Erik Spiekermann

Erik Spiekermann is one of the big type designers of the 20th century. He’s a designer, a type designer, and printer.

He has a substantial German accent (which is totally understandable, but maybe it takes a second sometimes). So, turn on captions if you need to!

He says a lot of things in about 6 minutes, so do pay attention.

Specifically, listen pay attention to what he says about:
• Constraints
• Touching space
• Modularity
(but also everything else)

Colby Poster Printing

Colby Poster Printing was a poster printer in Los Angeles that closed a few years ago. They printed posters for local events and other advertisements that would go up on phone poles and the like. But they had a really distinct aesthetic—not fancy design but somehow really amazing. You’re probably seen posters like their yellow or three-color posters often.

also, check out more of Colby Poster Printing’s posters here:

Both of those videos show/talk about using wood type.

Letterpress type comes in two big varieties: metal/lead and wood. Wood type is usually larger than metal type, because, since wood is lighter than metal, people can make larger type without it becoming too heavy to use.

We don’t have much wood type at Loyola, so in our workshop we’ll be using metal type, which really just means we’ll work at a smaller scale in this workshop. We’ll concentrate on getting some basics in letterpress and make fun things with it, so that later we can use it in other projects or go further.

As you watch, see if you get inspiration in the way they combine type or just use type/words in a really matter-of-fact way.

Corita Kent

Corita Kent was a designer/artist (she probably would’ve just said an artist) and nun. Her most famous work comes from the 1960s and combines pop art interests with a very human side. Her work and the way she made work about values are a great reference point for us as designers at a Jesuit school. Whether or not we believe in Jesuit values in a religious sense, ideally the school’s broader values – which are often just ways of being human – pervade what we do and make here at Loyola. And Corita Kent makes a great example of doing that.

We’ll be using her rules in our letterpress workshop.

Make note the three rules you got the most from.