual matrix is order just I guess, generally, it’s more in use in Spain, because what rather than it being kind of in the UK. So yeah, that was my sort of thinking, Okay, I’m going to create some kind of modular letter form system where you can kind of play with it. And then we went into super heavy double triple lockdown, where we weren’t even allowed out into universities to use anything. But that’s prompted me to then buy a 3d printer. So like a resin 3d printer. So I’ve had it for like, a couple of weeks. I’m just kind of working on. I’ll stop screen sharing, and you can actually see my face.
No. See what I’m saying about? Not? So there we go.
Yeah, so just like 3d printing. The other moment is, these are just like completely tired pipe blocks, experimented with sort of like infill, and things like that, I think you can probably see even that that one is a little bit wonky. So it’s like, it’s been a really fun process so far. But I think the reason I wanted to talk to you, I guess getting into that is were seeing the, the Macon type lecture last year, it was the moment of realization of, I think that you’re doing some really, really amazing stuff with the type design where you’re integrating the tools into the actual creation. And that like, honestly, like watching it, I was like, like, I like a set up in my seat. And I was like, wow, that’s actually it’s not just replication. It’s not just like, Okay, we’ve got laser cutters. We’ve got 3d printers, like whatever, we’re not just taking something old and making a kind of poor copy of it or, you know, trying to refine a port copy into something that that kind of loses its kind of heritage in the kind of process, though, I’m not sure what you whether it’s got a name, but the one where you’ve got the it’s quite a decorative, like outline. And then depending on how fast the CNC is running, oh, very, give me that variation in the kind of stroke width.
Ryan Molloy 13:13
Yeah, I don’t think I have a name yet. I’m still trying to figure out and design the rest of the set. There’s some characters that I just haven’t. This is where that limitation of like, font design skill and ability also kicked in. was, I mean, I’ll pretty much up until now was self taught, like in terms of type design? Yeah, so let me see if I could grab that one. This your basement? Yeah, it’s my basement. I know I have it somewhere. Yeah, so I think you’re talking about this one here. Yeah. Oh, that’s it. Yeah. So that’s that one. And then this one kind of also borrows that same principle. Yeah, of just using the tool as like without using like, how easy Can I make it with only using one bit, basically. And using that for as many generative forms? Yeah. So I think I talked who was I talking to about this? Also, they had asked me a similar question about that. And I think a lot of it came about just from sitting next to a router for long amounts of time, when I was like cutting halftone and other patterns in it. You know, because there’s that point where you also can’t leave the machine in case it decides to run awry. You’re kind of tethered nearby. I mean, I do walk away for periods of time and then check on it periodically, but I have had like the router just all of a sudden decide to take off to the gym to get like the bits snapping or anything like that when you’re doing that. That happens, particularly with like those fine v carpets. You know, it’ll happen it kind of sucks. You can either I have to hope that you could restart it and everything stays in its alignment, or you just kind of you lose that block and it becomes furniture. So I make use of as much of like the waste as possible for things like, Oh, well, this blocks shot, I’ll use it for cutting furniture. Yeah, so I think a lot of it came about just from sitting by the router, kind of wondering a little bit of like, how can I make this process faster? You know, when I made like, these halftone dot ones, and also the like, like, chromatic overlapping one that has all these like, halftone, like graded lines. I mean, just to cut all of that just takes a crazy amount of time. Like, I think at one point, I told somebody that like a CNC isn’t faster than, you know, the pantograph the Pat, like Jerry can add virgin wood type can probably make type faster than I get. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Pavey 15:57
I funny that you say that, in that? I think a lot of people’s assumption of like, yeah, that transition from it. But as you’re using more contemporary production methods in it, is that Yeah, there is this this kind of like, switch on it. Yeah, that you Oh, yeah, you’ve just CNC that type, you put that in, flick the switch and like gone off. And then five hours later, you come back and oh, here’s your like, perfectly, kind of produce stuff. And I kind of found that with a 3d printer in there. It says there’s as much manipulation in or the exposure times and the resin and orientation of blocks on it of it kind of being like, you want to maximize your build plate. But also, you don’t want to create too much suction and then get, I think I’ve got a failure somewhere where there’s a failure. So that’s that had like suction failure on it. Which audio, I print, this one was printed that way up. So interestingly, like it failed at the bottom, but then still continued up. Right.
Ryan Molloy 17:04
And that also with the resin, you also have like to make sure that the resin can escape. Yeah. You know, like, I’ve tried the resin printer and resin. I mean, for all like the printing methods, it’s just not fast at all. You’re not saving any time.
