Spring 2013 I decided that basically things were not good. Something had to change.
After a lot of thought I decided that what I liked about my work were the hand-made aspects. How could this be incorporated more in to my context? I decided to look into letterpress as it offered a breadth of use and seemed like an accessible starting point.
Helen Ingham was my first port of call. Helen was a wonderful, she whisked me round the new Central Saint Martins letterpress facilities and then gave me a list of names and in particular recommended Richard Lawrence. So I went to visit him in Oxford. Richard proved it was possible, he showed me beautiful projects he was working on and gave small hints on practice: do some work for money and do some work for your soul.
After this, I decided I had found a good direction. I made a plan: Take two years, collect contacts, experience and equipment. Transcend from a digital graphic design environment to a manual one. Go slow, be patient.
Graham Bignell was kind enough to offer me a space in his studio for the summer where I re-acquainted myself with the working method, met some wonderful wonderful people and was very happy.
Then one day, I received a phone call from Sweden one of my contacts, Mats Larson at Gramus had found me some equipment and might I be interested? Yes of course I said! The equipment was in Malmö, Sweden and turned out not to be a couple of cases of type but an entire printers.
So out went the two year plan.
Ahvaland 