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DWIGFEST! A Celebration of Bruce Kennett’s W. A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design
February 7, 2018 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Come help us celebrate the publication of Bruce Kennett’s W. A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design (Letterform Archive, 2017), the first comprehensive biography of this major artist ever to be published. Dwiggins (1880-1956) left a significant mark on the fields of type design, graphic design, and puppetry, but was also deeply interested in calligraphy, illustration, writing, kite-making, furniture design, and theatrical set design. He was the quintessential maker, and suffused an unmistakable joie de vivre into everything he did. The large-format book has 496 pages and over 1200 illustrations, with many examples of Dwiggins’s work reproduced at actual size.
On stage: Steven Heller, Bruce Kennett, and Rob Saunders. Steven will lead a wide-ranging discussion about Dwiggins and the creation of this important book, and the panel will welcome questions from the audience.
Steven Heller, co-chair of SVA NYC’s MFA Design / Designer As Author + Entrepreneur program, is the author, coauthor, or editor of over 170 books. He writes “The Daily Heller” for Print Magazine and is a 1999 AIGA Medalist and the 2011 recipient of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum National Design Award for “Design Mind.” His most recent book, with Greg D’Onofrio, is The Moderns: Midcentury American Graphic Design (Abrams Books, 2017).
Bruce Kennett is a book designer, photographer, writer, and teacher, Kennett has been giving slide presentations and writing about Dwiggins since 1980. During the 1970s he spent many pleasant hours at Dwiggins’s studio in Hingham, Massachusetts, in the company of Dwiggins’s assistant Dorothy Abbe, who had made the studio her home.
Rob Saunders is a designer, teacher, curator, and publisher who has collected graphic design and letterforms for over 40 years. Rob began his career teaching at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Tufts University, while serving freelance clients and agencies, before founding a book publishing enterprise that included Alphabet Press (graphic design), Picture Book Studio (children’s books), and Rabbit Ears Books (book/audio packages), which was eventually acquired by Simon & Schuster. Prior to founding Letterform Archive he served as a creative and marketing consultant with clients in the hospitality, technology, and financial industries.