Meet Typoretum

We met up with Justin Knopp, the man behind Typroetum. Offering bespoke letterpress printing from Coggeshall.

We’ve always lusted after beautiful typography and well designed print. Justin offers both along with keeping a traditional printing method alive.

Justin will be our guest speaker at our Creative in Colchester event on Thursday 25th of this month. We are hosting a print themed night celebrating this wonderful art form. Alongside Justin will be students who set up the Essex Print Club in Brightlingsea. There will be prints to win in our tombola plus music from Cantcutcarwyn and a soon to be announced acoustic act.

Justin’s studio is a sight to behold. Large beastly print machines housed inside a specially build studio next to his house. There are rows and rows of type in cases (not trays!) including the full font set Garamond from point 8 to 16. The letters have been collected from various dying print studios and printers around the UK, including an extensive collection from the Cambridge University Press.

“I always had a passion for beautiful professional print. I am also drawn to the hand crafted element and the fact it is truly recyclable. I began to buy out printers as a student to keep the craft alive.”

Some machines have taken a fair deal of work but now produce stunning prints unrivaled by any digital printer.

Letterpress printing uses small lead or wooden letters set inside of a frame. The frame is then hand fed through a printer which has been weighted, set, registered and checked to produce a one off print. Justin can produce large orders of up to 500. Bearing in mind each one is hand fed it is a time - it a time consuming and labor intensive production.

“Letterpress printing is truly recyclable, if a letter or set is broken the metal can be melted down and recast. Unlike Lino Printing where the whole stencil has to be thrown away and uses harmful inks - letterpress uses only vegetable” - Justin informs us.

His bread and butter is a constant stream of wedding invitations, exhibition invitations and business cards, plus making his own posters in his spare time. Justin is currently looking into getting larger fonts cut from wood to produce his own type. Lead letters can only go up a certain size before they become too costly to produce. Wood is much more versatile but doesn’t last as long. Wood can warp and swell due to the inks and its porous nature.

“The reason I got into this is because letterpress produces high quality work that has depth, texture and effects that digital print cannot reach.”

To come hear the full story and to meet Justin, come along to our Creative in Colchester event next week. This event in members and guests invite only - If you would like to RSVP and more info on an invite email Alex.