Exhibitions Archives

Based in San Francisco, Letterform Archive is a nonprofit center for inspiration, education, and community. We provide radical accessibility to important artifacts of calligraphy, lettering, typography, and graphic design.

Since we opened to visitors in 2015 the collection has more than tripled through the generosity of donors. We now offer hands-on access to over 100,000 items related to the letter arts. The Archive serves a global community through social media, publications, and the Online Archive. We offer a full-year certificate program in type design and public workshops in calligraphy, lettering, and typography. We also curate local and international exhibitions, organize lectures, and host salons to showcase collections.

Resources

In the Press

“The collection as a whole interrogates design in writing, both man- and machine-made. A 19th-century Korean family tree in Kanji script on yellowed parchment lives next to a 1960s concert handbill with drippy psychedelic font. Man Ray’s scintillating book of poetry and nudes, Facile, sits adjacent to a Victorian children’s penmanship primer.”

— Atlas Obscura

“From style guides for Coca-Cola, book design in the 16th century, or the hand-written origins of some of the world’s most famed fonts, the Archive collects, preserves, and tells the story of the importance and fascination with letters.”

— Juxtapoz

“My discovery of the day was the Vienna Secession’s 1903 Ver Sacrum calendar. I had only seen the November spread reproduced in a book and wasn’t aware that the entire issue is actually a calendar. It’s like [curator Rob] Saunders said, ‘One of the best things about having access to originals is that you realize how great they are all the way through.’ … It’s important to Saunders that the collection is organized in a design-centric manner that’s easy to access and allows for browsing and discovery.”

— AIGA Eye on Design

“Extraordinary hospitality—ingenious attentiveness to your aesthetic fulfillment—is a hallmark of the Archive. Technically, we are visitors, but we are treated like guests.”

— Neenah Paper

Praise

“The Archive captures not only the beauty of type, but also the cultural significance.”

— Annie Cebulski, journalism student, Evanston, IL

“It was great to see the progression from manuscript and hand lettering to type, paste-up to print.”

— Alisa Golden, design student, San Francisco

“Letterform Archive is a library, storehouse, salon, repository, studio, shrine, and sanctuary. Holy moley, this place left me speechless.”

— Alex Savakis, lettering artist, Los Angeles

“I’ve always been impressed by the depth and quality of what you have there. … You’ve created, and continue to build, something unique and extremely valuable.”

— Stephen Woodall, Collections Specialist, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

“The Ali Baba Cavern of Type Design. For my research, having a direct, welcoming contact with the team is of tremendous help to pinpoint a resource.”

— Jean-Baptiste Levée, type designer, Paris

“Almost as a kind of joke, I asked if the Archive had Bodoni’s Manuale Tipografico. And they did. I paged through it at my leisure, and it was an intoxicating experience.”

— Bob Aufuldish, design educator, San Francisco