Archive | Graphic Designer

Sharing Wisdom in an Archives, a Strange Kinship

With each archival collection I process, another voice enters my head, along with another piece of wisdom.  Ideas from a long lost soul have landed in my hands, before landing in the hands of countless others.  This is strange kinship seeps into my consciousness.  A voice, a thought, an image from a distant time.

Advice, notes and doodles – written by Laurence W. Benét, uncle of poet Laura Benét, regarding how to manufacture the French-Hotchkiss machine gun. Guide to the Benét Family Papers, Vassar College

Are these errant pieces of mental marginalia I collect beginning to coalesce into one shared memory, hailing from all the collections on which I work.  Could there be such a think as an archival murmuration? A flock of ideas morphing into a particular spectacular pattern? read more

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Tom Smith: Graphic Designer with a Vintage Eye

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Tom Smith is a graphic designer whose work I have long admired. His work has a strong and recognizable vintage aesthetic. For me, he consistently hits the bull’s eye with lettering and imagery. On the flip side of his vintage-inspired designs, Tom also works within a super pared down clean edge style as well, which makes strolling through his personal artwork enticing at every turn.

I love comparing notes with Tom about my work as an archivist, the resources he uses as a designer, and vintage-inspired images we are carrying on our iPhones on any given day. read more

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