Up until just over 30 years ago, when the desktop computer debuted, the whole design production process would have been done primarily by hand, and with the aide of analogue machines. The design and print industries used a variety of ways to get type and image onto film, plates, and finally to the printed page. Graphic Means is a journey through this transformative Mad Men-era of pre-digital design production to the advent of the desktop computer. It explores the methods, tools, and evolving social roles that gave rise to the graphic design industry as we know it today.

The film includes contributions from: Ellen Lupton, Tobias Frere-Jones, Adrian Shaughnessy, Paul Brainerd, Steven Heller, Colin Brignall, Art Chantry, Carolina de Bartolo, Lou Brooks, Frank Romano, Cece Cutsforth, Dan Rhatigan, Joe Erceg, Dave Farey, Joshua Berger, Gene Gable, Ken Garland, Malcolm Garrett, Walter Graham, Ian Swift, Patty Gable, Lynn Fink Golden, Ed Grant, John Grega, Scott Kelly, Mary O’Shaughnessy and Angela Taormina.

The film screening will be followed by a Q&A between producer and director, Briar Levit and Catherine Dixon and panel discussion with contributors Malcom Garrett, Adrian Shaughnessy, Ian Swift and more to be announced shortly.

Briar Levit is an assistant professor of graphic design at Portland State University, and holds a Master’s in communication design from Central St. Martins College of Art & Design. She came up as a designer in San Francisco in the late 1990s, and missed the cold type era by just a few years. Briar cut her teeth as a designer working in-house for Discovery Channel Stores, and not long after that became art director at magazine Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture. Her graphic design focus and practice consists primarily of publication design, with a special interest in independent publishing, small presses, and hiking guides (a few of which she has self-published). Graphic Means: A History of Graphic Design Production was a significant jump out of her comfort zone – but once the idea came to her, it simply wouldn’t go away. She has been working on the film since 2014, whilst teaching design full time. www.graphicmeans.com

Sponsored by Adobe Typekit

All proceeds from this event are kindly being donated to the St Bride Library.