Sophie Thomas rookie
Two or more heads are better than one
How long have you been printing?
We set up Thomas.Matthews studio in 1997/8 and had a print workshop in the studio.
Describe your first encounter with letterpress
smell of dust and oil, vinyl records and calm reverse creativity
Where did you learn?
Central St Martins and Royal College of Art
Who was your most influential teacher?
Alan Kitching
What super power would you like to have?
To speak and understand all languages
Do you prefer to work alone or with others?
Two or more heads are better than one
What do you most value in your friends?
A listening ear and non judgemental hugs
When do your best ideas occur to you?
When I am not over-thinking or open water swimming
If you were to die and come back as a typeface, which would it be?
Playbill
What tool do you use more often than any other?
Spatula and scissors
What books are currently on your nightstand?
Found and Ground - A practical guide to making your own foraged paints - Caroline Ross
Waste and Want - A social history of Trash - Susan Strasser
If you could study with any printer throughout history, who would it be?
The Luddites
If you have your own shop, what equipment do you own?
A5 Platen press
B2 Manual proofing press made by Lena
Lots of wooden block type
Waste Inks
Pigment making equipment
If you could change one thing about your shop, what would it be?
It would be bigger, have a record player and I could have more time to be in it,.
When and where are you the happiest?
Open water swimming, listening to music in the sunshine and making
What is your greatest fear/worry?
I am too stressed to see the beauty in life.
We have gone to far to repair the planet for our children
What do you think is useful about what you make?
I try to do design activism and consider how the medium is the message, using my work to alert or wake people up/make them curious/inform them.
What’s your day job?
Design and Design Garbologist
Do you use any other techniques or media besides letterpress?
General graphic design
Pen and Ink
Glass blowing
Pigment making
collage/ mixed media
