Letterpress Print 'Take the A Train'

$30
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This print was inspired by the classic jazz standard popularized by Duke Ellington. After researching the song, Fontanel discover that a woman, Joya Sherill, wrote the lyrics, which are often sung by Ella Fitzgerald. Fontanel strove to evoke the liveliness of the tune with vibrating bright yellow and red typographic elements.

Product Details
  • One of three impressions

  • 12" x 18"

  • Inks : Van Son rubber-base inks in yellow, red, and black /non-labeled, random, vintage ink for gradient mixing

  • Paper: Mohawk Superfine, 80 C

  • Type: Vintage type sourced from P22 Type Foundry’s analog holdings.

  • The brush-like “TRAIN” is from a full font of copper photoengraved type.

  • The black impression at top is printed from the foundry type called Empire, designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1937.

  • The smaller text at bottom is Huxley Vertical, designed by Walter Huxley in 1935.

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About the Artist
Rochester Institute of Technology

Fontanel, a graduate from the School of Printing, is a curator at the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection, a renowned library collection of design, typography, and book arts. Amelia teaches and maintains thirty different presses and thousands of fonts of letterpress metal and wood type. Her contemporary poster designs incorporates overprints vintage type in colorful and playful combinations, that leverage the unique qualities of typographic characters that are over 100-years old.