Hi everyone,
I am going to put out some disks. I want to do the labels by hand but not really sure what ink to use as I know its got to be a heat resistant ink.
What ink did they use in the 1950s for the labels and what paper for that matter?
Labels from the pre 70s era look different from after that, any explainations why?
Look forward to any replys.
Cheers people
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Cutterwoller
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Aussie0zborn
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Deke Dickerson
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Re: Ink used on the labels of phonograph records
Lewis,
Deke Dickerson here. I can answer your question about record labels.
I did a lot of research back in the 90's and found out that old (proper looking) record labels were done with letterpress, not offset, printing.
There was one old guy in Hollywood named Pete Korelich who at one time had a full pressing plant but by the 90's only had the front offices working due to a fire. He had a cutting room with a Neumann lathe and the other room was full of letterpress printing presses and a giant old linotype machine.
He also had a stock of paper--maroon and blue matte paper, like King and Chess. He also had some shiny "flint glazed" paper that looked great too.
The labels I did with him were the real deal. He got advanced alzheimers and was gone by the early 2000's. I'm assuming he's dead but I never heard a confirmation.
Anyway--if you really wanted to chase down "that look" there are some young guys getting into letterpress show posters and you might be able to talk them into doing letterpress record labels.
Deke Dickerson
Deke Dickerson here. I can answer your question about record labels.
I did a lot of research back in the 90's and found out that old (proper looking) record labels were done with letterpress, not offset, printing.
There was one old guy in Hollywood named Pete Korelich who at one time had a full pressing plant but by the 90's only had the front offices working due to a fire. He had a cutting room with a Neumann lathe and the other room was full of letterpress printing presses and a giant old linotype machine.
He also had a stock of paper--maroon and blue matte paper, like King and Chess. He also had some shiny "flint glazed" paper that looked great too.
The labels I did with him were the real deal. He got advanced alzheimers and was gone by the early 2000's. I'm assuming he's dead but I never heard a confirmation.
Anyway--if you really wanted to chase down "that look" there are some young guys getting into letterpress show posters and you might be able to talk them into doing letterpress record labels.
Deke Dickerson
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Cutterwoller
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Re: Ink used on the labels of phonograph records
Hi Deke!
Thanks for the reply. I started that thread when I was 21, Id forgotten about it! I am still fascinated by it tho.
So, I since did my research some years ago and found out that it was letter press indeed like you say. Most people told me, "They've always been done the same way, offset". They were off course wrong.
I never got an answer tho on why the type of paper changed. Today, the Americans tend to print a lot nicer and on more old fashioned type materials similar to those used 60 or so years ago than they do in Europe, not sure why that is either.
Another unanswered question is that most factories will tell you that gold ink doesn't look to good after being cured before the pressing and will loose its shine and zing, so why did it used to work? I know in the UK, they used copper in the ink (which can now be seen as green copper oxide on some poorly stored records). This was obviously done on mass scale so was affordable. Now it is not, fair enough. But Im pretty sure the gold ink in the states did not have metallic particles in?
There are quite a few letterpress places here in London, the problem is that most of them have gone very "arty farty". There is one place which I will be using soon to get some stuff printed up for a few releases I have.
Cheers, Lewis
Thanks for the reply. I started that thread when I was 21, Id forgotten about it! I am still fascinated by it tho.
So, I since did my research some years ago and found out that it was letter press indeed like you say. Most people told me, "They've always been done the same way, offset". They were off course wrong.
I never got an answer tho on why the type of paper changed. Today, the Americans tend to print a lot nicer and on more old fashioned type materials similar to those used 60 or so years ago than they do in Europe, not sure why that is either.
Another unanswered question is that most factories will tell you that gold ink doesn't look to good after being cured before the pressing and will loose its shine and zing, so why did it used to work? I know in the UK, they used copper in the ink (which can now be seen as green copper oxide on some poorly stored records). This was obviously done on mass scale so was affordable. Now it is not, fair enough. But Im pretty sure the gold ink in the states did not have metallic particles in?
There are quite a few letterpress places here in London, the problem is that most of them have gone very "arty farty". There is one place which I will be using soon to get some stuff printed up for a few releases I have.
Cheers, Lewis
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Deke Dickerson
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Re: Ink used on the labels of phonograph records
Lewis--
Cool. Yes I saw it was an old post but it was one I could actually answer and not sound like an idiot, ha ha....
The guy I used to use never used gold ink but he used silver ink a lot, and it always looked great--very shiny, metallic, really stood out. I have a really dim memory of him saying something about how the heat applied in the press and the label paper made a difference on how the silver ink stood out. But I don't ever remember him mentioning gold.
So many of the fantastic old processes got really refined, and incredibly beautiful, and then they just threw them all away. I think offset record labels look like garbage. Yes, it's great that "vinyl is back," but if you can't make a label that looks as good as the old ones, it's always a bit disappointing.
Deke
Cool. Yes I saw it was an old post but it was one I could actually answer and not sound like an idiot, ha ha....
The guy I used to use never used gold ink but he used silver ink a lot, and it always looked great--very shiny, metallic, really stood out. I have a really dim memory of him saying something about how the heat applied in the press and the label paper made a difference on how the silver ink stood out. But I don't ever remember him mentioning gold.
So many of the fantastic old processes got really refined, and incredibly beautiful, and then they just threw them all away. I think offset record labels look like garbage. Yes, it's great that "vinyl is back," but if you can't make a label that looks as good as the old ones, it's always a bit disappointing.
Deke