The studio hosts a termly intensive letterpress program, and in this summer's, "Form and Letterform," participants can learn letterform design to compose a page for an abecedary, or alphabet book. Students design and draw a letterform and corresponding animal, then synthesize them into a unified composition.
Melissa Jacobson, a program participant from Wilder, said she experimented at every step of composition.
"We worked on drawing the letterforms for several weeks, then drawing the animals, and then reducing both and combining the simplified version of the animal with different letterforms to see how they paired and what looked best aesthetically," Jacobson said.
Though the process has been an arduous one, Jacobson, who earned a degree in illustration at the University of Connecticut, appreciated the opportunity to dedicate so much time and effort to a single project.
"There's a lot of play involved," Jacobson said. "In school I had a lot of work all the time, so it's nice to get to focus on one project over the length of several weeks."
As the term comes to a close, workshop participants will add their individual pages to the studio's growing collection. When all of the pages are completed, each participant will receive a copy of the final abecedary.
Participants feel a sense of community from working on portions of the same project.
"The classroom is nice because you get to see what everyone is doing," Jacobson said. "It doesn't feel like you're working in a vacuum."
Throughout the course, workshop participants also learn about elements of conventional book design, many of which readers tend to take for granted. Instructor Won Chung '73 said awareness of these components is a crucial step in producing book art.
"There are a lot of conventions in book design that we aren't even aware exist," Chung said. "In order to be creative and break conventions you need to know what those conventions are."
Next term, the letterpress intensive will focus on fine letterpress printing, with each participant producing a chapbook of poems. Students will learn typography as they design the text layout and hand-set the metal type.
A letterpress course last fall taught typesetting, printing and binding of type specimen books, which catalogue font types. The program, which has only been offered once due to the high skill level it requires, prepares students to make a hardcover book.
In addition to holding workshops, the book arts studio offers professors looking to enrich their curriculums a chance to incorporate experience with letterpress art.
"Dave the Potter: Slavery Between Pots and Poems," offered by the English department in the winter, focused on the works of David Drake, a 19th century slave and artist from South Carolina. Students in the class gained perspective on Drake's work as a newspaper typesetter, through which he became literate.
Each student designed and created a broadside, or poster, that incorporated the text of a Drake poem. Kendall Madden '15 said that her experience in the studio offered her valuable insight into the material she was studying in class.
"I had no idea how time-consuming it would be or how meticulous a hand it required," Madden said. "In a class focused on one individual, the hands-on experience definitely provided a unique perspective."
Examples of other projects created in the studio, including greeting cards and wedding invitations, are on display outside the reserve corridor and in the hallway leading to the Treasure Room.
Chung emphasized that letterpress art is still relevant today, noting that much of what is covered in the workshops has to do with the readability and legibility of text.
"It is the same whether you're doing it in hot metal or designing a webpage or using digital type," Chung said. "I'm hoping students will have a better appreciation for how they use typography in their everyday lives."
