Look: A Book on Curling. Oh, Wait...

New to the annals of "don't judge a book by its cover" comes this gem. Available from Amazon, the book purports to teach you all you need to know about bowling. So what kind of expert is teaching us about bowling? Well, according to the book's description, "this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing..." So it's basically the internet borrowed and reprinted on paper.

You'd think that the "author" of the book would be able to borrow a better image for a book on bowling. You know, one that actually pictures bowling.

Cashspiel Smackdown

Since you did such a great job last time, we're again turning to you readers for some design feedback.

Above are two possible designs for a poster. The task is to create an announcement for the National Capital Cashspiel at the Potomac Curling Club. Basically it's a tournament for seasoned curlers to compete and maybe make a few bucks. The design brief that the poster should be "very DC".

I decided to take two design paths. To the left, the political convention design, celebrating 19th century broadsides that advertised political party gatherings. On the right is the monument design, with a nod to the federal architecture of DC.

Since we can only use one, do you have a preference—convention or monument?

Click on image for larger view.

Rock Star

We revived an old linoleum block we cut last year for a new curling poster this year. Combined with (mostly) 16-line Clarendon wood type and lead stars, this 6-color concoction was printed in an edition of about eight. Maybe ten.

ED. NOTE: The type in upper right -- a nickname for curling -- was originally going to read "hurry hard", but I didn't have enough Rs in the proper size. I figured this out only after cutting the lino for the blue splat which the type sits on. While "hurry hard" fits neatly inside the splat, "the roaring game" is a bit snug for my tastes.

Various color papers are from the French Paper Company; assorted wood type; handcut lino blocks; lead ornaments; hand inked in 5 passes on the cylinder press. 12.5" x 19".

Kayser Smackdown

Attention both readers!

I've been tasked with creating an announcement for the 2011 Kayser bonspiel for new curlers. In honor of the host club's 50th anniversary, the Potomac Curling Club is invoking the theme "back to the '60s". The design brief clarifies this as "not the hippy '60s, more like Camelot or Mad Men." Pretty clear, right?

I decided to take two design paths. On the left, the martini design, toasting the Rat Pack spirit of the '60s. On the right, the Mod design, inspired by the movie and music advertising of the era.

Since we can only use one, do you have a preference—martini or mod?

Click on image for larger view.

Olympic Curling Fashion

From Chip, Duckpin Press' East Coast correspondent, comes this news from Vancouver: Norway has shattered the barrier of good taste in their pursuit of curling fashion. Check out the magnificent pants they'll be pimping when men's curling gets under way later this week. Kinda puts to shame the curling sweaters we featured awhile back.

According to a Washington Post article, the flashy pants are an effort by the Norwegian team to raise the profile of curling in their home country. Their coach, however, seems unconvinced:

"Everybody thought black was a bit dull, so we tried for red. This was the closest we could get," [Coach Ole] Ingvaldsen said. "I don't like them. I hope my mother doesn't see them. She should rest in peace [one day] without having seen them. I will probably get used to it."

If it's any consolation, coach, we happen to love them.

Like Chess, but with Type

On a visit to the homestead, my brother and I sat in the living room playing Wii curling for what seemed like hours. I mentioned to him that a big part of curling involved calling the right strategy. I gave him the old line that curling was "like chess, but on ice." Characteristically, he came back with a wise-ass comment:

Every sport tries to bill itself as being like chess. [Imitating a hayseed] "It's like chess, but with big tires and a mud bog!!!"

Okay, point taken, James. But what about letterpress?

Post Number 100

We made it to the century mark! Boy, that's a lot of wasted time -- for both you and us. But we managed to learn a bunch, and hopefully you have, too. While we stuff our gourds with celebratory gluten-free cake, click on the links below to enjoy a recap of the highs and lows...

Who knew that poop rainbows were nature's way of saying, "blog about me!" We found a pot of gold at the end of that particular rainbow and determined once and for all the true master of the fanbrush. (One hint: it wasn't a man who looks like Kenny Rogers.) Speaking of man, human evolution provided a jumping off point for our look at patterns in modern poster design. But just so we didn't appear too erudite, there were plenty of visits with NASCAR paint schemes, including a post on the 200 mph history of Valvoline. In other sports news, we paid a visit to the curling sheet to see the latest in curling fashion. That may inspire a great gift idea for the little'un being feted in our favorite baby shower announcement. You can look here to see more announcements and other self-printed projects that we put on the blog over the past 100 posts. Enjoy!

I Swept With Your Wife: A How-To

Over the summer we designed and printed the curling posters above. It was odd to think of curling when the mercury was pushing 90, but during the season there's not a lot of time to do projects like this.

The final product was made using a lino cut, wood type, and an array of inks, passed twice through the proof press. Here's how it went down...

First we drew the curler on a piece of paper, backwards:




Then we took white Saral transfer paper and carefully traced the drawing so its outline transfered onto the lino block:



Next, we inflamed our carpal tunnel syndrome by cutting out the parts of the lino block that we did not want to print:



Then we locked the finished block in the press bed, inked it up with a brayer, and printed it on the poster:



After that initial pass, we laid up the wood type in the bed of the press. After inking the type, we laid the paper back down and made a second pass with the cylinder. The various color combinations were created by mixing and matching colors as we went along. All in all, we created 20 posters.



Paper is from the French Paper Company; assorted wood type; handcut lino block; hand inked in 2 passes on the cylinder press. 12.5" x 19".

Curling Uniforms

It's been awhile since we posted about our third favorite obsession, curling. There are multiple intersections between design and curling, as non-scientifically evidenced by the large number of architects who belong to our curling club. A hat tip goes to club member (but not architect) Joe Rockenbach, who pointed me to Uni Watch's post on some bad-ass curling sweaters.

Curling sweaters normally fall into two camps: the quaint, patternbook variety or the sleek but styleless. These lads' throwbacks sport the best of both, especially when paired with some natty trousers. Check out the great photos on the post. Finally some uniforms that match the finer design points of the curling rink.

A different kind of composing stone

Like peanut butter and chocolate or The Captain and Tennille, occasionally there comes along a combination that seems so natural, you wonder why no one had thought of it before. This is not quite one of those instances, but a dream I had last night did offer an inventive combination of two of my interests.

I dreamed I was curling, but instead of delivering the usual granite stones, I was throwing wood type. (I imagine throwing wood type down a sheet of ice is easier than running a granite stone through the press.) From what I recall of the dream, I was playing pretty well, too. Maybe we're looking at a new Olympic sport for 2014?