Queenslake Letterpress Exhibition

The Hungry Workshop has recently launched a letterpress print exhibition and sale to benefit the disastrous flooding that hit Queensland, Australia earlier this year. A group of artists from the area banded together, each creating a limited edition, two-color print that celebrates the spirit of Queenslanders. All of the resulting prints are available right here. And here are some further details, straight from the source:

In January 2011, Queensland was hit hard by disastrous flooding, filling our towns and cities with brown, murky water and ruining homes, businesses and lives. While our power was cut, we were reflecting on how we could assist the relief effort over the coming weeks. Thinking big, we banded together some of Queensland’s leading illustrators and designers, both past and present, for a fundraiser with a difference.

The brief was to create a two colour illustration or design with an aim to instill the hope, courage or even humour that is abound in the core of Queenslanders. Together, the submissions covered a broad range of subjects ranging from the iconic, such as the bridges that span the Brisbane River and the years of the floods to the whimsical, with an ode to ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’.

We used an old Heidelberg Windmill to turn the work of fifteen contributors into a set of limited run letterpress prints. The production of the collection explores the intricacies of letterpress. Each of the thirty colours was carefully mixed by hand. Some colours were pressed twice to achieve a deeper impression, or a in the case of gold ink, the richer coverage required for metallic inks. For a few prints the impression was dialled right back to produce a mottled water effect, whereas in the case of a blind print (without ink) the impression was pushed to the extreme to ensure the type remained legible.