Tag Archives: Shakespeare Press Museum

Gliding into a saw restoration

Posted on February 2, 2023 by Brian Lawler

This is Part 2 of my story about restoring an antique Hammond Glider “TrimOsaw” for the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly. To read the first part, click here. I got to the point of removing the aluminum nameplate from … Continue reading →

Posted in Graphic Arts people, History, Printing and Printing Processes, Restoring antique printing machines, Technology | Tagged Blognosticator, Brian Lawler, Cal Poly, Restoring antique printing machines, Shakespeare Press Museum | Leave a comment

Restoring that ol’ saw – a Hammond Glider

Posted on February 1, 2023 by Brian Lawler

Now that the Smyth machine is working, I decided to take on a new project. Last fall I offered to restore a 1960s era Hammond Glider TrimOsaw for the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly. This machine is best described … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Printing and Printing Processes, Technology, Typography | Tagged Blognosticator, Brian Lawler, Cal Poly, Hammond Glider, Hammond TrimOsaw, Precision table saw, Shakespeare Press Museum, Typographical table saw | Leave a comment

The Smyth book sewing machine is now running!

Posted on January 29, 2023 by Brian Lawler

Some of you may recall my obsession with a 1935 Smyth book sewing machine and all of the steps it took to restore it and get it running again. After my return from Germany last September, I worked a lot … Continue reading →

Posted in Bookbinding, Printing and Printing Processes | Tagged book sewing machine, Brian Lawler, California Polytechnic State University, Shakespeare Press Museum, Smyth machine, Smyth-bound | Leave a comment

Designing a monogram font

Posted on April 15, 2022 by Brian Lawler

Years ago I made a reproduction-quality proof of a type font in the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly. This font is comprised a sets of three letters that can be assembled into monograms. Monograms were quite popular for business … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Typography | Tagged Blognosticator, Brian Lawler, Cal Poly, Monogram font, Monograms, Shakespeare Press Museum | Leave a comment

Lining Livermore, der zweite Teil

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Brian Lawler

This is a continuation of a blog I wrote two days ago. To read the first part, click here. After I put all the letters (called “glyphs” In typography) into a master Adobe Illustrator document, I built the destination environment for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Software, Technology, Typography | Tagged Antique type, ATF, Blognosticator, Brian Lawler, Cal Poly, FontLab, Shakespeare Press Museum, type design, Type Network | Leave a comment

Drawing the Lining Livermore font

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Brian Lawler

Deep in the recesses of the back room of the Shakespeare Press Museum at California Polytechnic State University is a cabinet. It contains about 20 drawers of hand-set metal type. We never use this type because it is difficult to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Typography | Tagged Adobe Illustrator, American Type Founders, Blognosticator, Brian Lawler, FontLab, Lining Livermore, Shakespeare Press Museum, The Blognosticator, type design | Leave a comment

Electronic motor control
and my obsession with a 1935 bookbinding machine

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Brian Lawler

This is the second part of my obsession story. To read the first part, please click here. And that’s where my odyssey began. Alternating current induction motors use the frequency of the line power (60 Hz in our case) to … Continue reading →

Posted in Bookbinding, Education, Imposition and Pagination, New technology, Printing and Printing Processes, Technology | Tagged bookbinding, Brian Lawler, Cal Poly, Graphic Communication Department, Shakespeare Press Museum, Smyth book sewing machine, TECO/Westinghouse VFD | Leave a comment

Running the five-color
Pearl press postcard

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Brian Lawler

In 2019 I began the restoration of an 1895 Pearl press, a treadle-powered letterpress that was donated to the Cal Poly Shakespeare Press Museum. That press was a rusty machine when we took delivery of it. I took it to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Printing and Printing Processes, Software, Technology, Typography, Uncategorized | Tagged Brian Lawler, Heidelberg Windmill, letterpress printing, multicolor printing, Pearl press, precise printing, Shakespeare Press Museum | Leave a comment

Reminiscences of a prepress guy

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Brian Lawler

I am an old prepress guy. I owned one of the first PostScript service bureaus in the U.S. I was there at the beginning. It was painful, but overall it was a great business. We had been traditional typographers, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Color Management, History, Photoshop techniques, Printing and Printing Processes, Software | Tagged Antique press, Cal Poly, Color separation files from Illustrator, Golding Pearl restoration, Shakespeare Press Museum, Spot-color separations from Illustrator | Leave a comment

Prince Bold made Neue

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Brian Lawler

Every really cool font eventually comes out in a “neue” version. The most famous is Helvetica Neue, which was the modernized version of Helvetica, with its normalized weights and corrected curves and very subtle curve changes. Prince Bold is based … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, New technology, Typography | Tagged Brian Lawler, Cal Poly, letter forms, letterpress, Raymond Prince, Shakespeare Press Museum, type design, wood type | Leave a comment