What’s On

Agyei Archer will explore the value of vernacular design in the English-speaking Caribbean. He will take us on a journey through sharing his work past and present, focusing on the role that hand-drawn and found lettering from the region has played in his personal practice and introducing some canonical work from both self-taught and classically-rooted practices in Trinidad and Jamaica. He will also discuss the role that this plays in his type design practice, particularly from the perspective of questioning the merits of existing systems, aesthetics, and the potential values in figuring a way around them yourself.

During the 1920s Jan Tschichold began corresponding with many emerging graphic designers throughout Europe and the Soviet Union, offering to exchange works or requesting examples of adverts, posters and letterheads.What began as a means of educating himself in the principles of modern design, developed into a comprehensive survey collection of progressive graphics in Europe.

Between the 1690s and mid-18th Century, English writing masters, mostly based in London in the environs of St Paul's Cathedral, collaborated with engravers to define a rich textual aesthetic parallel to and in tension with contemporary trends in typography. This aesthetic commanded, among other things, the invention of a new style of ‘print’ letter: a neoclassical roman that would not find typographic expression until John Baskerville’s types of the 1750s. By that date, this ‘English Roman’ had become a standard part of a writing master’s repertoire, explored in a wide range of weights, sizes, and constructions. In this heavily illustrated talk, John Hudson looks at the genesis of this style, and the aesthetic, social, and technological contexts in which it developed.

We would like to invite you to join us for an intimate evening held in our Passmore Edwards room to get a closer look at some of the hidden treasures in the St Bride collection and learn more about them from font of all knowledge, Bob Richardson.

Join us for an entertaining presentation by Bruce Kennett, author of W. A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design. American artist Dwiggins designed printing types and books but had many other talents: calligrapher, printmaker, illustrator, watercolourist, sculptor, marionettist, designer of theatrical sets, maker of furniture and tools. “WAD” also wrote plays, satire, fiction, fantasy, and essays. Deliciously funny by nature, Dwiggins employed his sharp wit for the simple pleasures of fun, but also often used satire to promote change. He concocted fake documents and invented colourful personalities to serve as his noms de plume in essays. WAD used drawings and words in equal measures to implement these schemes, which Bruce will explore in detail in his presentation.