Mark Pavey 17:21
Yeah, I think for these kind of inch blocks. Yeah, obviously, it’s a type I think on. So I’m just using a mano, what’s it called? A Mars mano two. And they take those took two hours, right? Yeah. But then there’s all you know, cleanup, time curing everything like that? Yeah, I think I said, What drew me to your work, was it yeah, that sort of, I could see that you’ve got good enough at the tool to then begin to be exploiting the tool and to be kind of thinking, Okay, yeah, how can I get less waste? How can I speed this up? How can I lower the possibility of like breakage, or things like that? And I think that is like pushing the type design into this really much more interesting area, I think, rather than Yeah, just trying to said, designing something digitally, and just expecting like a perfect reproduction of it, to then read that letterpress print where it’s like, well, what’s the point in, you could have just done that as a polymer, you know, like, like, we’ve had access, but I have these kind of discussions with students quite a lot, where they’re sort of knowledge of the process. Or even just with the kind of members of the public, when everyone kind of workshops, their knowledge of the processes, like, there was what type, and then nothing happened for 50 years, and then all of that got thrown in the bin. Because, yeah, Mack turned up, and that was kind of it where it’s like, well, actually, no, you know, there was there’s plastic type in the 80s. And there was like, a polymer type, or just a photo type. Yeah, and, and, Robert, and I think we kind of really getting into an interesting period in I don’t know what you’d call your kind of style or type design, whether it’s kind of because it’s, I guess it’s time that is meant to exist, physically, isn’t it? But it’s the same kind of, I think, exciting period where we went to type on film, where suddenly you weren’t restricted by like, the amount of lines and you got all those, like insane 70s I think, in the letterpress educators video that you said you’re inspired by that letraset Oh, yeah, the rise one. Yeah. Where it’s like you could do you could only kind of do that with film or with kinda letraset because it just would have broken or like, it wouldn’t have been like, yeah, having like, one old guy had rattling out every individual slides over Just like oh, you wouldn’t have been consistent with it like, yeah. I kind of feel like you’re just on the cusp, or or I guess printing in general is on the cusp of that. I guess it’s being called Digi log, right. Like, yeah, right. Analog digital. I think you got really interested. Yeah, your heads in the right place. I’m looking at some of your work on your site. So there’s a few things I recognized. A like graffiti writing. Be an Aesop Rock, quote, like down there at the bottom. I guess it’s kind of again, why I asked you Do you consider yourself like a kind of typographer? I just wanted to, like, what was your kind of background sort of getting to where you are now.
Ryan Molloy 20:47
So um, my undergrad degree is in architecture. And I think like, I go back to it a lot. Like I’d never really put two and two together. But I think like, when I was in architecture, a lot of my thinking and thought process was tied to at least once I got into like, the professional world a little bit was I tried to make ties to the material. And it was like, What is this material doing? How do we use this material as much as possible? And then or that kind of material thinking and I think that’s what carried over to my design. And I somewhat joke like when I was in graduate school, that’s when I learned how to letterpress it UT Austin, where they have the Robert Kelly collection. Oh, wow. That was a you saw the, the, what’s it called the angled block the angled octagon, um, so I think like, there, that’s where like, you know, use like nisbets, octagon, and a couple other like, really fun typefaces. I got, I used that space, before, David shields got to it, and catalogued it and archived it up. So it was kind of a mess. But it was kind of fun that way. And so yeah, I think at that point, I was doing like really gimmicky things. Like, trying to like emulate like computer like effects at the time. Like to date me like flash was big still. Oh, no, like, you’re talking about language you’re talking about? Yeah, so everything was like, oh, Flash, every website? I mean, like design is kinky. All that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And so like, I was trying to like, say like, Okay, how can we like take some of these effects of the screen and bring them to print. And so I was doing like really dumb things. And I have a print somewhere where it’s like, printed with the heat sensitive ink on the letterpress so that like you would have this hand bill that like you hand out to people and if they held it long enough, like the type of disappear? Oh, yeah. You know, I, you know, I was like, always interested in that relationship of screen to print. And I was also at the same time doing a lot of 3d type work, like, making crazy 3d fonts, nothing that was being digitally produced, like physically. Partly just because I didn’t have access to like those resources yet, like the 3d printers were all in the engineering building. You know, they haven’t made their way to the art building. Um, and so I had been doing a lot of like digital kind of 3d modeling, like trying to merge my background of architecture in to like, design. And so Postgraduate School government got the teaching job, came up to Michigan didn’t have access to a letterpress anymore. And so I think I focused largely on like, doing a lot of 3d type work, and kind of playing and experimenting with that. And that that time, more access to digital machining had happened. And so I want to say like some a lot of my earlier work is kind of crazy 3d type. Where I’m like, these kind of stacked locks. Yeah, slip
Mark Pavey 24:08
slip cast blocks, was it? Yeah, so like, eight foot tall kind of thing?
