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Inside Citizen Printer

Letterform Archive’s monograph of Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., packs a lifetime of letterpress achievement into an ecstatic meditation on the power of print.

I do not want to put blackface on so-called “fine printing.” I want to print negro. To use printing to express negro culture. To do to printing what the blues and spirituals did to music.

So begins Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.’s Citizen Printer, a compendium of works spanning the 35-year career of a storied letterpress printer and righteous maker whose practice demands justice while delivering joy.

In 800 full-color reproductions, divided into chapters on social justice, shared wisdom, and community, Citizen Printer immerses readers in Kennedy’s bold and colorful output. Armed with salvaged ink and type, the self-described “humble negro printer” layers his audacious calls to action over dense typographic or geometric backgrounds. Sourced from civil rights activists across U.S. history, ranging from Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth to Malcolm X and Rosa Parks, Kennedy’s chosen messages revive the ongoing fight for abolition and ensure that its lessons still reverberate today.

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.: Citizen Printer. Hardcover, 9 × 12 inches, 292 pages.
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Supported by texts from New York Times bestselling author Austin Kleon, American studies scholar Myron M. Beasley, and design educator Kelly Walters, who is also the curator of the Letterform Archive exhibition by the same name, Citizen Printer situates Kennedy’s life and work within the entwined histories of Black protest and Black printing.

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Job Announcement: Production Manager

Letterform Archive seeks an experienced and exceptional prepress and production manager to join our team and help support our growing publishing business. Accepting applications through Tuesday, November 5th!

We’re Hiring!

Do you love good design? Do you believe the world needs more inspiration? Bring your love of high quality printing and book production to a nonprofit organization that is growing rapidly because we inspire people every day. Letterform Archive is seeking an experienced and exceptional prepress and production management professional to support our ongoing growth in publishing. Reporting to the publisher, the production manager is responsible for prepress color correction and file preparation, and managing the production process from exploratory quotes to finished books.

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Inside Michael Doret’s Alphabet City

Our latest book gives designers a seldom-seen peek into the studio of a lettering master, where logos, posters, and signs are drawn by hand.

Mechanical for Toronto Blue Jays Scorebook Magazine, 1987. See more.

At Letterform Archive we’re always looking for stuff that shows the way a designer thinks, and reveals how their work was made. People visit us not just to see final works on paper — books, ephemera, posters — but also to see all the other artifacts produced along the way to the final piece, including  sketches, proofs, and variations that never made it to print. That’s why we were so thrilled in 2018 to accept a donation from Michael Doret that includes about half of his working archive. (The other half went to the Herb Lubalin Study Center at The Cooper Union in New York where he got his start.)

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This Just In: Diamond Wooden Type Works

An untitled catalog and some tiny wood blocks from India invite us to rewrite type history.

Cropped image from Diamond Wooden Type Works catalog, ca. 1975, showing red Devanagari letters on a cream page.

In the North Indian city of Meerut, not far from the national capital of New Delhi, there was once a thriving wood type manufacturing scene. The industry there continued to operate much later than in other parts of the world, churning out letter blocks until the turn of the millennium, and contributing significantly to letterpress printing in the region and beyond.

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“Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.: Citizen Printer” Runs June 29, 2024 – January 2025

The major solo exhibition features over 150 type-driven artifacts from the self-described “humble negro printer”. Join us on July 20 for an opening reception with Kennedy and curator Kelly Walters.

Through the use of bold language, graphic typography, and colorful layers, Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.’s prints embody an intensity that catches the eye and provokes the mind. He is extremely outspoken about the impact of white supremacy and racism. These themes are reflected in Kennedy’s work and encompass the evolving trajectory of Black liberation in the United States. From growing up in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Era, to the rise of Black Nationalism in the 1970s, to the present Post-Civil Rights era, Kennedy has seen how these movements shaped Black identity in the United States and has drawn from this as inspiration.

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Women in Graphic Design

We’re dedicated to preserving and celebrating typographic design from underrepresented groups, including women.

Like nearly every professional field, women have been systematically omitted from graphic design history. Fortunately, many recent efforts, such as Alphabettes, Hall of Femmes, and the People’s Graphic Design Archive are pushing to rectify the situation. We’re doing our part by collecting and sharing the work of women, both past and living. Here are some highlights.

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For Your Reference: Threading Letters

From embroidery to weaving, there is a long history incorporating letterforms into fabric. In this visit to the Archive’s stacks, we’re pulling multiple threads on items that tie text to textiles.

Cover for Alphabet de la Brodeuse.

The word “text” originated from the Latin word “textus,” which means “a weaving” or “a fabric.” In ancient times, textus referred specifically to the process of weaving fabric. Over time, the meaning of the word expanded to include written or printed material, reflecting the idea of words being woven together to create a coherent written work. This metaphorical extension continues today with words and phrases such as seamless, threadbare, unraveled, looming, frayed, tangled, and spinning a yarn, highlighting the connection between the physical act of weaving fabric and the intellectual act of composing written language, both of which involve the interlacing of individual elements to create a unified whole. In this installment of For Your Reference, we revisit the Archive’s stacks for books and other items that build a tangible connection between threads and letterforms.

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