VPCo Book Bag

€14,95

Available in blue or cream, these small cotton bags are each letterpress printed by hand in our Stromness workshop to both sides.

Size - 10½ x 8¼ inches, 265 x 210 mm (excludes handle)

ORIGIN STORY

The typefaces of the text on the bags originate from a collection of wood type we have been given guardianship over by our local newspaper, the Orcadian.

The Orcadian paper used these wood blocks to produce posters across the counties of Orkney and Shetland from the 1800s through to the 1980s.

In 1984 the newspaper switched over to digital and put the woodblock type in storage.

40 years later, after 4 years of negotiation, we were given the collection to look after and use and have begun to use them to make our own posters, most recently for the Orkney Folk Festival and later for our shop.

CREAM BAG

Printed to the first side with the rectangular VPCo floral logo and a reduced poster print to the second side.

The text on the on cream bag began life as a poster we made for our shop in Stromness. Above you can see the type set out in the forme ready to be printed.

Above is a proof print in orange taken from the forme. The final print was slightly different as the spacing and formatting needed adjustments. We took the final iteration, digitised it and created a new, smaller, bag-sized block to make the print for the bag.

BLUE BAG

Printed in silver with our round VPCo logo to one side using a hand cut lino block (below) and with text to the second side.

The reverse side is text printed using the original Orcadian woodblock type.

PRINTED BY HAND IN SCOTLAND

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