Entries Tagged 'Polymer Plate Printing' ↓

(Someday I’ll scan an actual print.)

This is what my final image will/is supposed to look like (after letterpressing):

Here is how my colors split:

So, unless I decide to make any other changes (more drastic stroke around the Munchkin? tail entwined with the DNA double-helix? any thoughts?)—I think I’m good to go!

When I started thinking about a simple two-color design I could create in relation to the phrase “custom made,” I thought about furniture and clothes and kitchen cabinetry… All very domestic things, but perhaps not such interesting illustrations. Then I began trying to think about “custom made” in relation to the place where I work, the Bell Museum of Natural History. Images of dioramas and taxidermy came to mind, but then I thought: natural selection. Of course, natural selection isn’t exactly customized—so I opted for something more along the lines of trait selection.

Munchkin cats are bred for their short legs, which is actually a genetic mutation. Some professional cat registries don’t recognize this breed (for show) for that reason.

My design incorporates an illustration of a Munchkin cat and a DNA double-helix. I will be editing this design to incorporate “custom made” more organically—the words might form the links between the two strands of DNA. “Couture cat” was a suggested label from a friend who is studying clothing design. I am still considering how to use this phrase, if I decide to keep it.

For the next assignment, everyone in my class will be creating his or her own 4″x6″ two-color design revolving around the theme of “-made.” We were each assigned our own prefix—I was assigned “custom(-made)”. Other examples that were assigned are: re-, hand-, and home-. We will be producing polymer plates with Boxcar Press and printing them on Vandercook letterpress machines (pictured below). In the end, we will be compiling our prints into books and each taking (at least) one home!

This assignment will be very fun—and an exciting break from the computer!