How we got started in letterpress

BOOK NO. 1 OF LEAD GRAFFITI'S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SERIES entitled Moments Carved in Paper details the international story of how Ray Nichols & Jill Cypher came to fall in love with printing slowly & patiently via letterpress. If you happen to be a librarian, designer, typographer, or you believe in love at first sight, this book is for you.

While our aha! moment was a single event in time; the journey involves a series of stepping-stone incidents that led Lead Graffiti to where we are today. Connect the dots as we go from a Visual Communications study abroad trip to London > a field trip to a British typographer in New York > to a teacher at the Royal College of Art > and to the librarian at London’s St. Bride Printing Library who sets off massive drooling, followed by the visual, cosmic fireworks that sparked a change of heart and career.

The 2nd image to the left shows a close-up of one of the pages from Ornamented Types. The 3rd image pays homage to the Pouché carved type. The 4th image shows Life Magazine's millennial issue listing Gutenberg's Bible as the #1 moment of the past millennium. The photo of the J.P. Morgan copy of the Bible was taken by Ray’s former student, Craig Cutler.

It's hard to believe that these antique alphabets initially caused us to react with disgust, then drooling, then visions of deep space.

Production notes / regular edition

MOMENTS CARVED IN PAPER is a series of autobiographical books, hand bound in a flutter book format with a wrap-around jacket and printed via letterpress. They are available through Lead Graffiti’s online store in both regular and clamshell editions.

• The jacket for Book no. 1 is St. Armand Colors Caribou 250 gsm stock with text pages of Somerset Textured White 300 gsm.

• Both the jacket and text pages are printed via letterpress in 2 colors, with photos printed in archival inks on a Epson Stylus Pro 3880.

• The numbered edition of 115 includes : 1-3 hors de commerce, 4-15 as clamshells, and 16-115 as standard editions.

Deluxe edition extras

THE DELUXE EDITION is contained in a clamshell box covered in a custom Lead Graffiti paste paper with a linen book cloth spine. The clamshell box for Moments Carved in Paper no. 1 will also contain:

• the millennium double issue of Life Magazine, December 1999, which lists the Gutenberg Bible as the #1 moment of the past 1000 years (Craig Cutler, one of Ray's former students, took the photograph for the article);

• a copy of the Monotype Record, focusing on an article about British typographer Eric Gill and Gill Sans, a typeface of his design;

• an original 2-color postcard invitation, which is Ray & Jill's first letterpress piece; and

• a copy of Snippets, Ray & Jill's first small book designed and printed via letterpress and hand bound at Raven Press at the University of Delaware. It was distributed as a keepsake at a talk by typographer Matthew Carter who gave the inaugural lecture of LetterLineParagraphPage sponsored by Raven Press.

Prices / ordering

• Softcover edition is $95 plus shipping.

• Deluxe clamshell edition is $430 plus shipping.