St Bride Library conference 2010. At St Bride Library, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London.
The world used to be full of barriers. Twenty years ago a designer trying something new faced insurmountable hurdles. But now, the gate is open. Want to design a font? Go ahead. Can’t wait for a publisher? Print it yourself. Got an idea for a product? Test it tomorrow. A generation of designers has become restless waiting for something to happen and is placing their destinies in their own hands. Is it working? Can DIY replace the traditional push-me-pull-you of the client relationship? Are we at the beginning of a new age of craft-based, cottage industries, or is it a false dawn? This talk draws on both Johnson’s own forays into personal projects and the emerging (and changing) design landscape.
Michael Johnson runs johnson banks, which produces identity schemes for clients as varied as Save the Children, More Th>n and the BFI. Johnson has won most of the design world’s most prestigious bits of wood and metal (including eight pencils from D&AD), has dozens of designs in the permanent collection of the V&A and has lectured on design across the world. He’s written one book, Problem Solved, and is working on two others. In spare moments he edits the design blog, Thought for the week. www.johnsonbanks.co.uk | www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughtfortheweek
The Society of Revisionist Typographers would like to give a brief introduction to the history of our founding and how we established a letterpress printing business in this day and age. Illustrated with examples of our work and the collection of printing equipment we use day-to-day.
The Society of Revisionist Typographers consists of Messrs Tom Boulton and Theo Wang. Having met and graduated from the London College of Printing (now Communication), we established SORT with the aim to preserve and revive the traditional forms of print-based graphic design that are often threatened with obsolescence through practice and application. We design and produce our own product range, available in retailers including Liberty, Tate, Southbank Centre & Magma. We have also worked on commissions with a number of designers, artists and individuals. www.sortdesign.com
An introduction to auto-lithography and the work of Rena Gardiner who, in a small cottage in Dorset, devoted her life to writing, illustrating, printing and binding a series of historical guide books. Rena treated a small industrial press as a hand-press and created work of great individuality.
Martin Andrews is a lecturer in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading and is a museum designer and printing historian.
In 1961 the Letraset dry transfer product was patented and launched, and it was a product of its time. There were also far reaching benefits for the graphic design industry and for the future of type design, both analog and digital. From the mid 1980s, with the launch of Apple Mac, sales of rub down lettering sheets went into a gradual decline but the legacy of Letraset is undeniable.
Colin Brignall and Dave Farey were involved from the very beginning, both becoming Letraset type design studio managers responsible for selecting, designing and artworking unique typefaces for transfer and subsequently creating fonts for all aspects of the current digital market.
East London Printmakers is an artists’ cooperative based on Mare Street in Hackney. Set up 12 years ago to create a support group for artists using printmaking, they now run a busy studio with facilities for etching, screenprint, relief printing and photopolymer/photoetching. With over 200 members the group organises regular exhibitions in London and internationally as well as workshops, artist’s talks and a residency programme. The group is almost entirely self-funded and is run by a group of voluntary committee members but all members are encouraged to organise events and have a say in the running of the studio. www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk
Nick Morley is an artist and freelance illustrator. A member of East London Printmakers for the last eight years, he is also the current chair of ELP’s committee. Nick has a passion for printmaking, especially the underrated art of linocut, about which he writes an occasional blog (linocutboy.blogspot.com). Nick teaches printmaking workshops at ELP and London Print Studio. He has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally and has been commissioned to illustrate book covers for Faber and Faber, Penguin and the Folio Society. www.nickmorley.co.uk | www.linocutboy.etsy.com
Victoria Browne holds a Master of Arts in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking from the Centre of Print Research, University of the West of England and studied at the Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen in Norway. Victoria is currently the resident artist at the University of Middlesex London. She works with artists to edition polymer photogravure prints and teaches a variety of printmaking techniques. www.kaleideditions.com | www.lillil.com
‘Sir John Soane’ the typeface is created in homage to the architect and his refined classical vernacular. Acting as if employed by Sir John himself, emfoundry becomes one of his favored contractors, charged with the application of Soane sensibility upon a definitive roman display face. Or perhaps as one of his understudies, distracted from architecture for a moment, attempting DIY to discover the pure essence of Soanian teachings through the design of classical letters.
Jon Melton is a designer and senior lecturer at the Cambridge School of Art within Anglia Ruskin University. Under the guise of emfoundry he explores the empty spaces within typographic evolution, to develop new letterforms and founts to further an understanding of display and ornamented types. His practice based research is particularly concerned with the late 18th and early 19th century periods, which herald in a Victorian age of exuberance and a proliferation of designs, tastes and mannerisms. emfoundry.com
There is a fundamental difference of interest between developers and users of applications. The aim to sell as many copies as possible does often not fit individual requirements. Designers can solve this by creating their own tools during the design and production process of type. Besides a brief history of type tools, the lecture will address the various ways in which parts of type design can be automated by designers themselves.
