Interview
with Tony Yard:
Tony:
My name is Tony Yard. I came to LCC in March 2000. I come
from a printing background, so I used to work for a factory that used printing
presses like these here.
Interviewer:
How long did you work there before coming to LCC?
Tony:
In 1986, I got out of school and I was 16. How old am I
again now? So I was 30 when I came here, and I’ve been here for 14 years – so
I’m 43.
Interviewer:
Wow you had 14 years of hands on experience before you came
to LCC!
So what appealed to you about LCC back in that time that
made you want to work here?
Tony:
Back then it was called LCP not LCC – London College of
Printing. So when I came here, this workshop was all printing. So if you go
through the other side, you’ve got print making, and if you go through the 3rd
floor, there are some design studios. But when I came here, all 3 –the ground
floor, 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor were all
completely full of printing machines. So it was letterpress, lithography, plate
making, imposition, typography! And now this room (The Printing Press Room)
that you’re standing in, is all there is left now of that.
Interviewer:
So these machines have been here for over 10 years, correct?
Tony:
When I came here in the year 2000, the lithographic printing
press machine on the side, was brand new. It was brought here in about 1999.
Interviewer:
So at that time, that was considered very new technology?
Tony:
Yes! When I came here, this lithographic printing press was
worth about 900,000 pounds. It was that new. But even though it’s now 13-14
years old, it’s still worth about 250,000 pounds. It prints magazines,
newspapers, books etc. So the technical passport that you have in your hands
was printed here.
Interviewer:
So by staying at LCC, what do you hope to achieve? What
motivated you to stay here for so long?
Tony:
I really do love working at a college. The difference
between working at college and a company is that I haven’t really got a boss
here. So I can do whatever I want to do! Also I like working with people like
you – the students. I haven’t got someone telling me what I must do
specifically. I can do projects, research, test different things, print on
different papers. So if you want to come to me with a project and go “so this
is what I want to do”, I’ll go “lets do it!” and we can experiment and yeah, we
can definitely make some great ideas work! You can print with fluorescent ink,
or make a book, experiment with color and size, completely without anyone
telling me this job needs to be finished now. We have time to experiment.
It’s just really great how every year I get to meet batches
and batches of new students. Last year, there was a student who wanted to print
with ink that only could be seen under fluorescent light. And LCC had the
resources for me to experiment, so we gave that a go! It was just like
invisible ink! But not only that, but there are so many ways to play with
finishing as well – bind it and make it into a book, or make the map come out
of the technical passport. The projects can involve laser cutting, some 3D –
but honestly it’s down to the students to come up with the ideas and every year
since I came, there’s just been so many interesting projects that we work
together on.
Interviewer:
Were there any top trends for printing processes back in
2000?
Tony:
Well back then, letterpress was sort of old fashioned, it’s
sort of like right now where we have litho and digital is the latest. But
what’s happening now is that people your age have this trend where they don’t
want to do digital printing anymore. You’ve grown up with digital printing, and
have always been just going “file à print” with inkjet and
you see it all the time, yeah? For people like you, this is nothing exciting
right? Apple, Macs, Photoshop - all these things to you aren’t new anymore. So
letterpress, screen printing and lithography are all the popular ones now! So
it has gone through a full circle now.
Interviewer:
But when you first came, people must have been very eager to
transition from old processes such as letterpress, to digital printing
techniques, right?
Tony:
Yeah exactly! They were going “I don’t want to do
letterpress, I don’t want to do litho, I want to go all digital! Because
digital is the latest technology that’s fresh and brand new. But now it’s the
complete opposite. Large format printing, really well done and high quality –
but guess what? It’s boring for most people like students now. They want to go
back to layering, InDesign disposition, make some plates and even color mixing
their own ink, which were all the old processes!
Interviewer:
Alright, one last question to wrap everything up! Since the
year 2000, is our focus, were there any cultural or worldwide or even personal
events, that were particularly memorable to you?
Tony:
Ah, I just can’t really seem to remember anything specific.
2000 was quite a good year for me, since I came here!
Interviewer:
Thank you very much for taking your time to answer my questions!
To download the audio of the actual interview click here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?tyfp91uhgr49203
