TypographHer, aka Nicole Arnett Phillips, is a letterpress printer with over 20 years experience in design. From her studio in New Zealand, Nicole also works across lino, woodcut, polymer, etchings, transfer, screenprint, riso and monoprint, creating artist books and ephemera about design, politics, and the environment.
After studying an undergrad in Graphic Design, and later Art at Auckland University of Technology where she wrote her dissertation on typographic thinking in the design of books, Nicole landed her first opportunities within publishing. She later moved into the architectural industry, designing collateral, documents, and books for the built environment. “Since starting my own business my design has been a confluence of publishing and architecture-lead work. I have undertaken more self-initiated and post-grad research into typography. In recent years I have also been writing and editing text for designers and design publications too” states Nicole.
In 2009, she bought her first letterpress machine as a form of art therapy, inspiring her to build a habit of analogue creative play. “I slowed down, gave myself permission to break rules and to make mistakes, so I could learn and rebuild my creative confidence. For the first time in many years as a designer, I was using my hands, making a mess and having fun” describes the printmaker. Her studio is well equipped with machines including a 1872: Albion Press, a Kingsley hot stamp foiler, and a 1960’s Farley N025CWL, alongside a plethora of other equipment used for bookbinding, pressing, and relief printmaking.
Nicole values the freedom that comes from working with her hands without the safety net of {cmd+Z} to undo. Striving for design ‘perfection’ in the fast-paced digital environment she was working in had left Nicole living in a constant state of overwhelm. Her mistakes often end up being her favourite pieces, because each time she fails she discovers something new about the medium, or herself. Within Nicole’s work the creative journey becomes ingrained in the finished product; “Everything I produce analogue is less perfect and less sophisticated than design produced in digital environments. But it is refreshing, authentic and exciting to make“.
“I believe, we place too much emphasis on the efficiency of our design work. Enhanced digital technology removes the unpredictable, and unexpected from our creative process, it minimises the room for human and mechanical error, reducing our risk of failure, but in doing so also quarantines us from learning opportunities.”
The consistent thread in Nicole’s print projects are that they are an outlet for her play, learning and emotional wellbeing. Her variable approach to her print projects often results in themes of narrative or consistent techniques running through her work. Usually beginning her printmaking process with a word or a phrase, be that something she has to say or is responding to something she has heard or read, Nicole then sketches and conducts lots of compositional rubbings prior to getting on the press. “I work slow, it takes me a while to conceive a print or a book and then a long-while to produce it, which is a welcome change from the pace I work at for my design clients” she comments.
Today, Nicole prints as often as she can, concluding; “Each day I have ink on my hands, I learn, improve and grow as a designer and human. I strive for progress, not perfection“.
www.typographher.com
@typographher
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