Paul Shaw Letter Design » Tours & Events

9 May 2022

What you will learn at CalRBS History of Type in August 2022—no. 3

I will be teaching the history of type at California Rare Book School (CalRBS) August 8–12, 2022. The 5-day intensive class will be based at the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. Along with lectures, discussions, and hands-on examination of typographic artifacts and materials at the Archive there will be field trips to other Bay Area institutions to look at books, broadsides, and more. The class will be small (7 to 12 people).
Here are 10 things you will …
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7 May 2022

What you will learn at CalRBS History of Type in August 2022 no. 1

I will be teaching the history of type at California Rare Book School (CalRBS) August 8–12, 2022. The 5-day intensive class will be based at the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. Along with lectures, discussions, and hands-on examination of typographic artifacts and materials at the Archive there will be field trips to other Bay Area institutions to look at books, broadsides, and more. The class will be small (7 to 12 people).
Here are 10 things you will …
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26 March 2022

Type Drives Culture—42nd Street from the Hudson River to the East River

42nd Street: A Lettering Walk by Paul Shaw. Type Drives Culture, March 4, 2022. Video by Liz DeLuna.
This video was made at the request of Zelda Harrison for the 2022 Type Drives Culture conference sponsored by the Type Directors Club. Liz DeLuna (of main5design) did the initial filming with assistance from her husband Bohdan. Although I contributed additional still images for the final video and art directed the titles, Liz did all of the editing and additional …
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18 March 2022

Nachlass Jan Tschichold (Deutsche National Bibliothek Leipzig)

“Exhibition of new German Writing Art” (1920). Calligraphy by Johannes Tzschichhold [Jan Tschichold]. Image from Nachlass Jan Tschichold, Deutsche National Bibliothek Leipzig.
In October 2021 I stumbled on the digitized collection of Jan Tschichold’s work that was uploaded to the Deutsche National Bibliothek Leipzig website several months earlier. It is a remarkable collection. I was especially struck by finding a lot of Tschichold’s early calligraphic work, much of it in various forms of blackletter. That discovery led me to …
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13 March 2022

History of Typography in the West (Cal RBS) August 8–12, 2022

I have been teaching The History of Type for California Rare Book School since 2014. The five-day class has taken place every two years, either in Los Angeles or the Bay Area. With the exception of 2020, when the class was conducted via Zoom due to the pandemic, it has been a hands-on class. This year the class will return to the Bay Area where it will be based at the Letterform Archive.
Grendl Löfkvist, Education Director at the …
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20 November 2021

Lettering and Type at Push Pin: A Preliminary Investigation

The link below is to the video of my talk on “Lettering and Type at Push Pin” for Poster House (via Zoom) on November 16, 2021. There are a few errors in it. Here is the correct information:
• the “Chicago has a great lake” poster by John Massey is shown in an untrimmed state. The white circle at right should bleed. Thanks to Greg D’Onofrio for pointing this out.
• The small type on the cover of Our Crowd is …
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16 July 2020

Legacy of Letters: In Memory of Ray Tomasso (1949–2020)

Ray Tomasso appreciating his print. Legacy of Letters workshop with Alan Kitching (6 July 2015)
It is with sadness that I write this post about Ray Tomasso, letterpress printer and paper sculptor, who died on June 25 of this year. Ray and his wife Diane were both part of Legacy of Letters 2015 and Legacy of Letters 2017, Ray as a participant and Diane as an observer, documentarian, and occasional assistant.
My memories of Ray from those two workshops at the …
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19 May 2020

The Swiss Grid exhibition at Poster House: A virtual tour

The Swiss Grid exhibition at Poster House, the new poster museum in New York, opened on February 27. Curator Angela Lippert had asked me to lead a tour of the exhibition for Type Directors Club members on March 23, but it was cancelled Governor Cuomo imposed a lockdown on New York Stare, the week before in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As a substitute Angela and I semi-violated the lockdown on March 17. We met at the deserted …
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18 February 2020