Petr van Blokland is the owner of Dutch design firm Buro Petr van Blokland + Claudia Mens, specialising in corporate identities, web applications, typography and type design, and developing software tools for designers. He teaches in the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, graphic design department and the Master TypeMedia. www.petr.net
A self-taught designer who fosters imagination and insight, Weingart teaches his students to teach themselves. His experimental work in typography has influenced the course of design history from the last decades of the twentieth century to the present day. This talk will look back on his extraordinary life in typography.
Wolfgang Weingart completed his apprenticeship in hand composition in 1963. He has taught typography at the Basel School of Design since 1968 and was an instructor during the Yale Summer Programme in Graphic Design from 1974 to 1996. For the last forty years Weingart has lectured and taught extensively across the globe. His publications and posters have been reproduced in many design publications and he is represented in the permanent collections of museums and private galleries. He was a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale/AGI from 1978 to 1999, on the editorial board of Typographische Monatsblätter from 1970 to 1988, and contributed over twenty supplements for the educational series Typographic Process and TM/communication. www.weingartarchive.com
Fanzines are ‘do-it-yourself’, amateur, limited run, publications whose producers are keen to share their passion for a subject with other like-minded individuals. This paper will explore the graphic form of the fanzine and its place within a broader alternative culture.
Teal Triggs is Professor of Graphic Design, co-Director of the research unit for Information Environments (IE). She is also Course Director for MA Design Writing Criticism and for MRes Information Environments, London College of Communication. As a graphic design historian, critic and educator she has lectured internationally and her writings have appeared in numerous international design publications. Her new book about the graphic language of fanzines is due out in Autumn 2010 (Thames & Hudson).
I will discuss how – and why – I self-publish work, often using the most hands-on DIY means, showing examples from early, entirely hand-made, process work, to more recent hybrids of analogue/digital processes. The DIY aesthetic, focused on the intended creative goal, has for me embraced blades, pixels and all points between.
Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck is a Danish designer, book artist, and lecturer who began exhibiting at artists’ book fairs in 2000. She has since exhibited and sold internationally, from Korea to Australia, the USA and Finland. Originally, as a Graphic Design and Communications student at Central Saint Martins, she pursued her interest in making books through traditional means, getting a first taste for letterpress and glue. With a keen eye for computer-generated imagery she has since combined the two. Her distinctive trademark is hand-cutting into paper pages, using the physical structure of the book to direct the reader through a narrative sequence. Experimentation with structures and the influence of light cast on materials has also been vital to her work, which can now be found in many international public collections, including those at the Tate Collection, V&A, Manchester Metropolitan University Library All Saints and Smith College, Massachusetts.www.ambeck.mdd.dk
Freelance commercial illustrators spend much of their time dealing with the business of self-promotion, securing new commissions, pleasing existing clients and delivering work on time and to brief. Sometimes, it’s easy to get stuck in this loop and overlook the importance of creating personal work. With reference to self-initiated projects, this presentation explores how ‘making time for play’ and creating for fun can take your work in unexpected directions, open new doors and ultimately lead to greater personal and professional satisfaction.
Linzie Hunter is a freelance illustrator and lettering artist based in London. A graduate of Glasgow University, she was a theatre stage manager before studying illustration at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Her lettering and illustrations have appeared in children’s books, magazines and advertising campaigns internationally and her clients include: Time, The Guardian, Nike, Gillette, Orange, BBC, Hallmark, Bloomsbury, Penguin and Chronicle Books. www.linziehunter.co.uk
Edward Wright’s letterforms display an unusual range of graphic forms and materials, unified by his understanding of architectural form and space, and skill in omitting irrelevant detail. This talk will examine the vast lettering mural which he created for the International Union of Architects’ conference buildings on the South Bank, London, 1961.
Ann Pillar is a doctoral researcher at the Reading University. She has taught typography at Reading and at Stafford College. At the start of her career she was a designer/typographer, after studying Fine Art at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She was with Monotype Typography through major technological changes, having joined on the day the first PostScript fonts were released.
