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Fanatical Mechanical is a showcase of the Photo-Lettering archives and typefaces from one of the leading type foundries and design studios in America, House Industries. Photo-Lettering or PLINC was one of the earliest and most successful type houses to utilize photo technology in the production of commercial typography and lettering. Numerous artifacts chronicling PLINC’s development are exhibited such as original specimen books, catalogs and films with Photo-Lettering founder Ed Rondthaler and long time Photo-Lettering art director Ed Benguiat.

The serigraph work was just as detailed and clean as the print work. Silver and black hand-screened over orange-painted wood panels. An analog method to show how the digitally recreated old fonts.

The custom kiosk is basically just a case for an iPad. Having the home button covers keeps it on a stationary website, in this case House Industries’ Photo-Lettering website, an interactive site that allows you to alter the color of different attributes of the font such as the inline or stroke.

Examples of mechanicals.

Included in this exhibition are the materials and methods used in graphic design practice during the ‘Cold Type’ or Phototypesetting Era. Phototypesetting took precedence from the 1960s to 1980s when letterpress was replaced by offset printing. Graphic Designers became ‘Paste-up Artists’ and used numerous tools to create layered mechanicals that were camera-ready to develop plates to go on press. The show invites students and visitors to examine the mechanical nature of this period of the history of graphic design and the physical craftsmanship involved in the process.

The tools of the trade.

Dramatic Color by Overprinting (Donald E. Cooke, 1955/1974).The exhibit includes a small number of old printing manuals. This particular book caught my eye. I’ll be discussing this book in further details in a future blog post.

Color Group 95 was used to create the beautiful image of Alice and Wonderland. Click image for lager view.

The Old Man and the Sea.

The following images were taken from the House Industries blog.

David Dodde, one of the speakers at the Opening Night, the man behind the serigraphy on display, and the only person I know to use Eames furniture as a substrate.

Finally, I’d like to share a charming video by House Industries and Bob Smartner about English spelling featuring the late Ed Rondthaler and a flip chart.

Fanatical Mechanical: Photo-Lettering and the Paste-Up Era
Exhibition Runs from Feb. 6 through March 9, 2012
Open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Chapman University Guggenheim Gallery, Orange, Calif.
One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866