Video: Another Detailed Look At The Art Of Letterpress

Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

In late December, we posted a documentary video profiling the last letterpress company in Los Angeles: Aardvark Letterpress. Judging by a new, even shorter British documentary, we're not the only ones suffering teary eyes with mentions of the dying industry.

The 8-minute film, "Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film," features one of the UK's last movable-type printing workshops, located at Plymouth University. DesignTaxi says South Devon-based filmmaker Danny Cooke "wanted people to see how the 500-year-old process was done back then, without 'pre-digital means such as Illustrator or InDesign.'" Cooke grew inspired to make the film while eating a sandwich and watching the "delicate process" of letterpress.

"This is a 500-year-old process, and it moves like a 500-year-old process," says Paul Collier in the film. Collier adds an uplifting note regarding the artform at the end of the film. "I think it's interesting to note that there are the universities around Europe who are opening their own letterpress studios as we speak. That really tells a story there, I think, that this is here to stay."