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A Vandercook letterpress and wooden type give students an alternative to present-day processes. Photos by Rick Fatica       Letterpress. It bites into the paper, making an impression you can feel. Light hitting this impression creates a highlight around one edge and a shadow around the other, giving it life and depth. It connects you to the printed page. The graphic design program in the School of Art has an extensive collection of the metal and wood type used in letterpress. Karen Nulf, interim chair of the department, is the driving force behind the tiny letterpress studio tucked at the end of a quiet hallway on the fourth floor of Seigfred Hall. The room, containing thousands of letters and ornaments, is dominated by an early 1950s Vandercook Press, the heart of the letterpress operation. A fixture in the department for more than 30 years, the Vandercook is integral in some students' most creative projects. Sarah McDowell, a senior photography/ graphic design major and a student of Nulf's, is using the letterpress to create a book featuring the graceful Garamond typeface. In it, she lays perfectly formed computer-generated letters over the flawed but more distinctive letterpress images to accentuate their differences. It's clear that McDowell prefers letterpress. "When I'm turning the drum it feels so natural," she says. "I like my entire body being part of the process. I even like the smell of the ink." The ink that invariably accumulates under her nails doesn't faze her. "It reminds me that I created something." Nulf, who loves old type and the process that employed it, masterminded acquisition of the Vandercook from Athens' former Lawhead Press in 1969 in a deal that was part purchase and part donation. It was added to another press and additional resources already existing in the department. Faculty culled discarded type and chases, the metal forms that grasp it, from offices across campus and purchased more to fill in the gaps. Nulf's sister, who owned a small letterpress business in Cincinnati, donated job cases, furniture and drawers of wooden type. The admiration faculty and students have for letterpress is understandable. Every word printed from the early 15th century through the start of the 20th century was created using handset letterpress. And although most contemporary printers use offset printing, letterpress is enjoying a revival among artists. "There have always been design faculty and students involved in letterpress," Nulf says. "It's often in the blood of designers." Susan Green