Type, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness

The University of Pennsylvania Fine Arts Class of 2008 Thesis Show opened without a hitch on Tuesday, March 25 in the Charles Addams Gallery. Friends, acquaintances, teachers and strangers from near and far filled the space. There were smiles, kind words, provoking questions all around.

My parents took these photos. A bit of documentation, as I was too flustered to remember most of the evening. High-quality photos of the thesis work will be posted soon on the thesis website. My portion was comprised of 3 sections:

a) A small wall with an assortment of small digital and letterpress prints
b) A short pedestal with the wood type.
c) A larger back wall with six of the large rice paper prints from the galley press.






For more photos, courtesy of Nick Sherman, check out his Flickr.

Unversity of Pennsylvania Undergraduate Fine Arts

SENIOR THESIS EXHIBITION

Opening Reception: Tuesday, March 25 from 5 to 7 pm

Show runs from Monday, March 24 to Friday, April 18

The Charles Addams Gallery
200 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA

There Will Be Ink.

(and plenty of it, for that matter)

A Revelation on The Galley Press or "Hoe".

Seven hours of "Being Free" and "Letting It Go".
And "Modernism Is Boring."
And "Forget What You Think You Should Do."
And "Where's The Art?"
And "Hey Robin, Be Punk Rock For One Week."

And...the proofs in the photos are not the nice-looking, CRAZY ones. The neat ones from tonight went unphotographed, as I was intensely lightheaded after Hour Four.
So more photos to follow.

Many MANY advising sessions today. Notes to follow as well.

Weekend Progress.

I skipped an entire bountiful photo post of me preparing about 30 slabs of type-high end grain maple. However, here goes time a-movin' on. My typeface, Everyman, has been refined as far as can be at this juncture. Saturday was spent engraving one set of the alphabet characters, numerals, and scattered punctuation. Fabrication of the full set is far from complete, but nonetheless...It has begun...









Tomorrow at 8:30 am begins the fabrication of Everyman in 12-inch plexiglass sheets. I am downright giddy with anticipation.

gifts in the post!

from Greg Lago

Flotsam

Scan the Horizon for Signs of Life.

Red at night, sailor's delight.
Red in the morning, fisherman's warning.
(This gives me an idea for a new project, but alas! Perhaps another day.)

Sunday is a Day of Productivity.

TEST RUN FOR THESIS PROJECT WITH NEW MAPLE

The design and labor (voluntary) were outsourced for this sample.
And I am grateful.

The time elapsed between initial design concept to block production, and then to final print production, has been greatly decreased since the beginning of my research in September. I am pleased with this cut of maple. Though it retains its characteristic super-tight grain structure, there are some delightful idiosyncrasies in the ring surfaces. This creates patches of visible and vivid grain texture that mirror the ink coverage patterns on the final print.

ROAD TRIP: Groff & Groff Lumber

Signs That Your Obsession With Wood Type May Be Harming Others:

1) You manage to convince two level-headed friends that waking up before 6 am on a Saturday to select hard maple in Quarryville, PA is a great idea.

2) You depart West Philadelphia at 6:30 am to procure such lumber.

3) You bargain with a man named Morris Groff for a thick, choice cut of maple and make him cut it up into pieces that you are able to carry and fit into the trunk of the car.

4) On the way home, you pass a dead cow and almost hit a horse and buggy, endangering multiple lives.


EXHIBIT A: Groff & Groff Lumber, The Indefatigable Avery


EXHIBIT B: The Warehouse


EXHIBIT C: The Backyard


EXHIBIT D: Arboreal Mortuary


EXHIBIT E: Personal Favorites & Oddities


EXHIBIT F: Detail


EXHIBIT G: Rigor Mortis

T-H-E-S-I-S

(Un?)Fortunately, the type-high independent study, was not my Senior Thesis Project for graduation from The University of Pennsylvania. This blog has been crucial to the documentation and development of my thoughts and processes throughout these typographic experiments. I plan to continue blogging about my current thesis work, as it is really an extension of the type-high independent study.

INTRODUCTION: Democracy and The Designer
Printmaking, both historically and economically, has been considered a practice of tradesmen, entering the discourse of fine arts long after the printer's death with a nostalgia similar to that of "history painting", or only as the content raises controversial concerns above and beyond the general social din of the day. The printed word, however, both historically and economically, has been both a benefit and entitlement of those who could both read and afford such items. After Gutenberg's introduction of moveable type, subsequent type design evolved within bounds set by technology of the day and the needs of particular clients or publications.

Type designs today still seem to straddle a line of demarcation over whether or not to embrace the bastion of Beatrice Warde's proverbial crystal goblet in print-based media. Take these camps of thought and apply them to the realm of the digital, and you are faced with a veritable typographic free-for-all.

Now add the current stream of discourse surrounding classification of "graphic design", the role of designers, and the relationship of design to advertising and marketing...and you have a pretty pickle. A complex, yet pretty pickle...because after all, isn't that what designers do? Take the pickles and prickles of the world and make them visually appealing?

From this confusion borne of such an amassing of "gray areas", I seek to address three specific questions via the creation of a new typeface:

1. How and to what extent may the designer assert him/herself as a part of the design triad (audience, client, designer)?
2. Is it possible, in the "democratic spirit" of printmaking fused with socialist-minded fundamentals, to eliminate the client? Or rather, to fuse client and audience into a single entity?
3. How can this exploration be carried out in such as way that type as concept and object enter the contemporary art discourse?

THE PROJECT: The People's Typeface
1. Digitally standardize and produce a new typeface, influenced by an antique face from the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type book.
2. Upload to Penn Design Font Reserve for use.
3. Use files from FontLab to create laser cutter ready files in Adobe Illustrator.
4. Create moveable wood type using the laser cutter.
5. Create a "wailing wall" of broadsides printed in wood type.
6. Create accompanying narrative of study/process with supplementary and marketing materials, presenting the face as The People's Typeface, Everyman Roman, etc. (ie - pamphlets, posters, specimen sheets)

ANALYSIS: The Grand Narrative
I would like to keep the project completely insular to myself, remaining the silent and invisible vehicle for the voice of The People or general populace as a social construct. Any resulting discourse along the validity of the marketing strategies and presentations will be considered part of the work itself. The conclusion of a successful project will be a wall display of the broadsides and supplementary narrative materials, introducing the functionality and design process of the face.

REFERENCE MATERIAL/READINGS
Beatrice Warde - "The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible"
Frederic Jameson - "Aesthetics and Politics" from Reflections in Conclusion
Michael Bierut - "On (Design) Bullshit" from DesignObserver.com
Robin Kinross - Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical History (London, 1992)
Maggie Holtzberg-Call - The Lost World of the Craft Printer (University of Illinois, 1992)
Simon Loxley - type: The Secret History of Letters (London, 2004)
From EMIGRE Magazine 47, 1998 - "Graphic Design in the Postmodern Era"
Soldiers of Lead - The Labour Party's Guide to Printing
Jan Tschichold - The New Typography (University of California, 1995)