ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

I’ve been expounding the virtues of Letter Pressed for a while. Their Artist Series reads like a Who’s Who of the vinyl toy community: Joe Ledbetter, Jon Burgerman, Nathan Jurevicius, Bwana Spoons… In theory, every one of us should own something letterpressed. In practice, as with paint colors and Venetian blinds, you need to see a sample. I’m holding some such items. While I want my words to convey the elegance of the paper and the clean, vibrant impression of the art, you need to touch these for yourself. To that end, Letter Pressed’s Mark Begley will provide one lucky reader with a pack of hand-numbered Cool It letterpressed cards by Le Merde. To win it, leave a comment here with the name of who you think should be considered for the Artist Series next. I can’t promise it’ll actually happen, but the winner will get some of the coolest cards around–right in time for the holiday season. Check out this interview with Mark to get your ideas flowing.

ToyCyte: Pretend I am an alien from Planet Hallmark. Tell me why Letter Pressed cards are unique.

Mark Begley: Because of the artists. There has been a wide variety of featured artists from a just-as-wide range of artistic fields—comic books, gigposters, digital illustration, lowbrow art, toy design, fine art, etc. I contact artists I like (or by providence, sometimes they contact me) and hope that about 25 to 50 people like them enough to buy a card set (or print) they designed. I’m not the only one out there producing artist-designed cards, but I think the mix of artists is unique. Plus the fact that I have them sign a card for each pre-ordered pack, keep the runs limited and don’t do reprints. What many of my regular customers have told me is that I’m offering an inexpensive piece of functional art that you can send to your grandma. I guess that’s unique.

Indeed! In these days of e-cards, what made you decide to go “old-school”?

That’s the point, isn’t it? If you want to send a quick joke, you send an e-card. But when you want something special you send a card. When you really want to make an impression (pun intended) you send a letterpress card.

I guess the draw of letterpress boils down to the tactile nature of it. You can’t get that from any other form of printing, or from your printer at home. Funny thing is, if you talk to any “old-school” printer they’ll tell you that the impression every one is after now was very frowned upon back in the day. Remember, this is how most books were printed up until the 1960s or so, and you couldn’t print that way with text or it would mess up the other side of the paper.

There have been some technological advances in letterpress printing, mainly the materials used to make the plates, but it still has to be done on big ol’ clunky presses. There’s nostalgia behind it all. And again, it really boils down to holding and seeing a letterpress piece in person. You’ll find yourself running your fingers over it and looking at it from every angle. It involves the viewer.

Your artist series reads like a who’s who of ToyCyte alumni. Can you give me the whole list?

ARTIST SERIES CARDS:

#1 Ron Regé #2 Tado #3 MCA/Evil Design #4 Joe Ledbetter #5 Nathan Jurevicius #6 Bwana Spoons #7 Brian Taylor/Candykiller #8 Jermaine Rogers #9 Kathie Olivas #10 Brandt Peters #11 Brendan Monroe #12 Jon Burgerman #13 Jeremiah Ketner #14 Abe Lincoln, Jr. #15 Michael Sieben #16 Travis Lampe #17 Jeremyville #18 Sauerkids #19 Jeremy Tinder #20 Dan Goodsell—Mr. Toast #21 Le Merde

ARTIST SERIES PRINTS:

#1 Kathie Olivas #2 Jeremy Fish #3 Paul Chatem #4 Jeremy Fish #5 Jesse LeDoux #6 Dalek #7 Nathan Stapley #8 Justin Helton/Status Serigraph #9 Mark Bodnar #10 Drew Millward #11 Johnny Bergeron #12 Chris Ryniak #13 Julie West

Uh, geez, I can’t believe it’s been that many. A lot of those were produced within the last 12 months! That does not include six or seven Candykiller prints so far, two 64 Colors prints and one card, and some other miscellaneous pieces and custom jobs. And there’s a whole slew of folks who have either already sent me artwork (DGPH has sent a card, print and trading card design), or have signed on to do a card, print or trading card (Hello, Brute, Anna Chambers, Michael Slack, Jeff Lamm, Bob Dob, etc.). [Ed note: Hello, Brute print with Jeffrey figure--reviewed here and a few still available here.]

Was there a particular artist whose work was especially hard to translate to letterpress form? How about one that just blew you away?

The only one that had to be reprinted was the Tado card. It was a combination of the paper and foil that I had picked for it, and the artwork. It had some knocked-out text and reversed images, which are hard to foil stamp. It ended up turning out fine though. I have had to ask a few artists to make adjustments because letterpress does have some limitations, and foil stamping has even more. But there should be a little more freedom, as the cards will be letterpress printed from now on, unless an artist specifically asks to use a metallic foil. The prints have always been printed this way, which is why there’s been halftone and other things that wouldn’t have worked on the cards.

Pretty much all the designs have blown me away; the talent of these people is pretty amazing. Having said that, I love the pieces from Jeremy Fish, the Drew Millward print is pretty nuts, but I also really love the simplicity and nostalgic look of Mark Bodnar’s print. Don’t make me pick one, they’re all wonderful!!

Do you collect any toys? Any plans to make more toys (like Presston)?

I do collect toys. Or did. I buy maybe one toy a year now. Last one was Taxali’s Oh No! figure. Before that was Bob Dob’s Luey. I do have a lot of vinyl boxed up right now, but will hopefully get it all back out on shelves soon. I have a wide mix of early mini figures (Be@rbricks/Kubricks) designer vinyl (quite a few Critterbox pieces, Biskup and Baseman stuff) some Secret Base figures, retro stuff (Pillsbury Doughboy and Lil Sprout) and other odds and ends. I do not have a ton of disposable income, so I’m very, very picky and selective. It is how I have found out about a number of the artists I’ve worked with, even if they haven’t designed a toy, I may have heard about them on one of the message boards or something. But then it moved out from there to things like Juxtapoz, Giant Robot, Gigposters.com and the World Wide Web.

I would love to get Presston turned into a vinyl or resin piece, and was actively pursuing getting it made myself. But buying a house and having a baby took precedence over that little venture. I’d love it if some toy company picked it up; I think Presston would be very popular. And Brian [Taylor/Candykiller] did such a great job with the logo and the original 3D turnarounds for the proposed vinyl figure I feel bad it hasn’t happened yet.

Beyond giclees and goccos, I come across a lot of paper-types that are numbered. The descriptions are often like “300gm.” Can you elaborate on what these paper types mean?

It denotes the base weight of the paper. Basically what 500 sheets of the base sheet size weighs in grams per square meter. Thing is, not all paper comes in the same base sheet size, so it’s a little arbitrary. And it does not denote paper thickness as most people think. Two papers with weights of 300gm might vary in thickness by a noticeable amount. The other way paper is labeled is in pounds, so a 300gm paper may also be labeled as 110# stock or something.

Check here to see what’s still available from Letter Pressed’s Artist Series and follow Letter Pressed at their blog. Click the pictures below for an enlarged idea of what we’re talking about, and leave a comment below for a chance to win a set of cards by Le Merde!