Graphic Design in the Digital Future Lessons from the Renaissance Book (RBS-Mellon Symposium)

Date: 10 September 2016
Time: 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Location: Margaret Clapp Library Lecture Room, Wellesley College
Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School, Book Studies at Wellsley, the Program in Medieval-Renaissance Studies, and the Departments of English and History at Wellesley College

Our media landscape is changing radically. New technologies offer new ways of reading and new modes of presenting texts—but how completely can we really break with old paradigms? Do the design principles of the printed book have a place in our digital future? To find an answer, this conference compares our ongoing technological revolution with an earlier one: the invention of the printed book itself in Renaissance Europe. Lectures, workshops, and discussion by historians and practitioners of printing, web design, and typography will enable the audience to apply lessons from the Renaissance to the design challenges of the present.

Speakers and workshop leaders include Simran Thadani, executive director of the Letterform Archive; printer and type designer Russell Maret; Ken Botnick of emdash design studio and Professor of Art at Washington University; Wellesley Director of Design Soe Lin Post; Wellesley Senior Instructor in Computer Science Sohie Lee; Wellesley Book Studies and Book Arts Program Director Katherine M. Ruffin; and Curator of Special Collections Ruth R. Rogers, Wellesley’s Margaret Clapp Library.

Lectures and discussions take place in the Margaret Clapp Library Library Lecture Room from 9:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Following a lunch break, the program will resume at 2:00 p.m. with workshops in letterpress printing and web design. Workshops run until 4:45 p.m., and are open to all Wellesley faculty, staff, and students. Advance registration is required for afternoon workshops. For further information (including locations), and to register for workshops, please e-mail Prof. Sarah Wall-Randell.

See the event website for additional details.