Traditional print’s resurgence seems to just keep on going. We were rather besotted with Out of Print at last year’s London Design Festival, and equally taken by the brilliant fuoriMICRO at Via Tortona’s OCA Officine Creative Ansaldo last week, an eye-watering assemblage of grassroots printers, publishers and collectives.

With more and more designers ditching their tablets for traditional printing methods, the good folk over at the University of Leeds – keen activists in respecting and preserving the roots of design and printing – are hosting SMALL TOWN INK next week, affording students and creatives the opportunity to move away from the all familiar digital techniques and hone new skills. “It is worrying that many educational establishments are beginning to cut down on traditional printing methods in favour of digital techniques, especially with an increasing interest in more personal hand crafted design” promoter Vicky White tells us, which is why she and her fellow students will be celebrating the University of Leeds’ embracing of traditional methods. You’ll be able to bend the ear of the local studios, whilst The Print Project and Richard Lawrence will be supplying letterpress equipment allowing you to roll up your sleeves and get dirty yourself.

Taking place on 24th April, the free event at the University of Leeds’ Grass Studio includes an exhibition and print fair.

Drew Millward

Grass Studio, University of Leeds School of Design

Graham Pilling

The Print Project

Drew Millward

Colours May Vary