It’s Nice That curate, publish and direct the finest work and practitioners from across the creative industry. Since setting up in April 2007, directors Will Hudson and Alex Bec have remained dedicated to staying up to date with studios and individuals and discovering new talent from all over the world, adding to their online archive daily. They’ll be speaking about how the site has developed both on and offline, and if there was ever a plan …
Will Hudson founded It’s Nice That while studying Graphic Design at The University of Brighton. Initially hailing from Birmingham, he moved to London after studying to work at a graphic design studio, honing his skills in print and web before founding studio HudsonBec with Alex. As HudsonBec ran its course, It’s Nice That became the main outlet for his work where he continues to design and art direct as well as write on the blog every day. Alex Bec joined as co-director and editor of It’s Nice That towards the end of 2008. Having built up a good working relationship with Will while working on their self initiated project If You Could in Brighton, he moved to London to work at Peepshow Collective, sharpening his project management and direction skills. On leaving Peepshow and setting up HudsonBec, it felt like a natural step for the two to also join forces on It’s Nice That, creating a more succinct studio environment and adding their individual skills. www.itsnicethat.com
How and why we made Manzine, including thoughts on DIY publishing, fanzines, aspiration, conventions, hi-visibility jackets and the death of the Lad.
Kevin Braddock is former Features Editor of The Face and contributing editor on GQ. Peter Lyle is a writer and editor on Tank, Electric! and former associate editor of Arena. Woz is an award-winning art director. www.themanzine.com/
All our demonstrators do it themselves professionally, with their own tales to tell, so take the opportunity to chat to them and find out what it is like to run a business based around calligraphy, lettercutting or letterpress printing.
Paul Antonio studied typography at the University of Reading, before gaining a distinction in Calligraphy, Illumination and Heraldic Art from Reigate, finishing his studies at Birkbeck in English Palaeography, Archaeological Illustration and Arabic Calligraphy. He runs a lettering practice in London, UK. His clients include Polo Ralph Lauren, Tom Ford International, Tiffany & Co., and Cartier. Commissions to reproduce manuscript pages provide the basis for his research in historical letterform. Paul also works with the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and has taught recently on Cursive Hieroglyphs for Birkbeck. www.paulantonioscribe.com
Mark Frith is a lettercutter and stone-carver with over 20 years experience. He has produced a wide range of work in stone or wood, and is known for his work with sundials and inscriptions in foreign scripts and languages. The most notable work of this kind, undertaken with Sally Bower, is the Language Pillar which contains an inscription from the Dalai Lama at the Tibetan Peace Garden in London. Mark entered into the world of lettering having studied at the City and Guilds of London, followed several years working for Richard Kindersley working on a huge variety of architectural lettering projects. He is also a member of Letter Exchange
Tom studied Lettering at the City and Guilds of London Art School. A member of Letter Exchange, he works primarily in stone and has undertaken a wide variety of architectural and memorial work. Between carving jobs and occasional teaching, he is building a house and workshop in south London.
Helen Ingham set up The Hi-Artz Press in 2002, producing highly expressive letterpress work with strong typographical and illustrative elements. She studied MA Communication Design at Central St Martins and was an intern at Hatch Showprint in Nashville. She carries out editorial and private commissions, exhibits in galleries and instructs at Central St Martins and London Metropolitan University. www.hi-artz.co.uk
Richard Lawrence has been printing for more than 30 years. Most of his work is ephemeral. He gives printing demonstrations and teaches practical classes for students and others. Richard also works with artists such as Stanley Donwood of Radiohead fame. He has recently moved back to Oxford where he is renovating a workshop to share with other craftspeople and artists. For this conference Richard hopes to involve delegates in the production of a commemorative poster using some of the resources of the St Bride Library
Åbäke, Jackson Lam and Jérôme Rigaud will be utilising a Risograph and other available resources in St Bride to produce a DIY publication about DIY. The publication will not take the form of a traditional book, but a collection of artefacts produced and reproduced before and during the conference. These artefacts will be compiled and sold as multiples to all conference goers and St Bride visitors.
Åbäke are a design studio of four practitioners based in London, with their main interest being the collaborative possibilities that design allows. It is this social aspect that is emphasised in their exhibition and events practice, offering individual perspectives on design components as language and composition. Åbäke also work under a number of other guises, for example they co-edit and design the magazine Sexymachinery, an architectural production, and co-direct a clothing and record label called Kitsuné. http://www.myspace.com/abakespace
Jackson Lam is a London based independent designer. As well as his various design related activities, he set up Hato Press with Ken Kirton and Louise Naunton Morgan in the winter of 2009 as a platform for self publication and collaboration. http://jacksonlamstudio.com | http://hatopress.net
Jérôme Rigaud is a London based artist, designer, digital editor and technologist producing both design and art work for companies, collectors, and institutions. He has a continuing interest in going beyond the traditional boundaries of the art, business, science and technology fields through hybrid collaborations. Jérôme co-founded Electronest with Pierre Schmidt and Fritz Menzer, and DesignMarketo with Alexandre Bettler. http://electronest.com | http://designmarketo.com