Zupu
Student project, 2018
Layout Design, Letterpress Print & Research
Layout Design, Letterpress Print & Research
The traditional craft technique of Chinese woodblock printing from Rui'an in Zhejiang Province has been on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Preservation since 2004. The printing technique, which is more than 700 years old, was mainly used to record the family trees of the dynasties and thus to safeguard the family history. Today, however, only 12 people worldwide still master this traditional craft. Each of them is over 50 years old.
Following the so-called »Zupu«, the family tree record, I dared to do the genealogical research myself. With the help of a self-developed system and the leporello folding technique, a family tree was created that reaches about 100 years into the past. For this purpose, the type was hand-carved from wood, then all 14 printing blocks were printed individually with the help of the letterpress, and at the end the family tree lines were added with the help of linoleum printing plates.
