Descripción del evento
Susan Merritt te ayudará a descubrir el inigualable Athenaeum School of the Arts Print Studio que abrió sus puertas en el 2016 y que se dedica a la enseñanza del uso de la prensa tipográfica y el grabado.
Ve el trabajo que muestra un rango de técnicas de impresión que va desde la impresión en relieve con prensa tipográfica hasta la calcografía y las impresiones únicas realizadas mediante monotipo por estudiantes, incluyendo varios diseñadores ansiosos de volver al aspecto manual de la tipografía y a experimentar con impresión tradicional y contemporánea.
Conoce a Sibyl Rubottom, jefa del taller de impresión, que también enseña el arte de los libros y grabado junto con Morgan Miller III. Entérate de más leyendo el artículo y después echa un vistazo al taller mediante un recorrido en video con Rubottom, para que veas las prensas y las cajas tipográficas que contienen tipos en metal y madera.
Esta función se lanzará en la página del evento el 9 de septiembre y estará disponible toda la semana.
Este programa será presentado en inglés.
VIDEO: SYBIL RUBOTTOM AT ATHENAEUM PRINT STUDIO
*Note: This event pairs well with the screening of Graphic Means and “Design History at Your Fingertips.”
A Place Where Letterpress and Printmaking Press On
Athenaeum School of the Arts Print Studio at the Athenaeum Art Center, a branch of the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
by Susan Merritt
I was first introduced to typography and letterpress printing when I was a 22-year-old postgraduate student at the Basel School of Design. Typography was a required class taught by Wolfgang Weingart in the school’s well-equipped type shop that graphic design students shared with the typesetting apprenticeship program. Typecases packed with lead type in a range of point sizes filled the room while a row of manual letterpress printers stood at the ready. There was also a bindery. This experience, together with André Gürtler’s Letterform Design classes, instilled in me an appreciation for the letters of the Roman alphabet, a good taste for type, and a passion for the printed page. The scope of my professional work as a graphic designer, design educator, and book artist, as well as my research and writing, often lean toward typography and printing.
I embraced the challenge of adapting to the Macintosh enthusiastically at first but after ten years I yearned to get back to the hand craft that had welcomed me into graphic design in the first place. So, I enrolled in book arts classes taught by book artist Genie Shenk in the cozy printmaking studio at Mesa College. That’s where I met Sibyl Rubottom who manages the Athenaeum Art Center’s Print Studio. During the summer months, I attended Paper & Book Intensive (PBI) workshops around the country and joined printmaking and book arts sessions in Maine at the amazing Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and for a while I was a member of Bay Park Press formerly run by Sibyl and printmaker Jim Machacek. In 2003, I was awarded a month-long residency at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, which claims the worldʼs largest archive of wood type. While in residence, I had such fun experimenting with their collection of decorative wood borders and corners and their extensive assortment of type styles and sizes from 6-point to 16 inches! It was like being 22 again.
You can see why I was looking forward to once again turning back the clock and setting type and printing broadsides throughout the summer of 2020 at the Print Studio together with my friend Patricia Cué, who also serves on the San Diego Design Week steering committee. Our plan was to organize an exhibition in the gallery at the Athenaeum Art Center together with Sibyl and during San Diego Design Week showcase work produced at the Print Studio.
Then the pandemic swept us all into quarantine.
So, I’m writing about the Print Studio instead. I hope these interviews with Sibyl and a few of her students and a glimpse at some of their work will suffice until we can once again gather in person at the Athenaeum Art Center.
Sibyl Rubottom, book artist, teacher, manager of the Print Studio
Curt Sherman
Interior designer, design educator, and book artist
SM: How did you get involved in the Print Studio?
Curt: I’ve always had a strong interest in the multitude of printing processes. I first took a class with Sibyl at Bay Park Press. I was very excited when the Print Studio opened and I have taken a number of classes there. My greatest interest is in working with type and the presses. I’m especially intrigued by the old wood type and have used it in several projects.
SM: What type of projects have you worked on at the Print Studio?
Curt: Most of my pieces are one-of-a-kind. Although I have worked on limited edition prints and, to a lesser extent, textiles and books. As a designer, I’m not interested in limitations. I like to combine different processes in the same piece, like working on various presses, bringing in woodblock, textiles, Photoshop, collage, and other construction techniques.
