Classes
Beginning Letterpress
Class Description
In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of setting type by hand, inking, and printing on a
traditional proof press.
No prior experience is needed. We’ll start with the basics of typography and composition, then guide
you through the process of transforming your ideas into physical prints using wood and metal type.
Along the way, you’ll explore both historic techniques and playful, experimental approaches unique to
hand-crafted printmaking.
Letterpress is the foundation of modern communication design, and in this course students will discover
how this centuries-old process continues to influence contemporary design practices today.
By the end of the course, students will design and print two original letterpress posters - leaving not only
with finished work, but with an understanding of the tools, techniques, and creative possibilities of this
enduring medium.
Class Fee
Member Pricing: $150.00
Non-Member Pricing: $180.00
3 Day Class
June 14 10am-1pm
June 21 10am-1pm
June 28 10am-1pm
Level of Study: All Levels, Especially Beginners
Course Agenda
Week 1: Introduction to letterpress: small presentation about the history of letterpress, show examples,
discuss type care and shop safety, demo with preset type, production of poster #1
Week 2: Pulling type, setting type overview, Demo experimental and expressive approaches, and paper
selection - Students begin work on their personal project
Week 3: Finalizing and editioning prints - students print and finalize their posters
Topics Covered
● Overview of tools, materials, wood and lead type care, and shop safety
● Basics of typography and letterpress
● Setting wood and lead type
● Ink mixing and color application
● Press set up
● Printing of a proof press - operation and troubleshooting
● Paper selection and printing techniques
● Experimental and expressive approaches to letterpress
● Finalizing and editioning prints
Supplies
Materials List (provided by class fees)
● Lead and Wood Type
● Some Paper
● Ink
● Proof Press
● Brayer
● Cleaning materials
Materials List (student brings)
● Sketchbook
● Pens, pencils, drawing materials
● Unique paper selections
About the Instructor
Kate Tepe is a Cincinnati-based designer, artist, and educator whose work brings people
together through print, public projects, and shared creative experiences. With a background in
letterpress, communication design, and community-based practice, she creates work that
invites participation, conversation, and connection.
Her projects often explore how design can live beyond the page - whether through
collaborative prints, public installations, or classroom spaces where experimentation and
process are central. She is especially interested in the tactile and time-base nature of
letterpress, and how it can slow us down, encourage play, and make ideas feel more immediate
and human.
In this class, she encourages students to explore both the technical and expressive
PAST CLASSES
4-Day Class: Jon Flannery
Designing and Printing the Poster
This course will give you the tools to design a beautiful AND functional poster. Posters are not paintings, they are often created in response to or in service of a current event (a concert, a call to action/protest, an annual event, etc).Therefore the poster must service its function within limited time and often limited means (budgetary limitations that directly effect the printing process). We will learn to creatively work with and against these parameters. The best posters are usually few colors, in order to serve as quick reads that leave lasting impressions.
3-Day Class: Maureen George & Shelley Creech
Collage on a Press / Move It Around! Paste It Down!
Free yourself and your art practice! Collage is an exciting artform that allows for limitless design possibilities. Meditative or exuberant, abstract or figurative – you are in charge! This introductory workshop will be a jam-packed, fun, hands-on printmaking experience with design guidance from two professional graphic designers turned printmakers. Each participant can expect to leave with their own ready-to-frame colorful collage, plus a sampling of their unique, printed specialty papers.