John Howrey, Design LeaderFor new work
Available for new work
Experiment · shipped

Block printing

Carving, inking, pulling. Textures, letters, portraits, posters, totes.

A flat-lay grid of about a dozen identical halftone-style portrait prints lined up across a green cutting mat. Each is the same multi-figure composition pulled in slightly different ink loads of brown and sepia, the cardboard backings catching warm directional light.

This is a relief-printing practice that runs across textures, letterforms, portraits, posters, and wearables. I work in linoleum, plywood, laser-cut basswood, and hand-cut letter blocks, with Speedball ink and a baren, at the kitchen counter or the studio table.

What follows is the body of work, roughly grouped: the blocks themselves (linoleum textures and a deep tray of laser-cut wood letterforms), the bulldog and the Rushmore portrait series, oversized letters carved at sheet-scale, a typographic Sondheim quote, an event poster, daily-print exercises, finished printed objects, and a series of multi-block abstract compositions at the end. The point is the practice: carve, ink, pull, look at it, and carve again.

The blocks

Before the print, the carving.

These are two carved blocks of textures, hand-cut into linoleum: the first uninked and fresh off the bench, the second inked in dark blue and ready to pull. Both share the same nine-square grid and the same hand, with hatching at different angles, an OK lettering rough, woven plaid, dragon scales, geometric brick, snowflakes, and irregular shards.

A fresh-carved 9-up grid of texture studies cut into linoleum, photographed straight down on a green cutting mat. Uninked: the carved-out grooves catching shadow against the raw lino. Patterns include chevrons, OK lettering rough, a woven plaid, dragon scales, geometric brick, snowflakes, and irregular geometric shards. Carving curls of waste linoleum scattered around the edges of the mat.The same 9-up texture grid inked in dark blue, photographed straight down. The carved-out marks read as white against the flat blue ground: hatching, weaving, dragon scales, geometric brick, scattered stars, mazes, irregular shards. Ready to pull.

The bigger collection is a tray of laser-cut basswood blocks. Each block is its own composition: a phrase (ART ISN'T EASY, MAKE SOMETHING, THANK YOU, NEVER, FUTURA IS BEAUTIFUL, TEXAS), a pattern (stripes, halftone dots, a subway-map wireframe), or a face. They fit in a custom wood tray, mirrored and ready to ink. The blocks shown in this section all came out of this tray.

A massive flat-lay of laser-cut basswood letterpress blocks fitted edge-to-edge: phrase blocks reading ART ISN'T EASY, THANK YOU, MAKE SOMETHING, NEVER, FUTURA IS BEAUTIFUL, TEXAS, ARTS PROJECT, plus pattern blocks (vertical stripes, halftone dot field, a transit-map wireframe), a face block, a small label block. All set in mirror image so they print right-reading. The corner of an Apple laptop and a small subway-map sticker pack rest in the upper left for scale.
A wooden tray of hand-carved letterpress-style letter blocks set in mirror image: the carved face shows EXCEPT TRABMM (mirrored) and other partial words. The blocks sit in a custom wood tray on a black cutting mat with a brayer roller laid across the top edge.

The textures, pulled

Same blocks. Many sheets.

I stamped the same texture grid onto sheet after sheet, letting the ink load decrease each time. The carved bulldog block from the next section made an appearance on these sheets too, its black halftone face crashing into the same composition. The photos below show studio flat-lays of multiple pulls in a row.

A studio flat-lay on a metal worktable: three pulls of the texture-grid block printed in black ink across white paper, the prints overlapping each other as they dry. A black halftone face print (the bulldog) leans against the upper edge of the frame as a reference pull from the same session.A larger flat-lay on a concrete-grey surface: a top row of four bulldog face prints in dark navy halftone, and a bottom group of five texture-grid pulls also in dark navy. The full studio output of the session shown together: same ink, same paper stock, two different blocks.

The bulldog

One face. Many ink loads.

This is a stylized French Bulldog face cut into linoleum as a faceted-geometric study, so the planes catch the ink and the shadows fall into the carved-out grooves. The photos below show the inked block itself in teal-on-black before pulling, and a clean pull of the same block in deep black on cream paper.

The carved bulldog block itself, photographed straight down on a green cutting mat. The lino is rolled with teal ink so the carved-out grooves read teal and the raised faces read black. The faceted-geometric composition of the dog's face is fully readable: planes for the head, triangles for the eyes, hatched grooves for the muzzle, scratch-textured fields surrounding the head.A graphic linoleum-cut print of the bulldog face on cream paper: solid black for the masses with hand-cut white slivers between the planes. Soft natural light rakes across the surface from upper right.

