Notes
Typeface
![Contemporary Graphic Design [Detail]](/assets/typeface.png)
We’re delighted to announce that, in the interests of ‘not treading on each others’ creative toes’, we’ll be partnering with the renowned Mr Gordon Paper of Build, to present a number of design focused events for the Belfast creative community (and creative communities beyond).
Our first collaboration is the Irish premiere of Typeface, a film by Justine Nagan that has received widespread, international critical acclaim.
‘Typeface’, subtitled ‘Charting the Intersection of Rural America and Contemporary Graphic Design’, explores the intersection of old and new technology, as letterpress meets digital in the sleepy town of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. As Kartemquin Films puts it:
It’s a Thursday afternoon and all is quiet in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, a town that is struggling to re-invent itself.
In the last few years, unemployment has consistently risen, factories have left the heartland for cheaper locales and the little town of Two Rivers has struggled to re-invent itself.
[In an effort to confront this] Jim VanLanen, one of the town’s most industrious entrepreneurs, began developing small museums as a way to bring tourists and industry to the area.
A few blocks off the main drag, a lone employee waits in the most popular of these museums for visitors to come. A couple of individuals straggle in every few days and then, come Friday, the museum fills with life.
Machines hum, presses print, artists buzz. One weekend each month, the quiet of Two Rivers is interrupted as carloads of artisans drive in from across the Midwest. The place comes alive as printmaking workshops led by, and filled with, some of the region’s top creative talent descend on the sleepy enclave.
The museum is significant to the town’s history, but more importantly, its existence is critical to the worldwide design community who are passionate about the history of their craft and its function in the contemporary field. They believe the future of their industry may lie in the past.
‘Typeface’ celebrates the re-emergence of letterpress as a medium and celebrates the rediscovery of the ‘craft’ of design, as designers using the latest, digital tools look back for inspiration at the original, analogue tools that paved the way for their medium.
As celebrated designers and collectives including Dan Cederholm and Ligature, Loop & Stem embrace letterpress as a medium, ‘Typeface’ presents a fascinating overview of how old-meets-new at a timely juncture.
We look forward to seeing you at what will, we’re sure, be the first of many collaborative creative events that ensure we both ‘build a better web™’ and ‘teach this shizzle right™’ in both Belfast and beyond.
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