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Anthony Burrill + Alan Kitching = colourful letterpress joy

What happens when two of today’s brightest stars in letterpress get together? Joy, that’s what!

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Anthony Burrill and Alan Kitching stand at a wooden table with a colorful Joy print, surrounded by letterpress artwork and printing equipment in their studio

Yup, it’s Anthony Burrill and Alan Kitching, who’ve worked together on a new print entitled Joy. The poster was created in a limited run of 100, with each poster printed by hand.

This is the first collaboration between the two artists, and you can almost feel the titular Joy just in the behind-the-scenes images here. Sure, the digital world is all well and good, but there’s something pretty special about seeing the messiness and imperfections that make analogue processes feel so glorious.

As the photographs, beautifully shot by Dunja Opalko reveal, this was very much about a hands-on, aprons-on approach. The result feels very much Burrill, and very much Kitching in its bright colours, textural lettering and playfulness, with each character of the word gently tumbling into the next.

A hand rests on a letterpress print featuring bold horizontal strokes in blue, yellow, burgundy and red on white paper
Two men examine colourful letterpress proofs with rainbow striped patterns on a work table
Artist holding brushes above a hand-printed letterpress poster featuring colourful letters spelling Joy in yellow and red with watercolour-style backgrounds
Artist holds up a white sheet showing colourful brushstrokes during the letterpress printing process, with stacks of printed sheets and studio materials visible below
Child's hand holding a pen, drawing numbers on white paper beside a large yellow circular shape
Shallow containers filled with vibrant letterpress inks in red, yellow, blue, green and other colours, with printing blocks partially visible
Shelves of coloured printing inks in various containers with black lids, used in the letterpress printing process
Boston mechanical pencil sharpener surrounded by art supplies and creative materials on a work desk
Metal type blocks arranged in a letterpress forme with a curved spacer, ready for hand printing
Overhead view of metal type drawers containing hundreds of lead letterpress characters, organised by size and numbered with white circular labels
Two pieces of white paper with the initials A.K. and A.B. printed in blue, separated by a white mechanical printing component
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