February Evening Program
Book artist and letterpress printer Jessica Spring will share strange-but-true tales of her journey from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest, guided by wise mentors – and some villains – who continue to inspire another climb into the press bed.
Spring began her interest in typography as a phototypesetter in the 1980s working for the college newspaper and learning graphic design. After graduation, she continued typesetting, working at the last typesetting shop on Printer’s Row, then at the Chicago Reader. Spring co-founded a graphic design firm, and for over a decade, offered letterpress printing while also serving predominantly nonprofit clients. As her interest in book arts grew, she attended graduate school at Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts and founded Springtide Press in 1999.
By 2003, Spring moved to Tacoma, Washington. She taught book arts for decades at Pacific Lutheran University and continues to teach workshops around the country. A continued focus has been researching historic type composition, which resulted in the invention of Daredevil Furniture to help other printers set type in circles, curves, and angles. Collaborations are a vital part of her work, including many years co-producing the Dead Feminists series and co-authoring Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color.
The projects at Springtide Press include artists books, broadsides, and ephemera, and can be found in collections around the country and abroad. Small finely-crafted editions and one-of-a-kind books explore historical topics, popular culture, and typography from a unique perspective. Spring’s work focuses on amplifying voices needing to be heard, telling stories in a new way, and ultimately, preservation through production.
Our shop motto, “where we always print damp” recognizes the Pacific Northwest as a fine place to print, where the damp climate helps make a good impression.
Please forward this notice to anyone who may find it of interest.
Even if you can’t attend at the scheduled time, if you’re interested, please register. After the program, we’ll send an email to all registrants, asking if you’d like a link to the complete recording. That way you can see the program even if you couldn’t attend live, ran into technical issues, or simply wanted to watch it again.
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