Category Archives: History

Printing and photographic history

Alois was here

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Brian Lawler

Several of my students joined me and my colleague Prof. Martin Delp today for a tour of the Landsampt für Digitalisierung, Breitband und Vermessung, the Bavarian office for digitization and surveying. Here, the government creates maps, collects and distributes digital geographical … Continue reading →

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Van Gogh’s Père Tanguy in perspective

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Brian Lawler

Museums often have no-photography rules, depending on their policy about allowing visitors to take photos, or the legal arrangements they have with art owners, copyright holders and other things that go beyond my pay grade. In the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, … Continue reading →

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Learning letterpress in a 14th century town

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Brian Lawler

One of the three classes I am teaching in Munich is Advanced Typography. The students are in their third year in the Print Media program at Munich University of Applied Sciences. Five of my students are exchange students from my … Continue reading →

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The Poster-Paster

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Brian Lawler

In my collection of books related to printing and publishing is a delightful edition from Dover of line art engravings from the 19th and early 20th centuries. I wrote about reproducing these illustrations in a series of blogs I wrote … Continue reading →

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What’s in a street name?

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Brian Lawler

I walked down Bayerstrasse yesterday morning, heading east from our apartment near the Hauptbahnhof, then turned right on Senefelderstraße. I made a point of doing this because I was on my way to the big Calumet camera store in Munich … Continue reading →

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Meet Lorem Ipsum

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Brian Lawler

I’m not making this up. Three years ago I was looking at my roll sheet for my Introduction to Graphic Communication course at Cal Poly. About a third of the way down the list I stopped at the name Lauren … Continue reading →

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Reproducing line art with digital technology

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Brian Lawler

In the pre-halftone era (printing before the 20th century), illustrations printed by letterpress (relief printing) were made by engraving into wood or copper to make an image. It was a laborious task, and the quality was determined by the skills … Continue reading →

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Printing on a 126-year-old press, and loving it!

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Brian Lawler

I am engaged as a human printing engine this week (and next). The president of our university and his wife want a letterpress Christmas card this year, so have engaged the design and production forces at-hand to produce these cards. … Continue reading →

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Visiting Palomar’s 200-inch telescope

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Brian Lawler

After visiting Mt. Wilson’s two observatories in September, 2014, I began a reading marathon to learn as much as I could about the big telescopes that were used to usher-in the era of astrophysics. It was at the 100-inch Hooker … Continue reading →

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My brief visit to Mars

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Brian Lawler

I spent a couple of weeks on Mars earlier this year, on assignment to take some photos. There was no oxygen, so I had to hold my breath for two weeks. I did not run into Matt Damon. The work … Continue reading →

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