The Rushmore series

One block. Twelve pulls.

These are twelve identical small wood blocks, each laser-engraved with the same multi-figure portrait composition. The photos below show the blocks laid out in a tight grid, then the prints: the same composition pulled across green, cobalt, a green-and-yellow split, and sepia and brown ink loads. Every pull comes out a slightly different version of the same carved face.

A flat-lay of about twelve small laser-engraved wood blocks tiled into a four-by-three grid on a green cutting mat. Each block carries the same multi-figure portrait composition burned into the wood, the engraving slightly varying in depth so the blocks read as a series. A 'STAPLES' box edge anchors the upper-right of the frame.A flat-lay study of three side-by-side prints of the same multi-figure portrait, each pulled in a different ink: the left print in green, the center in cobalt blue, the right in a green-and-yellow split. Two reference blocks (also inked) sit at top and bottom of the spread on a green cutting mat.
A working studio flat-lay: a kraft-paper sheet across the lower half of the frame stamped with a 3-by-3 grid of red multi-figure portraits, each one slightly off-register from the next. Below it, two prints in green halftone of the same composition lean against each other. A white reference sheet sits at the upper edge.
The full multi-figure portrait series flat-lay: about twelve identical prints arranged in a four-by-three grid across a green cutting mat, each in slightly different sepia and brown tones from successively pulled ink loads. The composition shows multiple historical figures stacked tightly into a tight rectangular frame. A box of inkjet paper anchors the upper right corner of the shot.

Letters at scale

A wood plank, a giant letter.

These are the biggest blocks of the practice. Each letter is its own carved wood plank, sized to read across a room. I ink them with hot pink and pull them by hand onto large sheets, where the impression takes the full body weight of someone leaning on it. The photos below show the inked planks themselves, then the BS pull on white, then a video of one of the pulls happening live.

Two enormous wood planks side by side, each carved with one massive letter (a B and an S) and rolled with hot-pink ink. The carved-out areas read brown against the pink ink fields. Each plank is roughly the size of a coffee table, photographed at a raking angle so the textures of the inked surface catch the light.A tighter raking-angle close-up of the same two giant inked planks, the carved counters of the letters showing the brown wood underneath the pink ink. The seam where the two planks meet runs vertically through the middle of the frame.
The full pull of the giant BS blocks on a single sheet of white paper laid on cardboard: massive hot-pink letterforms reading B over S stacked vertically across the sheet, the impression heavily distressed where the ink loaded unevenly across the broad inked surface, the carved counters of each letter punching through to the white.
A second pull of three different giant carved letters (reading roughly K, K, I) printed in hot pink across a single white sheet on a cardboard floor. The sheet runs horizontal; each letter has its own band, the blocks separated by visible wood seams.A third pull of three giant carved letters (reading roughly S, T, T) in pink across a horizontal white sheet on cardboard. Heavy distressed ink coverage, hand-pressed unevenness visible throughout.
A macro abstract close-up of the same giant pull: pink ink against white paper, the letterforms cropped so only the curves and counters are visible as abstract shapes. The hand-pressed irregularities give the surface a sponged, weathered texture.

A Sondheim quote

Design, composition, tension, balance.

A laser-cut basswood block of a Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine quote from Sunday in the Park with George: “The challenge: bring order to the whole through DESIGN, COMPOSITION, TENSION, BALANCE, LIGHT AND HARMONY.” Pulled in cobalt blue across three sheets in a row, the inked block itself sitting alongside the pulls, mirrored and unread.

A studio flat-lay on a green cutting mat: three white sheets in a row, each pulled with the same Sondheim quote in cobalt-blue ink. The quote runs 'The challenge: Bring order to the whole through' set in italic above DESIGN COMPOSITION TENSION BALANCE LIGHT AND HARMONY in chunky stacked sans caps, attribution 'Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine' set tight at the bottom. To the left of the three pulls sits the inked basswood block itself, mirrored and unread.

An event poster

Block Printing! FRI APR 22.

I set the hand-carved letter blocks into a real piece of wayfinding: a poster for a block-printing class on Friday April 22 at 3pm, built on the wood-grain blocks themselves and pulled in green ink. The photos below show the inked blocks before the pull, the printed poster on white, and the same poster hung in the studio that taught the class.

