2008 - 2024

“Make Your Own Path” by Doug Wilson, hand letterpressed on antique maps making each print unique,  11x17 inches, 2007.  © Doug Wilson

Doug Wilson: “Make Your Own Path”, hand letterpressed on antique maps making each print unique, 11×17 inches, first uploaded to Flickr on December 2007. © 2012, Doug Wilson.

About Doug Wilson:

Doug Wilson is a designer, filmmaker, art director and teacher that has a passion for letterpress. Born and raised in the Midwest, he has travel in his blood and has visited five continents. With a love of hand-painted signs and a Polaroid camera, he has documented vernacular typography all across the United States. (read more)

The “Make Your Own Path” poster is available to by at Keep Calm Gallery (for £32 or about 52US$). One thing interesting about those posters is not just that each one is hand letterpressed, but that each one is made on a different piece of vintage map. One can see some variations of the same poster at Wilson’s Flickr.

“Make Your Own Path” (variation detail) by Doug Wilson, hand letterpressed on antique maps making each print unique,  11x17 inches, 2007.  © Doug Wilson
“Make Your Own Path” (variation detail) by Doug Wilson, hand letterpressed on antique maps, 11x17 inches, 2007. © Doug Wilson
“Make Your Own Path” (variation detail 2) by Doug Wilson, hand letterpressed on antique maps,  11x17 inches, 2007.  © Doug Wilson
“Make Your Own Path” (variation detail 2) by Doug Wilson, hand letterpressed on antique maps, 11x17 inches, 2007. © Doug Wilson
Two different “Make Your Own Path” posters by Doug Wilson, hand letterpressed on antique maps,  11x17 inches, 2007.  © Doug Wilson
Two different “Make Your Own Path” posters by Doug Wilson, hand letterpressed on antique maps, 11x17 inches, 2007. © Doug Wilson

Doug Wilson also directed and produced the feature-lenght documentary Linotype: The Film. This is a must see for anyone interested in the fine art of letterpress printing:

[The film] centered around the Linotype typecasting machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1886. Called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by Thomas Edison, it revolutionized printing and society, but very few people know about the inventor or his fascinating machine.
The Linotype completely transformed the communication of information similarly to how the internet is now changing communication again. Although these machines were revolutionary, technology began to supersede the Linotype and they were scrapped and melted-down by the thousands. Today, very few machines are still in existence.

Visit the official website for the film and watch the trailer on Vimeo or below:

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I first heard of Doug Wilson while browsing Boheem Design’s blog

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