Location
McGregor Room J
Start Date
25-9-2014 9:00 AM
End Date
25-9-2014 10:30 AM
Description
This panel will explore the link between today’s small press movement and the formal aspects of commercial printing during the American 20th century. Panelists include Christine Medley , Philip Gattuso, and Nancy Bernardo.
Using as its primary example letterhead from defunct companies in Detroit, and secondarily, specimens of business and legal letterhead from other urban centers of the industrial United States, this panel will examine and discuss: What did letterhead represent to 20th century printers in local markets such as Detroit? What is the significance of printed letterhead, and stationery, to the art of small press printing in post-industrial cities in the U.S. today?
Relying upon specimens from the following institutions, this panel will compare the aesthetics of contemporary small press printing with technological, artistic, and functional practices in 20th century trade printing: Center for Abandoned Letterhead, and Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs, Detroit; Benson Ford Research Center, Dearborn, Michigan; The Cranbrook Archives, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Greenfield/Belser, Ltd, Legal Letterhead research project, Washington, D.C.; McIlhenny Archives, Avery Island, Louisiana; and Gerald Cannon collection, Auburn, Alabama.
Attendees to this panel would take-away a new appreciation for how the simple act of providing printing services, in the form of business letterhead, informed printing styles in the last century, and how that relates to small press printing today.
Final participant list.
Included in
Advertising and Promotion Management Commons, American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Art Education Commons, Art Practice Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Book and Paper Commons, Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Business and Corporate Communications Commons, Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Graphic Design Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Illustration Commons, Industrial and Product Design Commons, Marketing Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons, Political History Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social History Commons
Salvaging Print: Letterhead in Post-Industrial Urban America
McGregor Room J
This panel will explore the link between today’s small press movement and the formal aspects of commercial printing during the American 20th century. Panelists include Christine Medley , Philip Gattuso, and Nancy Bernardo.
Using as its primary example letterhead from defunct companies in Detroit, and secondarily, specimens of business and legal letterhead from other urban centers of the industrial United States, this panel will examine and discuss: What did letterhead represent to 20th century printers in local markets such as Detroit? What is the significance of printed letterhead, and stationery, to the art of small press printing in post-industrial cities in the U.S. today?
Relying upon specimens from the following institutions, this panel will compare the aesthetics of contemporary small press printing with technological, artistic, and functional practices in 20th century trade printing: Center for Abandoned Letterhead, and Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs, Detroit; Benson Ford Research Center, Dearborn, Michigan; The Cranbrook Archives, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Greenfield/Belser, Ltd, Legal Letterhead research project, Washington, D.C.; McIlhenny Archives, Avery Island, Louisiana; and Gerald Cannon collection, Auburn, Alabama.
Attendees to this panel would take-away a new appreciation for how the simple act of providing printing services, in the form of business letterhead, informed printing styles in the last century, and how that relates to small press printing today.
Comments
Examples of 20th century commercially printed lettterhead is attached.
As time permits, this panel may also compare the visual influences of the artistic printing movement of the early 20th century with contemporary small press printing referencing The Rise and Fall of the Printers’ International Specimen Exchange (Matthew McLennan Young, 2012; Oak Knoll Press) and The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers (Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas, 2009; Princeton Architectural Press).
Associated links:
http://dittoditto.org/shop/center-for-abandoned-letterhead-catalog http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/ http://www.thehenryford.org/research/index_old.aspx http://www.cranbrook.edu/center/archives http://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/108704/matthew-mclennan-young/rise-and-fall-of-the-printers-international-specimen-exchange-the http://www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781568987057