Visiting The LA Printers Fair

Yesterday we here at aNEW designs had the pleasure to visit the 2nd Annual LA Printers Fair at the International Printing Museum in Carson. This was a wonderful day filled with all things type. The images you see where taken at the Fair. The International Printing Museum collection is one of the largest, most comprehensive collections of historic graphic arts equipment in the world. The collection alone was worth the visit but in addition where numerous vendors from the graphic arts and type world plus demos of the presses and a Linotype hot type machine. We where very impressed by the knowledgeable and friendly volunteers and staff. All that visited this event where filled with history and stories about the craft of type and left impressed with just how important type and printing have been over the years. If you where unable to visit during the Printers Fair, you should make a trip to see the museum when in the area. When you visit remember to mind your "p" and "q"s and have them show you why we call it "upper case" and "lower case". For further information on visiting the collection and future events, stop by the informative website of the International Printing Museum.

LA Printers Fair

Tomorrow, September 25th will mark the 2nd Annual LA Printers Fair. This great event will take place from 9am to 5pm at the International Printing Museum in Carson. Admission to the event is $5. Activities throughout the day include:

• Letterpress “Swap Meet:” Don’t miss your chance to buy antique letterpress equipment and everything you need for your own print shop. Type-lovers, graphic designers, artists, printers and members of the public are welcome to ogle over hundreds of cases of type and thousands of pounds of equipment and presses.

• “The First Information Revolution: The Printed Book from Gutenberg to Franklin” To honor this year’s theme, “A Celebration of Paper and Print” we will have a guest collection of rare books. Don’t miss this one-day only exhibition in the Museum’s Gallery! Works include a Book of Hours [1471], Augustine: Civitate Dei [1489], Natali: Catalogus Sanctorum [1514], Angelus de Clavasio: Summa angelica [1519], Chaucer: Canterbury Tales [1561] and much more.

• Ask machinery expert Bill Berkuta and others all your press and equipment questions. Bill is in-demand all over the state, so take advantage of his live consultation at the Fair.

• General Gallery Tours – experience 500 years of printing history as our knowledgeable docents guide you through our collection. Letterpress demonstrations on various presses will be on-going throughout the day.

• Printmaking demonstrations by Lindsay Buchman, Mary Sherwood Brock, and Cathy Weiss in our back building in the Book Arts Institute.

• “The 40’s Shop” - Travel back in time to experience a 40’s era working print shop. See Windmills, Ludlows, Linotypes, platen presses, proofing presses, a Miehle Vertical and our vast collection of wood and lead type. See slugs cast on our working Linotype operated by Luis Garcia.

• Sit down and enjoy reading in our Library with holdings on printing, papermaking, printmaking, typography and so much more.

• Purchase beautiful letterpress-printed pieces, artist books, gorgeous handmade and commercial paper/envelopes and more from one of our Vendors at the Fair.

I hope to see you there tomorrow. For further information on the location of the International Printing Museum and the LA Printers Fair, please go to their website at this link.

MOMA Acquires @ Symbol

Believe it or not, the symbol we all use everyday, @ is now part of the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, NYC) collection of the Department of Architecture and Design. Why and how, well MOMA described the addition to its collection as follows:

The acquisition of @ takes one more step. It relies on the assumption that physical possession of an object as a requirement for an acquisition is no longer necessary, and therefore it sets curators free to tag the world and acknowledge things that “cannot be had”—because they are too big (buildings, Boeing 747’s, satellites), or because they are in the air and belong to everybody and to no one, like the @—as art objects befitting MoMA’s collection. The same criteria of quality, relevance, and overall excellence shared by all objects in MoMA’s collection also apply to these entities.

On the MOMA website, Inside/Out, you can read further about this inclusion and the history of the @ symbol which is interesting. Now get @ it.

Getty Center Tour

The Environmental Graphic Design class I teach took a tour of the Getty Center in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon. Our behind the scene tour was hosted by Clyde Crossan, a former student of mine who is working as an exhibit designer at the Getty. Clyde was able to inspire the students and show them the interworkings that go on to get a show up and ready for the public. He showcased the two recent photography exhibits that he worked on A Record of Emotion: The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans and Urban Panoramas: Opie, Liao, Kim both which run until June 6, 2010. My thanks go out to Clyde Crossan and the staff at the Getty for giving us this chance to look around and learn.

The Getty Center has a wonderful collection of art and photography and should not be missed if you are in the area. The photography shows that are running showcase some beautiful work. The Getty Center is first class in all its exhibits and works that are on display. This campus of art designed by Richard Meier on top of a hill over looking Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean always makes a day special and exciting.

The Guggenheim Turns 50

This week marked 50 years for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. First opened on October 21, 1959, the famous building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and modeled after ancient ziggurats of Mesopotamia. The Guggenheim is a wonderful museum to explore and a must do when in NYC. Their collection is great and the exhibits that they show are always timely. The design of the Guggenheim is truly unique and a masterful statement to the skills and vision of Frank Lloyd Wright. Slate Magazine has set up a nice slide show of early images and a more detailed history of this most famous of museums and building as it turn 50 at this link.

You Can Drive My Car

I was Wilshire district of Los Angeles recently and stopped at the Petersen Automotive Museum. This museum is a treat for lovers of cars and design. It was my first visit and I was impressed. First the collection of cars is diverse and spectacular. They range from early beauties, to muscle cars, to concept cars, to the finest of the luxury cars. One would expect nice cars in a car museum but I was happy to see the great exhibit design that help show off the cars. The exhibit design for the museum is well done showcasing the cars in a "Hollywood" California way, with dioramas and building fronts. The Streetscape exhibit also includes signage, fuel pumps, and a stocked auto parts store of the past. Other great views are the cars Hollywood used in famous films, such as Batman and Herbie, along with those owned by the stars. You will find the Petersen Automotive Museum a great afternoon visit, with beautiful cars and a fine exhibits. Check it out, you can drive my car, not.

Petersen Automotive Museum
6060 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323-930-CARS

Museum of Letters - Berlin

Since May 2005, the Buchstabenmuseum (German: Museum of Letters) organization has been rescuing typographic icons of our time. Today, the Buchstabenmuseum preserves an immense collection of historical letters from all over Berlin and beyond. Core 77 has put up a display of 48 images from the museum that can be seen here. Click here to visit the Buchstabenmuseum site.

(via Core 77)