HOT TYPE
handmade Book, edition of 6, 2019
a political exploration of type
HOT TYPE is a collection of typeset readings and primary sources. A product of my research on the working class history of graphic labor, it includes histories of the International Typographical Union, the California Labor School, and the Detroit Printing Co-Op. These sources argue for the historical precedent of labor militancy within the design industry. Taken together, they propose a renewal of class consciousness in the creative sector more broadly, which is comprised of many contract and contingent workers.
Background
Before the term “graphic designer” was coined, there were jobbing printers, typographers, compositors, bookbinders, pressmen, and more. Design, now widely considered a white collar profession, has its basis in the newspaper printing industry of the nineteenth century. As workers, these printing professionals occupied a strategic position in relation to the to the means of the production of knowledge, and of popular consciousness.
a beautiful coincidence
HOT TYPE was self-published as an edition of 6 perfect bound books. It was exhibited at the Otis Art Book Fair, and sold at the San Francisco Art Book Fair in 2019. One copy was sold to the son of Giacomo Patri, a California Labor School teacher and linocut artist, whose work is featured prominently in the publication.