Ryan Molloy 24:13
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So like that, which is all cast concrete. And then also, there’s like some really crazy colored ones that are like this weird modular system that I worked with. Both of them I worked with a colleague who teaches architecture, who’s now the head of Clemson’s architecture program, Jim Stevens. And like, we would just kind of sit there, he had access to all the tools and I like we’re just gonna be like, Alright, what are we going to do now? So yeah, making giant concrete walls of type. You know, that way about a ton? Because we didn’t hollow out the blocks,
Mark Pavey 24:50
I think, is it? I mean, you stuck on like a really interesting point there, which is, yeah, like you You lost access to a printing press and like, so. Much. For me, it was a similar thing like kind of graduating, losing access to the kind of print room but like, well, I studied by accident. I was a so I was working as a framer at a gallery in Brighton. And the guy that ran it, who was an illustrator who wants to buy a life opress you’re like, like a pet? Yeah, like a Victorian stone life though press. And he heard about a guy about half an hour outside of Brighton that was restoring them. And like me and him turned up in this like Volvo expecting to be I don’t know, it literally, I’m a short guy. And the guys working with those, those are pretty black short, dude. And I don’t know how we expected to get like a Victorian lighter press in the back of a Volvo. Like, that’s the most kind of absurd part. But the story but he was. So he was doing it on this ground, sort of just an old guy who had that he was like an old art collector that had just come on, had just been somebody was like, you like old stuff. I’ve got all this type, if you want it. So we had all this wood type, a Colombian press now be impressed. And like I was able to organize that. So I was able to print them for free if I organize his stuff. So did that forgot, like three years? But yeah, it all kind of craft is so frustratingly linked to that old audit to access to a press? Isn’t it? There’s that immediate kind of gatekeeping. And I think where we’re at now is really exciting. Because it’s like, not only do we have sort of, we own the means of productions, right, like, I’m right in thinking you literally got your CNC machine in your basement. That’s right. Yeah. Like, next year. Yeah. You know, everything has been sort of scaled down in size. And we can just kind of go my 3d printer system, my garriage. You know, that’s a little proof impress, just kind of background there. But even without having access to that now, we’re able to kind of 3d print or proof impresses, if you’ve kind of kept up with that kind of thing. We’re in a kind of funny, I think the craft is in this like, again, a really interesting point where we’re becoming de shackled from, okay, yeah, you’re some. In order to do this, I’ve got to either be part of an institution, or I’ve got to be on really good terms with some 65 year old guy who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. And you got a vandercook press for like $500, rather than like 20 grand now. Kind of sell for? And yeah, I think that element of being able to own the means of production, I think it’s like, is your CMC machine. Is it something which is have you made it? Is it one of those ones that you have to
Ryan Molloy 27:56
it’s a kit, that’s one of the ones that you assembled put together? And yeah, it’s a millwright is the brand as the manufacturer, I think it’s the carpeting is the one I have. Yeah. And actually, I did a lot of research. Mostly because I used TNCs. Before I used to go to a maker space that had a maker bot. Yeah. And then at school, we had a couple shape pocos. And I hated the shape pocos. Mostly because, like, anything that uses that, like, band kind of mechanism, you know, to kind of pull it back and forth is out. Yeah, like it just loses its tension from time to time. And like, it’s just it wasn’t, so I wanted to make sure I had something that, you know, was going to be able to do some pretty fine detail. But I couldn’t afford, you know, a maker bot. So, um, you know, so I found that I did, and I think at the time, no, right was like, just on the scene or kind of, they had been established enough that they had gotten really good reviews. So I tried it, it actually it’s been pretty great to use I think now we also have an x carve out in our studio, which seems to have come a long way from like, when they first came out
Mark Pavey 29:17
