She's a graphic artist the old fashioned way

Nicole Cooke enjoys slapping ink on an old printing press and cranking it into action. "I love working on a letterpress printer, it's very meditative" she says. Nicole is a graphic artist who likes to spend time at Western New York Book Arts Center with her pal Barbie. Barbie is the antique printing press she works on. Nicole says "it a Vandercook SP20". Nicole makes posters with catchy sayings that sell at the center. It's a lot of work, Nicole says it can take a long time just to set the type but says it's worth it adding " there's a lot of heritage here, this is where graphic design started, this is where a lot of the stuff that we do on the computer came from." You can get lessons in printing, bookbinding and paper making and check out the gift sho at Western New York Book Arts Center at 468 Washington St, Buffalo, NY 14203 716-348-1430 and check out their website for more information.