Scheldt Type Foundry · Antwerp Specimen Series No. 161
Showing of the face

Skywalker Old Style · Curriculum Vitae

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72 point
Luke Skywalker
Letterpress printer · Antwerp, Belgium
36 point
Sixteen years at the press
Hand composition · Monotype casting · Edition printing
24 point
I set type by hand and print on two restored iron handpresses and one 1958 Heidelberg cylinder. Over 16 years I have printed 214 editions for publishers, museums, and private clients, most in runs of 60 to 400 copies. I own roughly 3.2 tonnes of metal type across 47 faces, and yes, I have moved all of it twice.
The face in text setting · Summary
18 point
Showings of employment, graded by year
Drukkerij De Koperplaat, Antwerp 2016–present
Master printer and workshop owner
  • Printed 132 editions for 41 clients, including a 9-volume poetry series for Uitgeverij Handzeter with a combined run of 2,700 copies.
  • Restored a 1892 Albion handpress and a Monotype Composition Caster; the caster now runs about 40 hours a month for our own casting and 6 outside studios.
  • Teach 8 weekend courses a year, 10 students each, with a waiting list that has held above 70 names since 2022.
Plantijn Press Museum Workshop, Antwerp 2012–2016
Staff printer, demonstration and edition work
  • Ran daily public demonstrations for roughly 55,000 visitors a year on presses dating from 1840 to 1910.
  • Printed the museum's annual keepsake, editions of 500, for 4 consecutive years without a single reprinted sheet.
Zetterij Vandermolen, Ghent 2009–2012
Apprentice, then journeyman compositor
  • Hand-set an average of 4,200 ems a day by the end of the apprenticeship, up from 900 in the first month.
  • Distributed and re-cased a neglected 800 kg stock of Caslon and Egmont, cutting case errors in the shop's proofs by about half.
Complete character set · Roman and Italic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz & fi fl 1234567890

14 point · Training

  • Journeyman certificate, Guild of Flemish Compositors, 2012
  • Diploma in Graphic Heritage Conservation, Sint-Lucas Antwerpen, 2009
  • Monotype caster maintenance course, 3 weeks, Leipzig, 2014

14 point · Capabilities

  • Hand composition, imposition up to octavo, damp-paper printing
  • Monotype casting, mould fitting, matrix care for 47 in-house faces
  • Photopolymer platemaking when the metal case runs short
  • Dutch, English, French; German enough to read a caster manual
11 point
Selected editions: Scheldezicht, 340 copies, 2023, awarded the Antwerp Book Arts Prize · Twelve Watermarks, 60 copies on handmade paper, 2021 · broadside series for the Port Poetry Festival, 5 years running, 400 copies each.
The face at reading sizes · Selected work
8 point
References available from the Guild of Flemish Compositors and from two long-standing publishing clients on request. Contact: luke@example.com · +32 (0)3 555 0161 · doepress.example.com · Workshop at Kaasstraat 12, Antwerp, open Thursdays and by appointment.
Agate setting · References and contact
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Cast and printed by the proprietor ❦ ❦ ❦ Specimen no. 161 of 300 · MMXXVI