El Calotipo: Slinging Ink In Spain

If you meander past the Roman Ruins, the craftsmen workshops, and the musical festivals in the San Pablo District of Zaragoza, Spain, you’ll find the hidden gem that is El Calotipo Printing Studio. Carla Nicolas started her letterpress print shop in 2011, and recently took the time to sit down with us to talk shop. She shared her story about starting up a modern letterpress print shop amongst the hustle of the ancient Spanish city.

THE GAME IN SPAIN I’m Carla Nicolas. My background is a Bachelor of Arts in printing and printmaking techniques and I completed my artistic training at Massana School of Barcelona, Spain. It was at this Arts and Crafts school where I learned experimental and creative paper editions techniques (Artist’s Books) and first got involved with the manual printing. I’ve scoured some printmaking workshops both in Spain and foreign countries (Betanzos CIEC Foundation, Edinburgh Printmakers, or Pyramid Atlantic Art Center of Maryland, USA). After an artistic residence at Pyramid Atlantic where I taught workshop classes and also took part in some graphic art exhibitions, my passion for letterpress printing began.

In 2011, I started to build and shape my studio “El Calotipo Printing Studio” where we combine the most commercial version of handmade printing (business cards, wedding invitations, posters, restaurant menus etc), graphic design, and my own hand edited personal work.

ALL ABOUT PRINTING El Calotipo is a printshop and design studio in Zaragoza, Spain and we also carry out some little bookbinding jobs. The printing techniques we work with are: screen printing, printmaking, hot foiling, and letterpress printing.

What I most like of my job/studio is not tangible or physical (in that case I would say “any of my presses”) but the uninterrupted search of new materials and ways to work them. We learn much from our mistakes (and the time spent finding reasons for those mistakes) as well as how to succeed creating products that nowadays are really difficult to find on the market. That entire process produces a constant and highly satisfying learning rhythm.

Since the beginning in the studio, we always looked for the link between graphic design and the most pure manual type of printing in order to manage optimal results regarding product quality.

SPANISH BEAUTY Our studio is located at San Pablo District, one of the most ancient ones in the city of Zaragoza. Just around 200 meters from us are some Roman ruins that were built between the first and third century A.D. and are popular for visitors. This district’s history was formerly occupied by craftsmen workshops and that´s why streets are named after the former workshops there, such as Armas or Street of Weapons. With our downtown city location, we are surrounded by museums and tourist attractions. At Las Armas, we share spaces with other workshops. In addition, our neighbor is a culturally active musical center. Although we are established here, we hope to soon find a bigger studio where we can keep growing and enjoy our machines.

PRINTING MENTORS From my time as a student, there was a person who especially believed in my possibilities as a printmaker, the artist Silvia Pagliano. She was my teacher in the beginning and my mentor from that moment on. She introduced and recommended me to the finest studios in Spain so I could keep learning. I applied my etching knowledge to letterpress, where I had no mentors. I adapted to the machines and techniques that we work with.

PRINTER THROUGH AND THROUGH I am printer and printmaker and I have no design notions per se. My co-worker, Nelson Moya, is our graphic designer, and he is the one dedicated to that part of our enterprise. We offer design, design + print, or just printing jobs for others’ designs. I am a full-time printmaker and that’s been my only job since 2011. As any craftsman, I have printed a lot of hours, as you can imagine. I also print my own artwork on my free time.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS For our design process, first we have to know the client, find out their needs and preferences. We have an in-depth meeting in order to understand and define the clients’ ideas the best we can. Very often, we always reach that necessary client-designer connection, although sometimes the task becomes complicated when the client or ourselves haven’t been able to convey our ideas fully. You just keep working and making changes until the client is satisfied.

When a job requires design + printing services, we have to educate the client: the final result will never be exactly the same as the computer screen as there are all the factors that influence a handcrafted outcome (the paper selection, the printing technique, the ink drying, etc.). We try to realistically portray the final results are as exact as a handcrafted job permits. We are proud of our finishing quality and we have a customer base that is increasingly knowledgeable and demanding of our best efforts. Customers often start with something they saw in our portfolio or RSS and the final design can mean different material and technique selections.

PRINTING FEATS I´m proud to have started El Calotipo Printing Studio, although the beginning was tough. At the time, Spain was in the midst of an economical crisis, so I had a lot of doubts and fears knowing it would be a really difficult path. Two years ago, Nelson Moya joined me due to the amount of work already existing, and I needed more assistance. We just recently hired our first worker, Laía (which was unthinkable for me two years ago).

Watching how a highly-beloved project grows, something you built with so much dedication and effort, that is what I am most proud of. I remember the first international incoming jobs and how happy I felt. From that point it became something usual and now we receive daily design and printing assignments from other countries. Another achievement I can point out is the fact that I never let myself get negatively influenced by those people who didn’t share any faith in my future when El Calotipo was just an idea. You have to be brave to start such a kind of project, and if we realized we were already living in a deep economical crisis….well, it is natural that they called me crazy! I’m proud to be a stubborn person and after much sacrifice, four years later, I can already look back and feel satisfied with what I have already done. That is my pride, my braveness and stamina that made me able to work in a field I studied in, pursuing my vocation and I am so happy for that.

PRESS HISTORY My first printing press was a little bookbinding and relief press. The first proof press press was the FAG Control 405 SwissProof Press.

WHAT’S NEXT  La Calocleta (“The Calocycle”), a printing workshop on wheels built by our neighbor, Alfredo, an industrial designer at Undo Studio. We´ll send some pictures. I would like to fly back to the United States next year and apply for a residence at Hatch Show Print in Nashville. It is a place I would have loved to visit a lot of years ago…

An immensely huge round of appreciation and thanks out to Carla of El Calotipo Printing Studio for taking the time to let us get a glimpse of her beautiful printing world!