is ridiculous, isn’t it is I think I was? So I did 3d printing with with filament printing. Right? Wow, I think about seven years ago, like just as when they were beginning and I was looking back at some of the pictures of the process early one and I realized it was at that funny stage where it was like, you could buy one and then you 3d printed the parts to then make another one that you could then sell on to go like, cover the costs of it and I look back and I think wow, I’m really glad I didn’t buy one then actually because the quality of it was just awful. You know, like, I don’t know if you’d On extrusion, sort of like stuff, but yeah, you will. But there is this interesting part with when you’re creating type that way is it gives you a like a grain to it, you know, because it’s extremely, it’s like you’re kind of icing a cake. I had a discussion last week with a guy called Chris Wilson, who’s doing a PhD in digital log. It’s kind of funny, he interviewed me for his PhD, like five years ago. And now it’s like, I’m doing a Master’s. And he’s still doing his PhD. So I was able to check back in. How about a little bit of reciprocal knowledge, like, like going on here. But yeah, a lot of his works kind of looked at that. And again, it’s like, creating type that is kind of true to the material, rather than trying to try to just emulate an old, old, old technology. Again, this goes back to that kind of thinking of feeling like we’re just on the precipice of a very new period of analog wrestling, print, printmaking. Being an educator, do you find your students are kind of coming to you? What sort of before pre faced that? What level of students do you teach? What sort of age do you teach,
Ryan Molloy 31:15
um, undergrad and graduate? I mean, we have a very small graduate program, so and it’s mostly individuals, like individual students kind of one on one. And so we have students that are in our MFA program. And I would say like, that’s just really kind of more it’s mostly independent, driven with like, faculty mentors. And so I teach everything from our graduate students, to our undergrads, and mostly everywhere from I would say, I don’t know if our university levels are the same as the UK, I’m trying to remember. So basically, at about that sophomore level, so like, Introduction to graphic design up through, you know, senior graphic design, so it’s that kind of 18 year olds off with some more like, maybe 1920, right, up to like, 22. Well, we have a lot of students too, that are, you know, they went to community college, you know, had other things. So, I would say our student population, we’re what’s considered a commuter University, commuter school. So a lot of like, very few students actually live on campus. Well, not very few, we have a growing population students living on campus. But it used to be the predominant amount, and still is our students that just live in the area. So Southeast Michigan, are our biggest student population. And a lot of those students. I mean, I have students that are a big one was say that she wanted to graduate before she was 30. The other day. So I mean, I have a student, you know, who, you know, for whatever life like took some classes at one university moved, took some classes at a community college changed her degree. And finally is like, I’m going to be a graphic designer.
Mark Pavey 33:03
They kind of accrue credits. Do they? Is that how to do that? Okay. Yeah, it’s a bit more intense. In the UK, it’s a bit more like, if you find out if you fuck up the three years that you missed it, you missed it, you get to, like, you don’t get to them.
Ryan Molloy 33:16
I’ll top it up somewhere else, right. Yeah, yeah, I remember that about the use cases for the US systems a lot like you could kind of, you know, hop from institution to institution. A lot of I mean, the downside to it is that that’s probably why we have this giant student debt issue.
Mark Pavey 33:33
Yeah. You sort of encouraged to just take a lot of time.
Ryan Molloy 33:38
Find yourself and your passion. And, um, yeah, and so I think like our population ranges from, you know, students right out of high school to students who’ve had a lot of other experiences. So like, yeah, I mean, on average, I’d say my students are in their early 20s. But I do at gay use only get like somebody that’s like, late 20s. Or I had a 50 year old student. Last, actually a 60 year old student last semester, who’s just this woman who likes to take design classes. Oh,
Mark Pavey 34:11
yeah. You know, I know those. I know that I know that market. When I was teaching printing at the London center for book arts, we’d get a similar because that was like evening courses. Yeah. And it was you’d get design students, writers, they were always like a really, sort of people that use words, I guess. They’re interested in the process. And then just people that just love doing courses that they just love. There’s like an evening arts course. And they’re just sort of, you’d go into this whole spiel about type history and they didn’t glaze over a little bit and they just kind of want to get on board. Like, like start kind of using things and see with that in mind with that kind of level of teaching. Are you finding your with your own kind of research, where it’s at now or your own kind of production methods are you kind of bringing that in into the classroom, he kind of, or are you? Or are you kind of introducing them to traditional print, and then letting them find their way to contemporary print.
