Graphic Design in the Digital Future: Lessons from the Renaissance Book

Free and open to the public. Advance registration required for afternoon workshops. For further information, and to register for workshops, e-mail Professor Sarah Wall-Randell (swallran@wellesley.edu).

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 discussions 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, '05 (Letterform Archive); Russell Maret (printer/type designer); Ken Botnick (Washington University in St. Louis and emdash design studio); Soe Lin Post (Public Affairs, Wellesley); Sohie Lee (Computer Science, Wellesley); Katherine M. Ruffin (Book Studies & Book Arts, Wellesley); and Ruth R. Rogers (Special Collections, Wellesley).

Schedule:

9:00am  Welcome

9:10am-11am Lectures

Simran Thadani, "(Book) History Repeats Itself: Some Observations on Mise-en-Page, Medieval to Early Modern"
 
Russell Maret, "Collaborating with the Past: Experiments in Alphabetical Dialogue"
 
Ken Botnick, "The Book as Algorithm"
 
11:00am  Refreshments
 
11:15am  Soe Lin Post, Response
 
11:35am  Discussion
 
12:30pm  Lunch for participants    

1:30-4:30pm Books on display in Special Collections
 
2:00pm  Workshops I (Letterpress Printing and Web Design)
 
3:15pm  Break
 
3:30pm  Workshops II (Letterpress Printing and Web Design)
 
4:45pm-6pm  Reception and Discussion
 
Symposium organized by Sarah Wall-Randell, Associate Professor of English, and Simon Grote, Assistant Professor of History.

Sponsored by Book Studies, the Program in Medieval-Renaissance Studies, the Departments of English, History and Computer Science, and Library and Technology Services. Generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School.
 

Information also available on the Book Studies Events page at Wellesley College http://www.wellesley.edu/bookstudies/events.