Typography Symposium May 31, 2011

A Typography Symposium, hosted by the Center for Book and Paper Arts, brings together leaders in the field of art and design for public programs addressing innovative topics in typography design and history. The symposium is also the launch of the Chicago chapter of the American Printing History Association.

Gallery hours: Monday–Saturday 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

PUBLIC
PROGRAM:

Lecture: June 1, 6:30 p.m.
William E. Loy's Nineteenth-Century American Type Designers
Alastair Johnston
The title of this lecture is also that of a book by Johnston and Steven O. Saxe, published last year by Oak Knoll Press. The book presents the work of William E. Loy, to whom we owe a great deal for his documentation of the important type designers of his era. From the prolific Herman Ihlenburg, who worked for MacKellar Smiths & Jordan, to William Page, the wood type manufacturer who skated on the milled planks in his stocking feet at night, Johnston will explain how these men worked and relate fascinating anecdotes about their lives.


Panel: June 2, 6:30 p.m.
The Living History of Type
Panelists discuss how history informs type design: the printing collection as a well-connected resource, project-specific design including history, the uses and misuses of historic sources in type design, and more. Bill Moran, artistic director, Hamilton Wood Type Museum, Two Rivers Wisconsin; Alastair Johnston, type historian, Poltroon Press, Berkeley, CA; Clifton Meador, Book and Paper MFA Director, Columbia College Chicago; Paul Gehl, custodian, John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing, Newberry Library.

Workshop: June 3-4, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Improvised Design in the Colonial Era
Instructor: Alastair Johnston
$180, materials included (registration required)
Using type and material in the shop we discover in a hands-on fashion how early American printers achieved striking and distinctive effects in their bookwork with limited resources. Participants will recreate pages from 18th century American books using type and ornament in the studio and learn how expedients, such as decorative material made out of punctuation, came to the aid of the early typographers in the American colonies. They will also explore how these strictures created a distinctly American aesthetic, manifest later in the work of Updike, Rollins and Dwiggins, three of the most noted American designers of the first half of the twentieth century.

ADMISSION: All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted

Official Website: http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Interarts/events/lectures-and-public-programs1/index.php