Luise Valentiner veteran

How long have you been printing?

2016

Describe your first encounter with letterpress

I went to a workshop at an old letterpress printing museum, and the moment I pulled out a case of wood letters and started setting a text I knew that 'this is it'!

Where did you learn?

Workshops with Thomas Gravemaker (LetterpressAmsterdam); Niels Goovaerts (Atelier t, Bierbeek); Claudio Madella (Officina Tipografica Novepunti, Milano); Edward Johansson (Ahvaland Press, Finland); Gen Harrison (Robert Smail's Printing Works) & local Adana-poet Len McDermid.

Who was your most influential teacher?

My socalled Maestro: Thomas Gravemaker

What super power would you like to have?

X-ray vision, guise of steel, bullshit detector & razor-sharp wit

Do you prefer to work alone or with others?

Both, yet I mostly work alone in my studio

What do you most value in your friends?

Oddballness & humour

When do your best ideas occur to you?

Walking the dogs, or meditating

If you were to die and come back as a typeface, which would it be?

Frutiger light

What tool do you use more often than any other?

Corkscrew (or Cicero gauge)

What books are currently on your nightstand?

The Ragged-Trousered Philantropists (Robert Tressell), The Almost Nearly Perfect People (Michael Booth) & 100 poems (Seamus Heaney)

If you could study with any printer throughout history, who would it be?

I'd love to continue learning from my Maestro, yet Willem Sandberg would have been a very inspiring teacher

If you have your own shop, what equipment do you own?

Presses: Korrex Berlin, Korrex Stuttgart, Harrild & Sons platen press, Adana Five-Eight & Adana Quarto.
13 cabinets of lead type & two cabinets of wood type and all the trimmings...

If you could change one thing about your shop, what would it be?

Less wildlife entering (spiders, beetles, wasps etc)

When and where are you the happiest?

Seeing an idea through from a random thought to a finished print; walking my dogs; hanging out & discussing with friends; drinking wine; reading on the sofa in front of a roaring fire; visiting art exhibitions & playing badminton

What is your greatest fear/worry?

The surreal wrath and jealousy of my stepmother

What do you think is useful about what you make?

I hope to rattle chains and speak truth to power, in my own little way, with a smile

What’s your day job?

Graphic designer (own company since 1996)

Do you use any other techniques or media besides letterpress?

Nah