Jack Stauffacher: Typographic Experiments

Jack Werner Stauffacher, print from Wooden Letters from 300 Broadway, 1998. Letterpress, LACMA, copyright Jack Werner Stauffacher.

Printer and typographer Jack Stauffacher, founder of the Greenwood Press in San Francisco, has created a series of typographic experiments over the last 40 years, using wooden letters. His prints are featured in an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His 1998 portfolio Wooden Letters from 300 Broadway, an exercise in typography, lettering and composition, forms the centerpiece of the exhibition. 

In 1966, Stauffacher moved his print shop to a building at 300 Broadway in the North Beach area. Shortly after moving, he received a box of late 19th century wooden type from a poster printing company operating in the same building. He utilized the letters in a series of experimental prints. 

With this box of letters and in my own free time I would just work with them, experimenting. So it was a process of doing and making mistakes. I was, in a sense, conservative and I'm still conservative but I like to move the [letter] edges out a little bit, kind of shape them into a harmonious whole. 

Now what you see are all these different, marvelous letters that have become something else and then when you print them, that patine, they're not all perfect, they're imperfect. They got scratches, they've been used and so they radiate. Each has its own life and it's pleasantly connected with another letter that's also had a life. Each one has its own identity yet they're integrated in one image. --Stauffacher

Stauffacher at work. Photographer: Dennis Letbetter. Image courtesy of AIGA. 

In 2004, he received an American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Medal in recognition of his contribution to the craft of printing. His uses of type have ranged from abstract configurations to investigations of the visual portrayal of dialogue. 

Jack  Stauffacher's work in printing books, typography and design combines an informed reverence for the Classics with an insightful appreciation of innovation. --AIGA

Jack Werner Stauffacher, print from Wooden Letters from 300 Broadway, 1998. Letterpress, LACMA, copyright Jack Werner Stauffacher.

Jack Stauffacher: Typographic Experiments is on view through July 21 at LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.