JOHN Watson, the Scottish businessman turned philanthropist, has given his support to a community initiative which will aim to bring traditional methods of printing to a new audience.
The entrepreneur made his name building up the Glasgow-based John Watson and Company printing business, which specialised in labels for the Scotch whisky industry, over five decades before selling it to Multi-Colour Corporation of Ohio in a multi-million-pound deal in 2013.
Since then, he has largely devoted his time to philanthropy through The Watson Foundation, which has now made a “sizeable” donation to Glasgow Press.
The Govan-based community interest company said the funding would “turbo charge” its efforts to preserve and celebrate traditional printing methods, which it hopes to highlight through a series of workshops and learning opportunities.
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The company has over many years been collecting printing presses along with wood and metal type which would otherwise have been discarded as printing technology moved on.
A key focus of the organisation is letterpress printing, a form of relief printing, which involves the raised surface of letters or images being inked and then pressed into paper. Words can be typeset by hand, letter by letter, and then printed on cast iron presses which in some cases are more than 100 years old.
Dan Clark, who runs Glasgow Press with his family, said: “Letterpress printing is on the red list for endangered crafts, and we’re keen to try and keep it alive.
“There aren’t any college courses for anyone who wants to be a letterpress printer as far as we know, so by trying to make things more accessible, by getting people in for courses or introducing children into this method of printing, we are trying to keep this trade going a bit longer.”
Mr Clark’s father, also Dan, continues to work part-time in the business, aged 88. He began his career as a message boy at a printworks in the 1940s before opening the family business in 1960, after completing his apprenticeship.
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Dan Clark junior added: “We are immensely grateful to John Watson and The Watson Foundation for this generous and substantial funding.
"We will be sure to put the money to good use engaging with the local community and more widely given that we share John Watson’s long-held social justice credentials as well as his passion for printing.
“The boom in digital printing has eclipsed letterpress printing and we are proud to be making the case for the letterpress process. We are sure that engaging with the community in our Govan home and beyond will capture the public’s imagination and spark renewed interest in printing.”
Mr Watson described his efforts to help preserve traditional printing methods in Scotland as a “labour of love”. In 2018 The Watson Foundation, working with the Scottish Printing Archival Trust, produced booklets entitled the Glasgow Print Trail and the Edinburgh Print Trail which explored why printing was so important to both cities.
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Mr Watson said: “Preserving traditional printing methods for me is a labour of love.
“Most people associated with the printing industry generally agree that there have been more fundamental changes in the last 50 years than in the preceding centuries since Johannes Gutenberg invented printing from movable type in 1450.
“It is worth remembering that printing was a mainstay of Glasgow’s industry – third only in importance to [the] heaving engineering and shipbuilding [sectors].
“The pace of change has been unrelenting and with technology and new processes, ways of communicating the printed word have changed out of all recognition. Sadly, the industry has too, and many of the companies have fallen by the wayside.
“This is why it is vital to ensure traditional print methods such as letterpress printing is not forgotten, and Glasgow Press are leading the way with their community outreach initiative. I’m pleased to be supporting it and wish them well.”
Alongside his support for traditional printing, Mr Watson is long-term backer of the Social Bite co-founded by entrepreneur Josh Littlejohn to tackle homelessness. In May, it was revealed that The Watson Foundation was a major backer of the newest Social Bite café in Glasgow, based in Sauchiehall Street close to Buchanan Galleries.
Social Bite was set up by Mr Littlejohn and Alice Thompson in 2012 to provide jobs in its cafes to people affected by homelessness or facing difficulty finding employment. Its cafes offer a “pay it forward” scheme which allows the public to buy a meal or hot drink for someone in need.
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