“Beyond Black-and-White, Dyeing for Color” was the last class I took before the Print Studio closed due to the pandemic. The goal was to create dyes from nature. I took the project a step further and created both dyes and paper from plants that grow in my own yard, thirteen in all. The results were divided into two books called 4484 and 4484 TOO with a sequence of four pages devoted to each plant. The first page features a poem or phrase on paper colored with dye from the plant, which is mounted on handmade paper made from the same plant. A color photograph of the plant printed on translucent vellum follows and the last page shows either an old wood engraving of the plant or, if that was not available, a photograph that I modified in PhotoShop to look like a mezzotint. The title on each book cover was printed using 72-point Garamond wood type. During the process, I made a lot of sample dyes and many sheets of handmade paper. I’m still exploring ways to make use of these materials.
SM: How does your involvement at the Print Studio relate to or build on your design practice?
Curt: Other than enhancing my knowledge and challenging my creative skills, working in the Print Studio has had little impact on my design practice. Most of the work I do there is done for my personal pleasure.
Tyler Blik
Graphic designer, AIGA Fellow, design educator, author of Trademarks of the ’20s and ’30s, Trademarks of the ’40s and ’50s, Trademarks of the ’60s and ’70s, American Trademarks | A Compendium
SM: You’ve been involved with the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library for a long time. You designed their identity, didn’t you?
Tyler: Yes, that’s right. I’ve had a longstanding relationship with the Athenaeum. Personally, I feel it’s one of San Diego’s premier cultural institutions and they provide so many interesting opportunities to explore—the School and its many classes, art exhibitions, lectures, a variety of concerts, the La Jolla Mural Project, and their vast collection of books, music and important manuscripts. My agency, Blik, designed their identity, communications package, School of Arts program calendar, a book on art from their permanent collection, and various online marketing tools, including their website.
SM: What inspired you to take classes at the Print Studio?
Tyler: The Print Studio is a fantastic resource available to the community. They teach classes in a variety of printmaking techniques including letterpress, linocut, intaglio, and they’ve just added silkscreen. They have some very unique presses, drawers of hot metal type, and I enjoy learning about the history of the equipment. I minored in printmaking while in college and have always been fascinated by the various processes. About 10 years ago, before the Print Studio existed, my old college chum and fellow graphic designer, Dave Conover, and I took a letterpress class with Sibyl when she was operating Bay Park Press. Sibyl is a wealth of information, as well as Morgan, who has taught me some of the finer details about letterpress printing. Currently, as I’m moving away from my client relationships, I’m exploring my own personal typographic work within the realm of hot metal type and letterpress printing. I’ve taken both defined class assignments at the Print Studio, as well as open studio arrangements, where I can work on my own editions. I’m currently working on a series of editions solely devoted to the expression of numeric letterforms and their relationships to one another. I am at a point where I’d like to spend as much time as possible in the Print Studio, yet the pandemic has curtailed that work until the Studio reopens.
Have a great question? Submit questions directly to SDDW presenters here!
About Athenaeum School of the Arts Print Studio con Susan Merritt
El taller de impresión de la Athenaeum School of the Arts es una sucursal de la Athenaeum Music & Arts Library que comenzó con la generosa donación del Dr. Edwin Petko de Los Ángeles. El Dr. Petko quería trasladar su extensa colección de prensas a instituciones que continuaran usándolas para enseñar grabado e impresión tipográfica a las futuras generaciones. El momento era ideal ya que el Athenaeum acababa de obtener un espacio especialmente designado para ser un estudio de impresión. Más allá de la impresión tipográfica, el taller ofrece clases en una gama de técnicas de impresión que incluye grabado en madera, linóleo, colografía, calcografía, grabado, punta seca, mezzotinto, aguafuerte, aguatinta, monotipo y serigrafía.
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Susan Merritt realiza investigación y escribe sobre comunicación visual, cultura de los objetos e historia del diseño. Completó sus estudios de posgrado en la Basel School of Design y obtuvo un MA en investigación del diseño, escritura y crítica de la School of Visual Arts. Es profesora emérita de la School of Art + Design de SDSU donde enseñó diseño gráfico e historia del diseño, simultáneamente manteniéndose activa en la práctica profesional. Merritt es miembro fundador de AIGA San Diego y contribuyente del blog de AIGA, Eye on Design. Con su esposo, Calvin Woo, es cofundadora del Design Innovation Institute que promueve las áreas tradicionales y contemporáneas del diseño, además de contribuir con becas para estudiantes. Es miembro fundador del comité organizador y del consejo de San Diego Design Week.
