W. A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design offers an engaging and inspiringoverview of the designer's wide-ranging creative output and lastingimpact on the graphic arts. Bruce Kennett's careful research, warmprose, and inclusion of numerous personal accounts from Dwiggins'sfriends and contemporaries portray not only a brilliant designer, but atruly likable character. Often credited with inventing the term "graphic design," W. A. Dwiggins was a quintessential maker - fabricating hisown tools, inventing techniques, and experimenting with design in areasas wide-ranging as modular ornament, stamps, currency, books, kites,marionettes, and theatrical sets and lighting. More than any of hiscontemporaries, he united the full range of applied arts into a singleprofession - designer. Despite this, a thorough study of Dwiggins hadnever been published until this book was released in 2018.

W. A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design

Bruce Kennett

Humor & Entertainment

Letterform Archive Books

Only on Saturday is the singular, definitive volume of JackStauffacher's beautiful and experimental typographic prints. Highlycollected in his lifetime, these prints reveal Stauffacher's whimsicalyet meticulous studies in composition and craft.After inheriting a box of old and mismatched wood type in 1966,Stauffacher began playing with the weathered letterforms "only onSaturday" as a break from his work week. These arrangements-some patterned with letters in different sizes and typefaces, somelayered with multiple presses of a single letter, others awash insolvent-morphed from exploratory sessions in his off hours toformal studies of what was possible between the positive andnegative spaces on a page.Only on Saturday examines five limited-edition portfolios of thesedynamic and inventive prints, as well as his unbound individualand series prints. A selection of images from each project is pairedwith an essay detailing the process behind the work and tracinghis influences-from his filmmaker brother Frank to modernistdesigner Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. In addition, many of Stauffacher'slong-time collectors and collaborators contribute first-personstories about his process and legacy, painting a portrait of a printerscholar at the top of his craft.Available in regular and deluxe editions, Only on Saturday is acelebration of this master printer, who introduced typography as asubject for modern print making.

Only on Saturday: The Wood Type Prints of Jack Stauffacher

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

Review\nLooking at the Bauhaus’s letterforms across its short yet prolific fourteen year trajectory―and tracking how its lessons traveled abroad with the emigration of its professors and students―ultimately offers an intimate portrait of the school. -- Madeleine Morley ― AIGA\nWhile the Bauhaus is often remembered for large-scale modernist architecture, Bauhaus Typography at 100 tells the movement’s history through its smallest increment: the letters and type created by its myriad members across its fourteen-year span. This book is a testament to Bauhaus typogra-phy’s outsized role in disseminating the school’s shifting ideals of modernity in capsule form. Chronicling Bauhaus letter forms from the school’s founding manifesto through its many influen-tial publications and the later work of the school’s members, this beautiful book reveals a startling diversity that will delight and inspire designers and all readers of today. -- Elizabeth Otto ― author of Haunted BauhausHand coeditor of Bauhaus Women: A Global Perspective\nFeaturing a splendid introduction by Ellen Lupton, [Bauhaus Typography at 100] is arguably the most complete Bauhaus resource I’ve seen, and I have been collecting related volumes for decades. -- Steven Heller ― PRINT\nAn unprecedented, definitive look at the school’s typography and print design, from its early expressive tendencies to the functional modernism for which it is famed today 
The Bauhaus looms large as one of the most influential legacies in 20th-century graphic design. Known for its bold sans-serif typefaces, crisp asymmetrical grids and clean use of negative space, the school emerged as the forebearer of a new look―one that seized the tools of mass production in the creation of a radical new art. Today, just over 100 years after the Bauhaus’s opening in 1919, the school’s visual hallmarks have come to define modernity as it appears on the printed page.\nThe official catalog for Letterform Archive’s inaugural gallery exhibition, Bauhaus Typography at 100 explores the school’s legacy in graphic and typographic design through artifacts of its own making―its books, magazines, course materials, product catalogs, stationery, promotional fliers and other ephemera.\nFrom the book’s beautifully designed pages, readers learn of typographic masters László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer and Joost Schmidt, who channeled Constructivism’s geometric forms and optimism for industry into printed vehicles for the school’s teachings. Here is where Bauhaus typography―its rejection of serifs and capitals, embrace of experimental alphabets, insistence on universal clarity, and innovation in layering and hierarchy―took its distinctive shape.\nThe catalog also shines light on the Bauhaus’s lesser-known early forays into expressive lettering and illustration, also tracing the school’s immediate impact on seminal design movements such as the New Typography and, of course, on design practitioners working today. Lavishly illustrated, carefully researched and written, and accompanied by an in-depth introduction from noted Bauhaus expert, author and curator Ellen Lupton, Bauhaus Typography at 100 is a must-have for any fan of modern design.