The hand-carved wood letter blocks laid out on a white surface in the exact composition of the poster, each block inked in green: BLOCK PRINTING! across two horizontal rows in the upper third, AFTER143 set vertically along the left edge, FRI APR 22 3PM stacked underneath the title. Every letter still on its own individual wood block, the blue ink residue from a previous session visible on some block edges.The clean printed poster on white: BLOCK PRINTING! set in two horizontal rows of green-on-brown letterforms in the upper half, FRI APR 22 3PM stacked underneath in the same wood-grain blocks, AFTER143 set vertically along the left edge. Every letter shows the wood grain of the carved block as part of the impression.
The same poster hanging from binder clips on a clothesline strung across a classroom-studio, large windows behind it, distressed green ink readable across the white sheet, classroom chairs and other prints visible through the windows in the background.

Daily prints

Make something every day.

This is a small block carved with the words MAKE SOMETHING EVERY DAY, pulled three times across a sheet at decreasing ink loads. The block sits beside the prints to show its source. It's half manifesto, half ink-load study. Beside it sits the calling card I print for myself, on yellow stock in green ink: “Hi, I'm a graphic designer.”

A workshop flat-lay: the carved block reading MAKE SOMETHING EVERY DAY (mirrored) sits in the upper-third center on a brown background, with three pulls of the same phrase printed in green across a long sheet of cream paper below it, each pull progressively lighter as the ink loads off the block.A small yellow card pinned at an angle to a clothesline: 'Hi, I'm a graphic designer.' set in chunky distressed sans, printed twice on the card in deep green ink, once oriented landscape and once oriented portrait, with the fingerprint of the printing block still visible around the type.

A pattern at scale

One block. Stamped twenty times.

I stamped a single small carved block of cross-hatched bars twenty-some times in tight registration on hot-magenta paper, alternating direction each row. One small object multiplies into a wall-scale woven texture this way. The photos below show the same print clipped to a clothesline in two different studio settings.

A hot-magenta-and-black hatched checkerboard print clipped to a clothesline by a binder clip in a studio space: a single small carved block stamped twenty-some times in tight registration to fill the sheet, alternating crosshatch directions to read as woven texture.The same hatched-checkerboard print pinned to a clothesline in a different studio space, a yellow SoVA poster visible on the wall behind, classroom desks and chairs visible in the deeper background. The print catches directional light from the right.

On a tote

Art isn't easy.

I pulled the same letter blocks onto canvas here, in two compositions of the same phrase, ART ISN'T EASY: one with two indigo bramble-line blocks framing the type and two scarlet sun-disc blocks at the corners, another rearranging the same elements with an R block and the bramble blocks shifted into a stack. It's a wearable version of the practice, one that travels with whoever carries it.

A natural canvas tote bag hung from clips against a white wall: ART ISN'T EASY set in chunky distressed black display caps in the lower-third center, with two indigo carved-line bramble blocks framing the type on either side and two scarlet ink discs anchoring the upper-left and lower-right corners as accent marks.A second canvas tote in an alternate composition: ART ISN'T EASY set in chunky distressed black display caps anchored low-center, an R letter block in the upper-left, two indigo bramble-line blocks stacked on the right, and two scarlet ink discs at upper-right and lower-left. The same elements rearranged into a different layout.

Color studies

Three or four blocks at a time.

These are the studies that made the rest of the work possible. Each composition uses a different combination of the same blocks: concentric rectangles, radial bursts, organic loops, parallel ridges, dot fields. The order of impression decides which marks read as foreground and which dissolve into the ground. The video below shows one of the multi-block prints being assembled live, followed by the full series of finished pulls.

A multi-block relief print on cream paper: an orange block of two vertical triangles on the left, a green block of horizontal wavy stripes overprinted with orange chevrons, a black block of wild looping line work in the center, and a chartreuse-on-white concentric rectangle block on the right. Four hand-carved plates printed in sequence and intentionally misregistered.
A horizontal three-block print: an orange concentric-square block on the left bleeding into a green radial-burst block in the center, with a deep navy organic loop block on the right.A horizontal four-block print: an orange organic shape block, a blue dot-field block with a wine-red triangle peeking through, and a black geometric crosshatch block.
A four-block print in cooler tones: a yellow ground wash on the left, a black dot-burst block, a blue radial-burst block, and a green wave-line block.A four-block print: a chartreuse splash on the left, a black-and-white concentric-rectangle block, an emerald-green organic shapes block, and a teal dot-field block on the right.
A horizontal three-block print exploring different overlap weights.A horizontal three-block print with denser ink coverage and tighter registration.A horizontal three-block print with the dot-field block carrying the foreground.
A four-block composition with the concentric-square block on the left and the organic loops dominating the center.A four-block composition pulled toward greens, with looser registration on the right edge.A four-block composition with a heavy black-on-blue overprint anchoring the center of the sheet.

The misregistration is the point. The hand-pressed edge is the point. A perfectly aligned print is a screen-printed poster. The looseness is what makes it look like a person made it.

Closing