A Texas Wood Type Collaboration

Tony’s wood type border is locked into place and ready to print

In 2019, we were delighted to be part of a Texas-sized poster collaboration organized by Tony Guadagnolo of Anthony Creative, Inc. Tony is a good friend of Elefant Press and has an infectious passion for all-things letterpress.

After picking up a rare century-old wood type border made by Hamilton Wood Type, he wanted to share it with the community by passing it around various shops in Texas to use in a giant “Border Relay” project. Since the border would stay in the Lone Star State, each poster would have to carry a Texas theme.

Testing out different paper stocks while printing the first blue color

From 2012-2017, Elefant Press was located in Deep Ellum in the historic Carson Warehouse building. We choose to honor that neighborhood of Dallas since it is so rich in art and music history. Numerous folk and blues artists found their way to the area in the first half of 19th century and we highlighted, perhaps, the three most famous: Lead Belly, T-bone Walker, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

The final pass is the halftone portrait triptych

The poster is comprised of 4 passes of various blue shades on our Vandercook 219 proof press. All of the copy was meticulously set with vintage wood type. The halftone triptych of the blues musicians is a magnesium printing plate mounted on wood to be type-high. Pieces of the larger border design were included in the oval frames to tie the design together.

The final poster is framed and on display in our shop