Linotype Film
8 November, 2010
This doesn’t have so much to do with sign painting exactly, but letters and outmoded technology are all of a piece here, too!
This is a trailer for a film they’re hoping to have out by fall of next year. I’d like to see it on a double bill with the Sign Painter Movie.
(via BoingBoing, who also link to this short clip about linotypes from 1960)
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New Bohemia Signs' Blog 
My Great grandfather was a linotype operator for a living. I didn’t learn this until I had bought my first Vandercook proof press this summer. It was actually considered a hazardous occupation back then and graphic designers had to pay a pretty penny for good health insurance because they might have to work around these machines which operated using molten lead for the type. Such amazing machines, quickley dying off faster than sign painters..
I remember reading an article in one of the local weeklies, a few years ago, about a lead type foundry, in the Presidio, here in SF, whose operator was always open to taking on an apprentice, but whose apprentices never lasted very long, on account of an aversion to the hazards of handling molten lead.
My wife just took a one-day course in typesetting-by-hand at the Center for the Book, where she helps as a volunteer. She says they use a Vandercook press there. She enjoyed it a lot, however I don’t imagine that’ll lead to her pursuing a typesetting, or even linotype-setting gig (as if there were such a gig to be had). Anyway, I’m sure I’m meeting our household toxin quota with the paint fumes I regularly inhale.
Funny, I just found out through a comment on my wife’s blog post about her experiences in the letterpress class, that my own grandfather was a typesetter for the local paper in Harford County, MD.
It must be carried down in the blood. Though my grandma and mom didn’t get into letters or design, it hit home for me and my sister. She is a web designer for a big design company and I fell in love with it after years of doing hand painted words for skateboard companies and eventually learning to work the letterpress when me and my wife did our wedding invitations on my friends press. I thought the cleanig chemicals were strong for the letterpress until I started using One shot paints last summer, needless to say with my sign board next to my press, I should probabley start wearing the ventelator more if I want my great grandkids to remember me..
We just bought a fancy air purifier for the shop.