The Devil's Artisan

A ROGUES' GALLERY
OF THE CANADIAN BOOK AND PRINTING ARTS

Nicholas Kennedy

Nicholas Kennedy was first smitten by graphic design when he began to collect old magazines in high school. Later, he became involved in `street art' and by the time Kennedy enrolled in the commercial printing program at Ryerson University in the early 2000s he was truly hooked. Kennedy's obsessive research into letterpress printing, composition and presswork and the history of graphic art left him in awe of the masters of printing and typesetting, craftsmen such as Rich Hopkins and Jim Rimmer, who did amazing presswork, made Monotype machines sing and created perfect, interesting books.

Shortly after graduation, Kennedy stumbled on the website for Don Black Linecasting. Within a month he was the proud owner of a Vandercook 320G composing-room cylinder, a twenty-three-inch Challenge guillotine and a couple of cases of wood type. One thing led to another, and by 2004 Kennedy had become the proprietor of Trip Print Press on Wallace Avenue in Toronto (www.tripprint press.ca), purveyors of the highest quality custom contemporary and traditional letterpress printing offered to a discriminating clientele.

Kennedy has plenty of thoughts about type: `I am partial to Monotype Grotesque as my go-to digital sans face; Square Gothic is a Grotesque that we stock for the Ludlow in a run of sizes; a font of 10-line Condensed Gothic prints sweetly and a 30-line Condensed Gothic has some magic in it.'

At present, Kennedy's favourite press is the Original Heidelberg 10 x 15 auto platen but he dreams of trying a good Miele V50 for contemporary and traditional letterpress printing. He'd also like to run wood-type poster jobs on a Miele Pony. And Colts and Victoria hand-fed platens appeal to the pressman as well. Regardless of press, Nicholas Kennedy the printer is a consummate professional—meticulous, confident and, above all, enthusiastic.