Who are we?
Leadfellas is a trio of typesetting devotees determined to keep the fires burning on the historical significance of the printed word.
How did we begin?
Whenever we were together for a social gathering, we would end up swapping stories of our time in the graphic arts industry. At some point in a red wine euphoria, Leadfella Danny suggested we should put together some podcasts and record our stories for posterity.
From this point we all spent inordinate amounts of time investigating and searching for historical data to put into the podcasts.
Some months later we spent an entire weekend together creating the first three episodes. When we sat and reviewed our work, we concluded that the third episode was the best by far. Why? Because we had all started to interact, making it much more fun and interesting.
What happened next?
We scrapped it all and reconsidered our strategy. At this point we started to toy with the idea of intertwining personal stories with the historical data. This took us to the next step where we thought about making video and then extracting the audio from it for the podcasts. And then we realised it would be handy to be able to put images somewhere as reference points for the audio. To do this, we were going to need an online presence, hence we now have a Facebook page, YouTube channel and website/blog page.
The final part of the puzzle was the most exciting – asking old workmates and associates to contribute their stories and/or photos for inclusion in our adventure.
With all this groundwork and gathering of information complete, we now aim to put it on display so that it may be shared. To do this, we will be using narrative as well as factual printing history with an Australian flavour.
This history is filled with dramas, amazing revelations, commercial disasters, union unrest, stupidity, incredible ingenuity and madness; not to mention world-changing events.
Just a few examples:
• The linotype machine was once called the eighth wonder of the world. If you watched one in action you would understand why
• the Russian Revolution was caused by comma abuse – hard to believe but true
• guess how many burials one famous type designer had to go through before being finally laid to rest – the answer is more than 2!
If you want to know more, just tune in to this website or follow us on Facebook to see what’s been happening.
And don’t forget, if you have a story that you’d like to share, email it to us at LeadfellasTales@outlook.com.
Leadfellas 