Cow Gum and Traditional Paste-Up Design

Image Source: http://www.forgottenartsupplies.com/?what=artifacts&image_id=272

Before desktop publishing, Cow Gum was a familiar graphic design tool used in drawing offices for paste-up work. We at Dreamkatcha remember using it for nearly every logo design project and other graphic artworks.

In our previous article on classic album covers using Comic Sans, there was a passing reference to Windows ‘95. Before digital layouts, cutting and pasting meant physically assembling text and images. Designer Colin Higton’s recollections of Cow Gum describe its place in studio life and the care needed to clean up the artwork.

Cow Gum was a rubber solution adhesive, remembered for its distinctive red and white tin and its role in assembling artwork. This was used for mounting and sticking paper onto paper or card. Its working time allowed pieces to be positioned during layout preparation. Sometimes, a residue of Cow gum may be present on the sheet. This was rectified by means of a special eraser.

Why Cow gum? It is named after F.P. Cow, the manufacturers of the product. With the arrival of the Apple Macintosh and desktop publishing software, it became obsolete as creating page layouts and artwork moved into the digital age. The process relied on careful manual placement, trimming and cleaning before artwork was ready for reproduction.

For more context, explore our lettering and graphic design history article. Together, these older tools show how much practical craft went into preparing layouts before designers could arrange type and images on screen.

Contact Dreamkatcha today to discuss a web design or logo design project.