Scholarships for Tipo Cibo Vino 2020

We are pleased to announce the winners of two scholarships for someone under 30 to attend the Legacy of Letters: Tipo Cibo Vino 2020 gastronomic tour and letterpress workshop this summer in Italy. Egor Golovyrin (age 24) from Omsk, Russia is the consensus winner of the Mark Simonson Scholarship and Erica Carras (age 28) from the United States is the winner of the Occupant Fonts half-scholarship.
Egor Golovyrin
“My love of type, letters and printing began at the age of …
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5 December 2019

Announcing Mark Simonson Scholarship for Legacy of Letters 2020

Learning to set metal type. Day 1 of Tipo Cibo Vino 2019.
Legacy of Letters is pleased to announce that Mark Simonson Studio, a leading font producer based in St. Paul, Minnesota has agreed to sponsor a scholarship (worth $3500) for one person to attend the Tipo Cibo Vino 2020 tour and letterpress workshop in Italy next summer. The scholarship will cover the full cost of the tour/workshop but not travel to or from Italy or meals and …
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3 December 2019

Announcing Tipo Cibo Vino 2020 (Legacy of Letters)

Punches by Giambattista Bodoni. Image courtesy of the Museo Bodoniano, Parma. Photograph by Paul Shaw 2008.
The inaugural edition of Tipo Cibo Vino (Legacy of Letters 2019) this past summer was a resounding success. So much so, that even before it was over, many of the participants were clamoring for Patricia and myself to do another Tipo Cibo Vino in 2020 with Peter Kruty Editions. Although it has taken longer than expected to work out a different (but equally compelling) …
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1 December 2019

Images of Tipo Cibo Vino (Legacy of Letters 2019) Part 13—The Bound Book

The letterpress project for each edition of Legacy of Letters has gotten bolder and more elaborate. In 2010 we spent one day at the Tipoteca. Under the direction of Lucio Passerini we printed a collaborative broadside of our initials in two colors. In 2012 we doubled our printing time. Lucio guided oversaw the making of a collaborative broadside that could be cut and folded into an accordion book. It was printed in three colors. In 2013 Lucio was again our …
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30 November 2019

Images of Tipo Cibo Vino (Legacy of Letters 2019) Part 12—Binding

The one thing we failed to accomplish during Tipo Cibo Vino in Cornuda was binding our printed sheets. In early September Sandro Berra of the Tipoteca shipped them to Peter Kruty Editions in Brooklyn. I then sounded out the Legacy of Letters 2019 participants to find a date when the greatest number of them could come to Brooklyn for a binding bee. We eventually settled on Saturday, October 26.
The day was sunny and cool—perfect autumnal weather. In the early …
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15 September 2019

Tipo Cibo Vino (Legacy of Letters 2019)—Part 11: Celebration

July 12, 2019 | End of Legacy of Letters 2019 Tipo Cibo Vino
Legacy of Letters has always ended with a celebratory dinner. It was particularly deserving this year following the frenetic push to get the menu book pages printed and scored—and to return all type and type material to its original place and get the Tipoteca cleaned up by 7 pm. Once we had accomplished that we posed for several final group photographs before heading to Le Corderie to celebrate.
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15 September 2019

Tipo Cibo Vino (Legacy of Letters 2019)—Part 10: Letterpress Workshop Day 5

Prints drying on presses and cabinets in the machinery exhibition room.
July 12, 2019 | Day 4 of the project
Friday was the last day of the letterpress project. It was chaotic and frantic, as it had been with Alan Kitching in 2015 and with Erik Spiekermann in 2017. As in the past, those who finished printing their page early pitched in to help those who were lagging behind. This spirit of cooperation is always one of the most pleasing aspects …
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15 September 2019

Tipo Cibo Vino (Legacy of Letters 2019)—Part 10: Letterpress Workshop Day 5 continued

From left to right: Lucio, Sandro, and Daniele working on the title page print. In the background, Peter is amused by Lucio’s boundless energy.
July 12, 2019 | Day 4 of the project
Daniele Facchin, Lucio Bottaselle, Leonardo Facchin, and Sandro Berra
Without the assistance of Daniele, Lucio, Leonardo, and Sandro, the printing would never have been completed on time. Daniele and Lucio, the two Tipoteca “technicians”, helped everyone out with typesetting as well as running the presses as they have done …
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