Studio on Fire is a 21^st-century design studio located on the fringes of northeast Minneapolis in an industrial sector re-branded an arts community. The company deals in design work, letterpress printing, and their letterpress product line. The three areas support each other with it’s design specifically for letterpress printing and retrofitting the letterpress process back into the design of something so that the mode of production becomes the design.

The driving emphasis of printing has been toward faster, cheaper and slicker production processes. With the advent of offset and digital printing, it’s a trend that nearly relegated letterpress to the trash heap of extinct technology. Studio on Fire was established in 1998 and was steeped in the bygone printer’s craft but also with all of the advantage afforded by very fast digital efficiency.

The company’s hybrid process replaces traditional movable type and engravings with digital files. Text and image are copied to something akin to a film negative which is then placed atop a sheet of polymer. Both are vacuum-sealed and then exposed to ultraviolet light and the polymer hardens. During the wash cycle, only the non-hardened areas are washed away, leaving a relief plate. This plate is used in printing.

Tags: letterpresses

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