Press Room
Letterform Archive Celebrates 10th Anniversary with 10 × 10 for 10 Exhibition and Yearlong Events
Media Contact
Katie Peeler Ranahan, [email protected], +1.415.223.2823
Press Kit
Exhibition Dates
On View
April 26, 2025 – October 2025
Press Preview
April 25, 2025, 9:30am–12pm
Reception
April 26, 2024, 5:30–7:30pm
SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 14, 2025 — Letterform Archive is celebrating its 10-year anniversary in 2025 with 10 × 10 for 10, an exhibition featuring the organization’s most beloved artifacts, and a year full of special events and offerings.
Since opening in 2015, the Archive has expanded from a 15,000-item private collection to a publicly accessible resource of over 100,000 objects. The Archive’s holdings span continents and movements, unified by one essential material of graphic design: text. The Archive has become a thriving community hub, welcoming thousands of visitors from more than 40 countries while offering radical access and opportunities to engage directly with masterpieces of design.
To mark this milestone, the Archive is curating a year of events designed to educate, entertain, and inspire. The celebration begins with the 10 × 10 for 10 exhibition, on view from April 26 to October 2025, featuring 100 of the collection’s most beloved objects. These items have been carefully chosen by 10 dedicated teams who steward the Archive’s holdings. The exhibition offers a glimpse into every corner of the collection, with selections that span graphic design movements and include everything from a cuneiform tablet to contemporary artists’ books, modernist typography to everyday ephemera.
Throughout 2025, Letterform Archive will host a 10th Anniversary Symposium, a series of lectures and conversations celebrating 10 years of the Archive’s growth and impact. The symposium presents a look at the past, present and future of graphic design, featuring the following lecture series:
Looking Back: In Defense of the Ephemeral: The symposium kicks off in April with a special lecture with Archive founder Rob Saunders in conversation with editorial director and associate curator Stephen Coles, scheduled for April 24, 2025
The Past is Always Present: Events highlighting type designers, graphic designers, and
other creative professionals as they reflect on the Archive’s role in design, both as a resource and as a creative catalyst for contemporary practice.
Looking Forward: Archive staff in conversation with special guests to explore the future of the Archive, with a focus on collections development, access and preservation, exhibitions, publications, and design education.
Letterform Archive will also host a special 10th Anniversary Party on October 18, 2025. Complete details will be released on the Archive’s website and through its mailing list.
For a press kit, including downloadable high-resolution images, visit letterformarchive.org/press.
Visitor Information
Admission
$10 for adults; $5 for students and seniors (65+); Archive members and children under 12 free. Free to the public on Thursdays. Advance tickets available at https://letterformarchive.org/visit.
Regular Exhibition Hours
Thu, 1–8pm (free admission); Fri–Sun, 11am–6pm; closed Mon–Wed.
About Letterform Archive
Based in San Francisco, Letterform Archive is a nonprofit center for inspiration, education, and community. It preserves important artifacts in the history of letterforms and graphic design, and it strives to actively share them with the public. Since it opened to visitors in 2015, the collection has grown in size through the generosity of donors, and now includes over 100,000 items related to the letter arts. The Archive serves a global community through social media, publications, and the Online Archive, and offers a full-year postgraduate certificate program in type design as well as public workshops in calligraphy, lettering, design, and typography. Additionally, the Archive curates local and international exhibitions, organizes lectures, and hosts salons to showcase collections. Learn more at letterformarchive.org.