David Armes - Redplate press
Armes is an artist working with letterpress printing, language and geography. He publishes his work through the Red Plate Press imprint. His work is frequently site-specific and considers how sense of place can be represented, with specific source material including automatic writing, accidental conversations and oral history. He considers his practice to be socially engaged and frequently work in public situations using the spectacle of printing as both physical installation and production space. In all his work uses hand-set metal and wood type, overlapping the elemental rules of letterpress with more expressive approaches incorporating elements of art, craft and design.
Record sleeves and posters are also a large influence for Armes, being a big lover of music, he views the album covers as art themselves. He says even if we don’t view them as art they are in fact due to what we call them “album art”. Fireproof press has impacted this greatly on Armes, as some of his favourite designs were made at this press. Which in turn has influenced him to pursue art, deigning and working with records.