Bauhaus Typography at 100

Lupton, Ellen

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Review\nFinally, a book highlighting typography's role in iconic social movements throughout the nation's history. Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest is a storytelling tour de force composed of well-crafted prose married to poignant images that take us on a powerful, historical journey from the printed page into the streets. This book allows us to witness type oft-overlooked in design's history, that of diverse lay and professional designers relying on the transformative power of vernacular type to demand liberation and to galvanize action that leads to equity and justice. In doing so, it contributes heartily to decolonizing typography's canon. 
— Audrey G. Bennett, Professor, Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan\nAs much as we would like to think that the many wonderfully inventive graphics and powerful anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, anti-imperialist messages contained within Strikethrough are just an interesting part of the past, they should instead be dusted off, studied, and reimagined for today's struggles. 
— Andrew Satake Blauvelt, Chief Curator and Director, Cranbrook Art Museum\nStrikethrough is a breakthrough on three levels: Its theme. Its context. Its author.... [Silas] Munro has injected levels of historical scholarship into Strikethrough's narrative [while] bringing significant rare materials to this study.... Savor every page and share this book with others. 
— Steven Heller, PRINT\nStrikethrough builds up the bibliography of a field that's often neglected, and will make the kind of work it covers more discoverable.... An important reference that will leave a mark. 
— Faride Mereb, The Brooklyn Rail\nA powerful new exploration of the uses of lettering, type and design to amplify resistance and inspire change―from 19th-century antislavery broadsides to the “Silence = Death” graphics of the AIDS epidemic and the handmade signs of the Black Lives Matter movement 
Organized into chapters that explore the many ways to express dissent (RESIST!, VOTE!, STRIKE!, TEACH! and LOVE!), Strikethrough presents more than 120 signs, posters, publications and ephemera in vivid imagery and incisive prose. From the colorful affiches of the Paris ’68 uprising to Memphis strike workers’ placards to the Black Panthers’ newspaper, this generously illustrated volume showcases the role of graphic design in a wide range of protest movements in the United States and abroad. Including selections from artists and art collectives such as Jenny Holzer, the Guerrilla Girls and Fierce Pussy, this book provides a broad and critical survey of the typographics of activism. Strikethrough also features 10 profiles on the designers behind the graphics―including Corita Kent, Emory Douglas and Ben Shahn―and a custom display typeface based on historical protest graphics by Tré Seals, plus an introduction by activist and design scholar Colette Gaiter and an essay on type by Stephen Coles. 
Charting a typographic chant of resistance that spans more than 150 years, Strikethrough curators Silas Munro and Stephen Coles reveal how the message makes its way to the masses via marker, screen print, spray paint, collage and both physical and digital type, and how it calls on us all to craft our own demands for social change. 
Artists and designers include: Atelier Populaire, See Red Women’s Workshop, Carlos Cortez, Emory Douglas, fierce pussy, Ganzeer, Milton Glaser, Guerrilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, Corita Kent, Aaron Douglas, Art Workers’ Coalition, OSPAAAL, Tibor Kalman, Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Herb Lubalin, Phase 2, Favianna Rodriguez, Ward Schumaker, Ben Shahn and Wes Wilson.\nFrom the Back Cover\nStrikethrough celebrates the use of letterforms to amplify and empower. In chapters exploring the many ways to voice dissent (RESIST!, VOTE!, STRIKE!, TEACH!, and LOVE!), this book charts a typographic chant of resistance across more than a century of protest graphics. 
With 180 objects ranging from nineteenth-centu

Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest

Munro, Silas

A landmark of graphic modernism, the Vienna Secession’s magazine is brought to life in a complete facsimile reprint with new essays and translations 
The brainchild of Koloman Moser, Alfred Roller, Josef Hoffmann, Bertold Loffler and others―the leading graphic artists of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte―Die Fläche (German for The Surface) laid out an extraordinary group vision for design through adventurous work by these designer-professors and more than 100 of their students. Packed with bold ideas for posters, advertisements, book covers, woodcut prints and much more, the result is an inexhaustibly rich sourcebook of graphic forms, modern ideas and technical experiments, all reflecting a reorientation in design practice and teaching that would resonate around the world. 
This full-size facsimile of all 14 issues of Die Fläche lets readers experience this rare gem as it was meant to be seen, while new essays and translations explore its significance. 
Die Fläche is the first volume in Letterform Archive’s facsimile series, which presents landmarks of print and design history with exacting reproductions and new essays that provide rich context and fresh insights.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911

Graphic Design

Growing Up in Alphabet City: The Unexpected Letterform Art of Michael Doret

Doret, Michael

Subscription to Mischief: Graffiti Zines of the 1990s

Other Media

The Complete Commercial Artist: Making Modern Design in Japan, 1928–1930

Weisenfeld, Gennifer

Jack Stauffacher: The Art of Wood Type: 20 Unique Notecards & Envelopes

Celebrating the storied career of a beloved letterpress printer whose posters spread messages of racial justiceDetroit-based letterpress printer Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. is celebrated for his type-driven messages of social justice and Black power, emblazoned in rhythmically layered and boldly inked posters made for the masses. Citizen Printer tells Kennedy's inspiring story and contextualizes his important work--and offers readers tools for lifting their voices, too. A vital monograph on a trailblazing contemporary Black artist, Citizen Printer features 500 reproductions representing the breadth of Kennedy's posters and prints, plus original portraiture of the artist at work, a powerful artist statement and a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Austin Kleon, all presented in a dynamic type-forward design from AND, the design studio of AIGA Award winner Gail Anderson and Joe Newton. Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. (born 1948) was working a corporate job for AT&T when, at the age of 40, he discovered the art of letterpress printing on a tour of Colonial Williamsburg. Kennedy then devoted himself to the craft, earning an MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and teaching at Indiana University. He now operates Kennedy Prints!, a communal letterpress center in Detroit. Borrowing words from social justice heroes Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and others, Kennedy layers bold statements on race, capitalism, history and politics in exuberant, colorful and one-of-a-kind posters. Kennedy has been featured in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine and the Economist, and his work has been exhibited by the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and other institutions through the US. He was the subject of a 2012 feature-length documentary, Proceed and Be Bold!

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.: Citizen Printer

History & Criticism

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Books by Letterform Archive Books