Andy Mangold

Soooooooooo for my Experimental Lettering course we had to expand on our monogram/cipher sketches from last week and apply the finalized design to some medium. I chose to create a letterpress wood block I can use on any typesetting things I tackle in the future. So, I got up real early on Saturday, went down to the wood shop, cut a piece of wood to the perfect size, went over to the lasercutter/etcher and waited my turn in line, and etched the design into the end grain of the block. The result was this:

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My latest book, “The Fruits of Religion”.

4 needle coptic bound, inkjet printed on Daler Rowney Heavyweight, sourced leather wrapped, embossed covers.

This is my first real piece of “political” art, and I am pleased with the response thusfar. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the book or it’s content in the comments. Full pictures of each spread in the complete article.

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These are the plans for a rubber band gun I am working on at the moment. It, and its packaging, is going to be my final for GD II, and I am getting quite excited about it. The bloodwood and curly red leaf maple are in the mail!

You should be able to figure out how it works from looking at the diagrams; the tension of the loaded rubber bands (up to 5) is key to its fuctionality. I am still debating whether or not it needs a spring to give the trigger some extra tension. I was originally hoping to lasercut the bloodwood middle parts, but at 3/8ths of an inch thick, our 30watt laser won’t be able to handle it. So, I am going to have to etch it and then cut it manually with a bandsaw. I am very fortunate to have cheap access to a laser for something as simple as marking cuts.

My latest work for Artist Books: A coptic bound piece dedicated to American Muscle Cars. The title page reads:

Great American Dinosaurs

The Muscle Cars of the 60’s and early 70’s were defined by their large engines, affordable price tag, and unmistakable style. They are, in many ways, a representation of America’s Golden Years: inefficient, yet nonetheless beautiful pieces of design and history. Times have rapidly changed, gas prices are an average of 32 times what they were in the 60’s, and these beautiful cars are becoming increasingly hard to find and expensive to maintain. As we grow exponentially closer to a time where fossil fuels are completely unaffordable, these artworks will become extinct.

This book is dedicated to the unique beauty of Muscle Cars and the designers who worked so passionately on them.

The book is 17 individual, single folio signatures with 11 sewing stations along the spine. It took me approximately one million years to bind and it tore in two small places, but overall I am satisfied with the result.

The cover was my first attempt at embossing something and I sort of wung it. I had the letterforms laser-cut from some bookboard and saved all of the negatives and counters. Then, I glued the remaining piece and counterforms on to another piece of book board, wrapped the whole thing in leather from the thrift store, and pressed it after placing the letterforms back in their respective spots on top of the leather. I think it worked out pretty nicely, though the embossed bits may be just a bit too deep. Something to keep in mind for next time.

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This is my latest project for my Artist’s Books class. The assignment was to bind together atleast 8 of something at a single point. Usually, this style of binding ends up functioning like a booklet of paint swatches, fanning out to be read. My book is all about the tools I use to create; it is both a reaction to my being the only male in my book arts class and people who assume design is synonymous with digital.

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