I decided to opt for quality over timeliness for this post. I wanted to come up with an engaging topic, so it required a little extra digging.
I’m going to take you back… back to 1929. This is the year Globe Poster Printing came into business…and their story is an interesting one. Their business began over a poker game in Philly. Below is an excerpt of their story from the Globe site….
“At the [poker] table, Norman Goldstein, a wealthy New Yorker and Harry Shapiro, a Philadelphia printer, decided to go into business together. To settle on a location for their company, they took a map of the East Coast, folded it and opened it up. The crease was on Baltimore, so that’s where they started. At that time, Globe printed posters for vaudeville acts, movie theatres, burlesque houses, and carnivals.”
Can you imagine? From the stories I’ve heard, many great business ideas sprout during everyday moments. I happen to love the charms of this particular anecdote.
So, fast forward to May of this year when Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, MD announced its acquisition of approximately 75 percent of the historic Globe Poster Company’s letterpress printing collection to include wood type, images, and illustrations. MICA has been using the newly acquired letterpress as academic and research resources, giving budding artists and designers the opportunity to learn first-hand traditional printing practices while also discovering modern methods via today’s digital tools. It’s fascinating when you think about how the letterpress letters have out lived the hands that designed them back in the 1930s; they are durable to say the least. Today’s modern typefaces mimic those of the original letterpress.
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