Lead Graffiti is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of The Multifaceted Mr. Morris. This is the catalogue of the William Morris exhibition mounted in the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection at the University of Delaware for the “Useful & Beautiful” conference held in October 2010. More than 30 books, manuscripts, drawings, and other works are described and an introduction tells the story of how the collector came to collect Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites. The author, Jane Trippett, is a PhD student in Art History at the University of Delaware.

The book is printed via letterpress in Caslon type, with eight color plates, 150 copies will be available, 100 in wrappers ($50) and 50 hardcover ($125), signed and bound with parchment.

Books will be available through Oak Knoll Books and Lead Graffiti.

As we at Lead Graffiti approach printing via letterpress as designers, we wanted to find an interesting way to incorporate some visual element to the project. Many of the pieces included in the book are fabulous, often either one-of-a-kind or ones with an important provenance.

We took each entry and looked at the piece for some visual element we found interesting. Often it was typographic, in the instance of a photo or a drawing it might just be a small area that attracted us or a word in a letter. We took those elements, photographed them, put them through Livetrace, and designed a space at the top of each page printed via letterpress for them to inhabit. We printed them in a light tone so as to not detract from the main reason this book exists. It will be interesting for someone who visits the MSL Collection to look through some of the pieces and see if they can find the image. Sometimes it will be easy. At other times it will be quite difficult.

Here are a few of the images we used in the book to give you a taste.

We’ve finally gotten a moment to post a schedule of Lead Graffiti letterpress & bookmaking workshops for January - June 2012.

LETTERPRESS

METAL TYPE COMPOSITION

Saturday, March 3
Sunday, April 8
Saturday, May 5
Sunday, June 3

VANDERCOOK

Sunday, March 11
Saturday, April 14
Sunday, May 13
Saturday, June 9

C&P FLOOR-MODEL PLATENS

Sunday, February 19
Saturday, March 17
Sunday, April 22
Saturday, May 19
Sunday, June 17

BOOKMAKING

PASTEPAPER PRIMER

Saturday, February 18
Saturday, April 7
Sunday, May 20

ONE DAY, ONE BOOK

Saturday, April 21

COPTIC STITCH BINDING

Sunday, May 6

CLASSIC CLAMSHELL

Sunday, March 4
Saturday, June 2