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Last Wednesday I was scooting through the studios late in the evening, about to head home, when I stopped by the office of April Sheridan. April is the Studio Technician/Special Projects coordinator for the Center for Book and Paper Arts. While I was chatting with her, she asked what I was doing this weekend. “Nothing really,” I said. And then she said, “Why don’t you come to the American Printing History Association Conference (APHA) in San Diego?”

Well, that sounded like the best idea pretty much ever to me. So, through some last minute scholarships from the organization and some great luck with plane tickets, I managed in two days to get everything together enough to head to California on Friday morning.

One thing I’ve learned since being in grad school is that usually things work out best if you take chances and say yes a lot. I feel that often people are waiting out in the world with opportunities (like hopping on a plane and going to California) for you and all you’ve got to do is show that you’re always ready to take advantage of the moment. So, after a long day of class on Thursday and a long day of traveling on Friday, I found myself on the West Coast.

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The conference was just one day of presentations, so early on Saturday morning I got up and headed to the Geisel Library of the University of California San Diego for a day full of presentations on printing history. The presentations varied from subjects like, Blackletter Paradise: Mexican Early Printing and its Impact on Southern California Design given by UCLA’s Jesse Erickson to The Mechanical and Digital: How Technology Affects Design given by Columbia College Chicago alum, Daniel Mellis.

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One presentation in particular caught my attention. Re-imagining the Globe Poster Baltimore was a presentation about the late company Globe Poster Printing Incorporated. A company much like Hatch Show Print out of Nashville, Globe Poster printed and was known for making loud bold music and event posters. Recently it was decided that they would like for their collection of wood type, over 1,000 drawers of it, to belong to a collection so that, come the day when their business was done, all of their type would be preserved in an intact group. Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) took on the responsibility of inheriting and housing the massive amount of material belonging to Globe. Can you imagine a type collection that huge? 1,000 cases full of wood type. Once all of the type has been cataloged it will be open to use by the students of MICA. While I was listening to the presentation, I just keep thinking about what a beautiful situation it was, this dual preservation of and continued use of these historical items. And they said they needed help organizing and proofing that type – so you never know – maybe next weekend is Baltimore??

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Attending the APHA conference were printers and scholars from all over the country. I have found that nothing can get me motivated like a conference can. Being around a large group of people who are interested in what you’re interested in can be so inspiring and help to establish great connections with the outside-of-Columbia-College-Chicago community. So far, these conferences have been an invaluable part of my graduate school experience, and I look forward to the many more that are coming up (like the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum Wayzgoose in November and the College Book Art Association conference in January!).