Letterpress printing has been tied to the development of graphic design for hundreds of years. Why then does the practice and pedagogy of letterpress by contemporary graphic designers lag behind the rest of the design field? As graphic designers wrestle with large social, political, and cultural issues much of the letterpress work they produce remains distanced from these concerns. And as graphic designers explore and expand new visual vocabularies design practitioners of letterpress often seem content to recycle old visual forms.

In this paper I examine aspects of the history and theory of letterpress printing to unpack the root causes underlying the current situation. In a series of three essays, I present thoughts on ways in which printers and scholars can begin to problematize the teaching and practice of letterpress with the hope of constructing a more complex and contemporary approach to the field. It is my belief that a contemporary letterpress practice rooted in critical theory can in turn contribute to a fuller graphic design practice more broadly.