Here are some doodles drawn in my sketchbook during the lectures and panels while I was at the APHA conference in Washington DC this weekend. The lectures and discussions mostly focused on letterpress and bookarts.
It was interesting to attend a conference like this as an academic, while still feeling like a working professional. The way I think and feel about Printing (not printmaking) is in the context of making magazines, running jobs for design clients, and preparing my students to do the same. The idea that most of the folks at the conference seemed to have is one of printing in the context of rare books and fine arts and, in some cases, craft. Letterpress printing as a niche craft carried out by antiquarian enthusiasts trying to keep a dead technology alive. In the world of living technologies for printing; digital offset, web presses, etc., the technologies give way to newer methods out of necessity and cost-effectiveness.
I don't see why both cannot legitimately exist and coexist, there always being the right tool for the right job. I do wonder why so much bookart is designed so poorly. By labeling it as Art it becomes like the kids work on the fridge, the process justifies any slapdash techniques or terrible end-product because of the precious nature of it's Art/craft context.
I think I'll need to expand this a bit more later.
This is "TMI" - monogram for Internet abbreviations.
My first initial, natch.
Monograms for JLN, ECN and a few miscellaneous ones.
Stacking monograms.
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