Ryan Molloy 35:11
So I teach a course called experimental type autography. I think I’m the only one who teaches it, or since we’ve added that course, or much changed our curriculum. And in that course, I do introduce letterpress printing to them. I don’t bring in the digital fabrication component, mostly. But we do kind of play around with things like let’s use Legos to print and, you know, there’s a lot we have some bases that will make type high Legos with. And I do think I tried to the whole course is kind of predicated that like, type as, you know, something that’s malleable, flexible, you know, that could be torn apart. It’s all about breaking the rules. And so even then, like, when we’re doing letterpress, I, I think I have them type cityline of type, you know, of metal type? No, no, no, what I like, correct, right? And then it’s like, Alright, now, here’s a bunch of one type, have fun, you know, and make something that isn’t traditional and properly typeset. It’s like, out the gate, I’m asking them to like, question that process a little bit. Um, we have a course that’s taught by one of our instructors to teach a sculpture and kind of 3d design, which is a digital fabrication course. And so we get a lot of students who end up taking that, and then come to me, saying, oh, like I it’s an elective course for graphic design students, and a fair amount of our design students are familiar with, like what I do. And so what happens is, then they’ll come to me and be like, Hey, I have access to this laser cutter. Now, how do I make a plate for the letterpress? And so I’ve worked with a handful of students kind of in that mode, just kind of like, hey, we’ll troubleshoot want to make acrylic type shirt? Let’s make some acrylic type.
Mark Pavey 37:12
I find it really weird to think. Yeah, cuz my, I was taught by, you know, a 70 year old guy, who had been in the trades, man and boy, retired and then got bored. And then came, came into a university kind of a teaching environment. And one of the things that prompted me to, to travel around the states and go to Hamilton or go to hatching and go to u haul and, and a couple of other like book, arts, places in the kind of middle was realizing that there’s this whole generation of knowledge, which is going to be alright, that’s already beginning to get lost. Like there’s a guy called battle head in the UK, who, who used to work for vandercook in the UK, like, but he was like their salesmen, vandercook salesman, but because he was industrially like, he was the person that maintained like everyone’s presses, like everyone knew basil, and he obviously died. I think about a year and a half, maybe maybe two years ago. So yeah, that knowledge drain is already kind of beginning to happen. And I think, thinking forward kind of 10 years, I think it’s going to be really exciting to think, what are those students that learned experimental typography from someone like you or me at a university level? What are they going to be doing with it is there and it’s kinda like, cuz I think Look at all that you’re letterpress educators video, you get showed some student work where they had, yeah, like laser cut just individual letters. And I kind of set them out that kind of loose. I think it’s something that Daffy commented on in that same making type lecture that you do for your leg press united, where it’s kind of like, do we still keep making type? type? Hi, are we like if we’re making type type? Hi, are we kind of needlessly attaching ourselves to the past? Or actually, if we just using the presses but using it more freeform like laser cutting something loose? Even like data using like laser cut line? Oh, and sort of mathematical type pie? Yeah, I wonder where you kind of sit on that? Yeah, I think looking at from what I could tell from all the stuff on your site and stuffing Instagram is you work with Tai Chi blocks, right? Yeah. Is that so that you can use them alongside antique or kind of historic blocks as well? Or do you kind of feel like there’s a, I don’t know, almost like an honesty in kind of keeping it. That kind of high.
Ryan Molloy 39:52
I think it’s kind of a mix of both a little bit. So yeah, I think one of the reasons is all of the equipment’s already. Except for Tai Chi. And I, I had done some experimentation early on like with like acrylic, like laser cutting acrylic and mounting it to MDF, when I was kind of first getting kind of started with this idea of exploring Kind of, yeah, so I, the big jump was I moved from that big concrete wall to like making tiny blocks of time. And a lot of it was like, Oh, I think looking at that big concrete wall, I was like, Oh, this is basically movable type, just not, you know. And it was funny because a colleague of mine who taught ceramics, she was just basically like, one day, like, you could do a giant rubbing of this. And I was like, you could print that, you know, because like, I had been toying around with like, I had a craft cutter that I would use as a pen plotter, and I was like, Well, I’m using pen plotter, I have access to 3d printers, like I’m gonna make type, you know, that’s this big, because I can’t ship you know, 1000 pounds all the time, everywhere. And I just wanted to have an excuse to get back to printing. And so yeah, I think like the, the type high thing was largely borne out of all of the equipment, you know, for press is already established that way. And I just didn’t want to do that much make ready, which is kind of funny to say that because the amount of effort that has to go into making Tai Chi blocks is probably just as rigorous. Yeah, and maybe even more time consuming, but like, just adding a bunch of like paper underneath.