Phil Abel is the founder of the Hand & Eye company that produces good old fashioned letterpress print. In an interview, he admits that "progress at first depended on trial and error." He began printing invitations and stationary badly on a print that he had bought off an old friend.
His workshop is described as a:
"...work space filled with large mechanical machinery, it's walls covered with posters, pictures, menus and invitations"
Abel decided he didn't want to create something that was "dainty" and just for looking at, but something that would be used. Although, despite his attitude towards dainty products, he created some books which are very dainty (for want of a better word). And these pieces that he has created are better because of it!
At first, Abel was paying the compositor at his host printers, but soon realised that, with the money he paid them, he could actually hire a full-time employee. Soon after taking on his first member of staff in 2007, the lease expired on the building and so he moved his work to the place it is today, 6 Pinchin Street, London. This change of scenery and gain of work space allowed him to create posters using wooden type. The first one produced in St Jude's Gallery's London exhibition at Bankside Gallery last February.
The first book he produced was 'An Anamorphic Alphabet' and, because it was so successful and he enjoyed making it, he invited his friend Brian Webb to get involved and create more together, later they became partners. Webb describes letterpress as"creating a living creature" because "they have a smell and feel about them."
Some of his work is available on his website. handandeye.co.uk
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