Foundation Press Open House June16th

Come on out the the grand opening of the new location of Foundation Press. FP is now in the heart of Old Town Goleta at 5959 Hollister Suite H. If you are heading to the airport on Fairview, just after you pass Hollister Ave. look for the green sign with a yellow buffalo. There will be an art exhibition displaying new works by of Erik Berg and Tad Wagner. There will be free stickers, shirts and the newest edition Foundation Press Studio shirts available for sale. A complimentary Hot Dog lunch will be available at 12:30. The event will go into the evening with live bands beginning at 6:30.

5959 Hollister Ave Suite H

As of mid April, Foundation Press has been operating out of its new space at 5959 Hollister Ave. Suite H. There will be an open house on June 16th with Art and live music in the evening. More photos to be posted soon.

Designer Julian Montague executed the pieces you see here.  My favorite part of his process is that after the specimen is collected, studied, and drawn, the final art piece is displayed in the original location that the subject of inspiration was found.

Ever since upgrading to the Canon EOS 450D xsi for the regular shop camera, more and more captured image has been showing up on textures or secondary elements in Foundation Press design and illustration pieces.  Most of my early photography education was learned on a Canon AE1 Manual.  I had two of them and they both took amazing pictures.  Romanced by the ease and affordability of the digital process, my AE1 collected dust. Soon after the seals parted and created small light leaks.  Not long after it was sold for pennies on the dollar of its true worth. A moment of silent remembrance please.

After suffering through a few mid grade Olympus 5-7 or 8 mega pixel cameras, I bit the bullet with my Canon EOS 450D xsi with a Tamron 18-250 1:3.5-6.3 DI II Lens.  Right away I felt like my old AE1 had risen from its ashes and been remade in a far easier to use modern form.  Overall I am pleased with its output.  I have learned that once you have a proper tool in your hand the main foe left to overcome is flawed user input. With this in mind I located a number of websites that help to demystify the photographic art in its new digital realm. The best of these I have found is www.kenrockwell.com.  Much of Kens work is not my sort of thing stylistically speaking, but it is fantastically executed and his site is very informative and well organized.

I am incredibly curious about the contraption this printer is using.  It seems to be a sort of leveraging bar for the squeegee pressure?  I have been around a number of graphic presses both automatic and manual, but I’ve never witnessed anything like this.  I imagine it to be a great hybrid that eases the labor load for the printer without loosing the hands on control. Anyone care to enlighten me? This is a shot of the inner workings of the Stolen Space print shop in London. They are printing Jeff Soto’s prints for his ‘Inland Emire’ show which runs from 14.05.09 - 07.06.09.

McLogans  is a Screen Printing and Sign supply warehouse down in the printing supplies district of Los Angeles. I made my way down there for the first round of poster printing inks, emulsion, and asorted planet friendly chemicals.  I found the owner who asisted me for nearly half an hour very helpful and informative.  Despite the many other customers and distractions, I got all my questions answered and even a box full of free samples.  It probably didn’t hurt that I was droping a fair amount of cash in one visit, but I was impressed nevertheless. For all who are interested: 2010 S. Main St Los Angeles, CA 90007 (213) 749-2262. Also thank you to Michael Michael Motorcycle for the tip!

Yesterday I received the long anticipated Gig Poster volume 1 which I  pre-ordered a few months ago.  My anticipation was not undeserved!  This 11×14 inch book boasts over 200 pages of beautifully re-produced full page prints each perforated if you want to tear them out for display.  This collection is both a ready to hang exhibit in itself or an amazing inspirational resource to have on file.

If you are not already aware of this centralized online poster community, check it out at: gigposters.com.

Foundation Press is upgrading from standard MDF board platens to solid core aluminum platens. This has been on the to-do list for some time now. What this means for the clients is improved print quality and clarity. Rather than ordering the standard dimention platens that are available through various distributors, We are having ours custom made to custom specifications by Santa Barbara Forge + Iron.

We will also be incorporating an over sized aluminum vacuum platen for printing posters.  Photos will be posted when it is finished!

Anyone who A: has spent much time in the Santa Barbara area and B: fosters a healthy creative appetite, has undoubtedly noticed lack of anything  resembling an authentic music or visual arts scene in the vicinity.  Those with there heads above (or below)  the crowd  have been required to travel a few hours to the south or many hours to the north to get their dose of current happenings.

Lately however, there have been few artist collectives and sole movers and shakers who have been working hard to jolt some life and organization into the area.  Among these are The Scimitar Cooperative and sbdiy. Anyone in the Santa Barbara, Goleta, Isla Vista, or surrounding areas looking for some original thoughts will have better luck at events connected to these groups rather than those posted by the boorish Santa Barbara Independent.

The prolific duo over at “f2-design.com” have a tidy online exibit of concert posters that is sure to humble and inspire any grade of image maker out there.  It makes me want to go out and buy adn antique letter press