Letterpress is one of the earliest forms of printing text on paper. Circa 1439 Johann Gutenberg was the father of letterpress printing in Europe, but the Chinese had developed similar types of relief printing as early as the 2nd century A.D. The Letterpress printing process is printing in which the raised surface of type and/or images are inked and then pressed against the paper to obtain an image in reverse. Historically this raised surface was movable type (characters cast as individual letter forms in wood or metal) where each letter was placed by hand to form the words and images. Here at elum we use photopolymer plates to create the raised surface. The artwork is created digitally and then we transfer the work to film and use the film to expose the plates. This allows us to create the artwork and typefaces we specifically want.

During the printing process the “plates” are inked and pressed into the paper to create a canyon of space where the ink is then deposited into the bottom of this impression. Only the most skilled and precise process keeps the walls of impression clean and the bottom filled with a thick and even layer of ink. The high contrast of the color and shadow created by the ink filled impression and clean walls gives letterpress its distinct allure and charm. At elum we pride ourselves on our ability to produce the finest example of letterpress printing. Our process is labor intensive and each item is run through the press one at a time. This is a time consuming process which has been forsaken for faster and cheaper processes such as offset and thermograpy printing. We have preserved this traditional way of printing and inherent in our process is the visible craftsmanship, skill, and handmade care that is obvious in every single piece.

This is just one of the two massive crates that we had shipped to NY from California. Just to give you a reference as to the size of this, the crate measures 11 feet long by 6 feet wide by 6.5 feet tall. Its big, very big!

Here we are unpacking the crates and laying out some of the walls, you can see the center cabinet wrapped in bubble and shrink wrap.

The rest of these are pictures of the finished booth with all of the product, both new and old, delicately placed on the shelves and displays. Pretty cool!!

Our brand new wood-grain desk won the Best New Product Award at the show in the “Think Green” Desk Accessory category.

We left LA on a non stop flight to Tokyo where we had a two day layover. Tokyo is not an easy city to get around in. For the most part, there are pretty much no signs in English and finding someone that speaks English is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There are two rail systems, a subway and an overground that run the entire city. Tokyo is massive. In two days we were able to cram in as much sightseeing as humanly possible.

nighttime in Ginza and a food vending machine in a local noodle shop in Roppongi, not what Roppongi is know for.

What would a trip to Tokyo be without visiting the worlds famous Tsukiji Fish Market. This was a very eye opening and humbling experience. Pictures and words can not describe massive size of the market itself and the tremendous amounts of fish that get sold in this market each day.

Aisles and aisles of just about everything that comes from the ocean, and then some. Picture the Jacob Javitz Center in Manhattan full of seafood vendors. Every morning at 5am there is an auction that takes place for the prized giant bluefin tuna. They have recently closed off this auction to the public but we managed to snap some pictures of the cleanup of the tuna that didn’t get sold that day.

We decided that 8am was a perfect time to have sushi in a local restaurant just outside of the market.

Hong Kong

Year of the Rat display in Central

Classic sign in SoHo

SHANGHAI

Look ma, no hands at 431 km/h

this was taken on the Maglev train in Shanghai running full speed. The Maglev is the first magnetic train that is being used for public transportation. It runs from the Pudong airport to the Longyang Road station in downtown Shanghai in a short 7 minutes.