linocut has long been established as an acceptable medium for fine art. picasso was one of the early proponents of it. but we think linocut has great graphic design and production potential too. the lines between fine art/illustration/design are often blurry, but some distinctions can be made (and that’s another discussion). and true, you will not be able to produce 10,000 full-color direct mailers using linocut. but hopefully we all realize that design stretches far beyond that.

lately, we’ve been using linocut to produce specialty design items. you may already be familiar with our williamsbuildings towels as well as our crafton series greeting cards. both used the linocut process as a production method. we’re even producing custom towels for white castle (see images below). so, we’ve realized that linocut is a viable option for certain client driven projects.

we love linocut because it takes very minimal equipment and studio space, relatively speaking. linocut is also great because with it you can achieve authentic texture, as opposed to digital contrivances. beyond these stylistic advantages, we also like the human to human connection that linocut provides. it reaches a little beyond a digitally produced item. as a counter-point, i’d like to say that digitally produced items do have a place, and i’m actually working on a really cool digital project right now. some effects can be achieved digitally that cannot be achieved manually. but the linocut process can provide a fresh alternative in an age in which we’re inundated with the digital.

so, perhaps linocut is right for your next design project. below are some images of our little setup and some recent projects. we also run linocult.com, a blog dedicated to projects using the linocut process, if you wanna check it out for some inspiration.