Center for Book Arts / NYC auction fulfillment keepsake

A couple of entries earlier I teased out images of hand-rolled wood type. The photograph above is the final result for an edition of 10 books we made for Mark Samuels Lasner as a keepsake. As an auction prize for the Center for Book Arts, which included dinner and a tour of Lead Graffiti, Mark offered a visit to his Victorian Collection at the University of Delaware.

Lead Graffiti produced the book highlighted above, focusing the 5 major moments in their trip to Newark, DE.

1. The AUCTION,

2. the MARK SAMUELS LASNER COLLECTION VISIT,

3. the Lead Graffiti STUDIO TOUR (which was great fun for us, I might add),

4. Dinner at Newark’s Cafe Gelato, with an additional 4 book-loving participants in the colorful conversation

5. and their train ride back to New York to VOTE in the mid-term elections.

Worth mentioning for all of you who follow Lead Graffiti that a studio tour is a great option to offer local arts groups, colleges, and organizations. Gets some new people into your space, spreads the word, and connects you with local groups who could probably use the help.

This broadside came from a tour of Lead Graffiti prize which we offered the local Newark Arts Alliance.

We produced 10 copies of the books. The extra 3 copies are going to the Center for Book Arts, the Grolier Club in New York City, and the Library of Congress and added to the Lead Graffiti Collection that is slowly building up there.

Grandmasters Exhibition / Art Directors Club of NY

I’m not sure I ever saw the Art Directors Club of New York annual which announced the inaugural awarding of the title of Grandmasters to design instructors. At this point I had retired and had quit adding the books to my collection. I was Googling something and the article suddenly appeared. I looked up the book on Abebooks.com and there were copies easily available, so I bought two of them—one was for DCAD, who received a good number of the design books from my library, and the other was for Lead Graffiti’s library. I thought I would share the wonderful page designed for ADC88 back in 2009.

Nine of my absolute favorite projects through 2008, along with one of my favorite portraits, were shown on the double-page spread. Truly a great honor.

From upper left clockwise:

1. Rethinking 2009 — This New Years card was the first notion we had of doing our Boxcards using recycled boxes as the stock.

2. Histories of Newark: 1758 - 2008 — A 300-page hardback which we designed. We took hundreds of photos for the book, most notably the “citizens band” that runs through every page and includes more than 3,700 townspeople.

3. All preservation is merely theoretical if you can’t keep the roof from leaking. poster for the American Printing History Association’s national conference at Columbia University. A copy was given to every attendee. The type is from our orphan wood type collection.

4. Can y ou have too much good typography — The poster celebrated a visit and talk by Justin Howes from London about his digitizing Caslon from original printings. The image is a single piece of 18″ x 24″ wood type that we made for the poster.

5. Think Small. Again. — Poster for a Visual Communications year-end exhibition reflecting back on the 25th anniversary of Volkswagen’s “Think small” ad. It was included in an exhibition of Volkswagen advertising at The One Club in New York.

6. Don’t let another art director beat you to the punch — This poster was the tipping point for my own feeling that I could complete on an equal level with other people and schools which I had envied from afar. Mounted in the Art Directors Club of New York exhibition on the same panel as one of Stephen Frykholm’s Herman Miller barbeque chicken picnic poster.

7. Yes 2005 — Poster printed via letterpress for a Visual Communications year-end exhibition. There are 11 pieces cut with a laser from a 1/4″ sheet of Plexiglas.

8. On Oc tober 5 we fished all day but didn’t catch the big one — Poster directed toward Saul Bass who called us about the piece.

9. The w hole world is talking — The 3 versions of an 8-foot poster silkscreened in 2′ segments of voice bubbles for a Visual Communications year-end exhibition. Printed on a roll of paper 0.7 of a mile long. The stacked posters were handcut (total length was 2.8 miles). There were 36,000 rubberstamp impressions. Yes, it was a job, but a killer piece that won us a bunch of design awards.

Everyone of those is a nice moment in my life and reminds me how good a run I had with a bunch of amazing students, friends, and design professionals.