Paul Shaw Letter Design » Tours & Events

15 May 2022

What you will learn at CalRBS History of Type in August 2022—no. 9

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 …
Continue reading →

14 May 2022

What you will learn at CalRBS History of Type in August 2022—no. 8

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 …
Continue reading →

13 May 2022

What you will learn at CalRBS History of Type in August 2022—no. 7

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 …
Continue reading →

12 May 2022

What you will learn at CalRBS History of Type in August 2022—no. 6

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 …
Continue reading →

11 May 2022

What you will learn at CalRBS History of Type in August 2022—no. 5

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 …
Continue reading →

10 May 2022

What you will learn at CalRBS History of Type in August 2022—no. 4

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →

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 …
Continue reading →