This is the first science related print I made since COVID. For a long time, like many people I was overwhelmed, overloaded and overexposed to the media around this huge event in all our lives. I felt helpless, frightened and frozen, dependent on the expertise of others. It squeezed the creativity out of me for quite some time. My enthusiasm eventually returned. I remembered that I enjoy making science inspired work, I also enjoy the challenge of setting circles in type, but what about a spiral, with equidistant spacing? I had a concept in mind that I hoped would honour some of that scientific expertise we tend to take for granted.
I called this print ‘Pandora’s Petri Dish’ The pristine, vulnerable centre is wrapped in a protective layer of hope that the long history of amazing medical research into vaccines has afforded us. Beyond the vaccines is a world of strange and unusual alien forms created from metal type ornaments & fleurons. I am so in awe of scientists whose quiet intense work over many years has brought us such relief from many awful diseases starting with smallpox and most recently their monumental efforts achieving the various Covid-19 vaccines. Creative experimentation has much in common with science and this little bit of wild-daredevil-typesetting is my tribute to all those amazing researchers…thank you. The purple-pinky colour of the microbes/viruses/vectors is a reference to the Gram Stain that is used in microscopy
Handset letterpress using metal type and printers ornaments & fleurons
Text 10pt Rockwell Light with !0pt Baskerville Numbers
Printed on 38x38cm Somerset Velvet 300gsm soft white paper using a tabletop flatbed proofing press
Limited edition prints available from my online shop
This is a short video showing some of the process behind this print.