This is the final brief of their second year and it ends in a very different sort of ‘Work in Progress’ show. The show (which is actually a non-show) will be a sale of items produced for the brief and sold in a pop-up shop space on Clerkenwell Road – the proceeds of which will go towards their final degree show next year. We have been intentional in not having a usual kind of London work-in-progress show where work is sanitised and glorified, and taken out of its actual context. Instead, the intention is to engage with the audience that London as a city provides – the passers-by and specifically non-designers.

I enjoyed very aspect of the making process of this brief.  The research (happily conducted off the books in my library), the writing, the editing (thanks to David Preston and Rebecca Ross who provided useful and clear critique), the design and final production.

The final 24-page booklet contained the brief, timetable but also important and essential readings. It was produced using 80gsm copier paper, laser printed masters, an ancient protesting photocopier, and rubber bands. As this is a brief about designers as producers, I chose typefaces designed by people rather than corporations. I used Archer designed by Jesse Ragan, Tobias Frere-Jones and Jonathan Hoefler for the body text and Leyton, a chunky yet astonishingly readable typeface designed by Ian Moore for the titles.

I was keen to make the booklet as sustainable as possible – working with the recycled copier paper that was available in college and simple rubber bands from Rymans (easier to recycle than staples). Rebecca had the idea to use coloured paper to separate the content – so the yellow part is the brief, and the readings are printed on white paper. On the day of production, I must confess that I struggle not to over design the booklet but to produce it with the materials available – even if they were a strange yellow and an almost-lilac paper and the photocopier toner was exhausted and weary.

Over the weekend I collated each of the 120 copies (1 for each of the tutors and students taking part in the brief), trimmed and cut them by hand. A mad labour of love (resulting in severe tendonitis!) that was intended to convey to students that this was a physical brief rather than an impersonal pdf document, and that tutors do practice what they preach! On the day of the briefing, each of the 7 tutors personalised copies for the students using a simple label space on the cover.

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Here’s a teaching experiment: Put a group of well-behaved, thoughtful students in a room, and ask them to take a decision. No decisions will be immediately taken. An enjoyable conversation will be had but the focus will be on the space between each other; on engagement rather than on decision-making. Frustrating for some, lifeblood for others.

Print Matters began as a meeting space for second and third year BA students who were familiar with print, and had a special interest in printed matters and the act of publication. We were interested, as Herbert Spencer suggested, in the purpose of printed matters (whether words or pictures) to spark off ideas and activities.

At the outset, before we met, I hoped that some of the concepts we would explore included narrative, documentation, publicity, failure and mistakes, and spontaneous and peripatetic publications… We would experiment and engage with content, craft and sustainable production. I had no real structure or plan as to how we would go about this. Rather, I hoped this would evolve naturally from the group. For me, as this was not a formal academic curricular activity, it was important that it form its own shape and boundaries based on the people in the group.

We had our first meeting in the Letterpress Workshop. At that time, it seemed crucial to be where a part of ‘making’ was situated on our course. The interest group had no identity as yet – having a place of ‘making’ as a meeting point would give us a small sense of structure and belonging. As we gained confidence, Print Matters appropriated different spaces around the college depending on the nature of our activity – computer room, common room, design studio, library, café…

Attendance sheet from the first meeting

Early on, as a group, we made a few decisions. Print Matters was not about a print fetish or making beautiful things. We thought this seemed crass and unseemly given the recession, sustainability issues, and reasoned criticisms levelled at contemporary publications. We discussed the nature of print in relation to ongoing technological developments – the mass digitizing of books by Google, the birth of the tablet (in particular the iPad), and the rise of risograph printing in London. All of this would provide fodder for our discussions and impetus for future publications.

Our work, we decided, needed to be linked to the course – we spoke of providing some ‘physical evidence’ of our community, BA Graphic Design. This was important, as the size of the group was small (16 students in all) when compared to the number of students on the course. It was essential that our making and our activity extend beyond our own selves to engage and involve our community.

Email communication with Estates about the placement of posters

At the end of that first meeting, we came away with two aims. One practical, and the other exploratory: to provide publicity for the weekly Wednesday lectures, and to give us the chance of a journey, to find our own path (or put another way: to look for questions first, before we provided answers). We put our names to a manifesto.

Poster for a talk by Ken Hollings. Designed by Ed Cornish using Stickies.

In an age of instant gratification, this manifesto is deeply old fashioned. As a result, this has been an arduous journey, and the manifesto has caused us all sorts of trouble on the way.

We had casualties on the way. Some students dropped out because they had other priorities, others were unable to commit to the Interest Group and manage course work, and for some who had committed to a peripatetic path there was realization that they required more structure.

This has brought up several questions – What is the purpose of a special interest group on a BA course? Is it possible to have students learn and engage with facilitation rather than directive teaching? Is consideration a luxurious activity? Is print primarily evidence of doing? Do designers need to be respectful, thoughtful human beings? Is collaboration an important aspect of design?

Some of these answers are found between the lines in these pages.

Publicity for a talk by David Preston. Designed by Nia Murphy using a rubber stamp.

Today, as we put together this publication, we appear to have slowly but naturally found our path. With three publications in the offing, including a collaboration with AND Publishing on a publication related to Google Books, we have been strangely busy. Looking back at the Posters for Talks, I realize that we have been quietly but effectively producing in the background. Perhaps you’ve noticed us…

Publicity for a talk by Paul Rennie. Designed by Boya Latumahina and Magdalena Sobczynska as a postcard printed by letterpress.

Publicity for a talk by Larry Sider. Designed by Rose Brissenden as a tin can sound system.

Slides from Short run, an illustrated talk

The talk focused on important aspects of little press publishing such as the publisher’s direct involvement in the design and production of their books. The design approach of a little press was largely dependent on the publisher’s available resources and connections that contributed to the unique identity of the imprints.

A6 invitation

These are books that, as Gita Wolf, Tara’s publisher puts it, ‘refashion traditional artisanal skills into fine contemporary bookmaking’.

Designing the poster and flyer for the exhibition was fun. Keeping in mind the spirit of Tara’s initiative, the publicity material was entirely (and painstakingly) printed by hand in India on handmade paper. The peacock on the poster is an image by the Gond artist Ram Singh Urveti from the book The Night Life of Trees.

A3 poster