There is something about stepping away from the noise and returning to the press that recalibrates everything.
In April 2025, Jarred Elrod spent three days printing letterpress at Tipoteca Italiana in Cornuda, Italy. Surrounded by one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of wood and metal type, he produced a series of what he calls “unsolicited public service announcements.” Short written observations. Quiet provocations. Statements shaped slowly, by hand.
The premise was simple. Take thoughts that could easily be fired off as social media hot takes and instead commit them to wood and metal type. Set them by hand. Ink them. Print them. Repeat.
In an era of immediacy, the act of slowing down changes the meaning of the message.
Tipoteca’s immaculate studio became both setting and collaborator. Access to its extensive archive of type allowed Elrod to experiment with scale, weight, and composition, treating each phrase as both language and object. The constraints of the material process forced decisions that digital tools would never demand. Type has to be chosen physically. Spacing must be felt and ink must be rolled.
Elrod slept in his van in the Tipoteca parking lot during the residency, documenting the experience in real time via Instagram. At the time, he was teaching a typography class for a US-based university and shared the process directly with his students through video. The residency became not just personal practice but live pedagogy.
The resulting prints are text-driven works that capture fleeting observations and lived experiences in a way that feels grounded and intentional. The phrases are concise but carry weight. Not because they are louder than the feed, but because they were given time.
It is easy to underestimate the impact of setting type by hand. Each letter must be placed deliberately. Each line justified with care. That physicality becomes part of the content. The time invested in the making gives the statements a permanence that stands in contrast to the disposable nature of online discourse.
Elrod credits Sandro Berra at Tipoteca for making the experience possible. The opportunity to work within such a significant archive of typographic history was, in his words, incredible.
Jarred Elrod is a proud citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, a practicing graphic designer, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Florida. His research focuses on developing cross-disciplinary methodologies to enhance creative potential and mental resilience in designers. Letterpress and screen printing have remained central to his practice since completing his MFA at the University of Tennessee.
For Elrod, these three days were not about spectacle. They were about returning to process. About choosing permanence over immediacy. About turning passing thoughts into physical artefacts.
FIND OUT MORE BELOW:
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- 3 Days of Letterpress at Tipoteca Italiana - March 3, 2026
- TOGETHER: The People Powered Press Publishes a New Book Celebrating Community, Type and Collaboration - March 2, 2026
- Bear with Me: Giving Print a Second Life — Yuliya Ratnikova - February 27, 2026
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