Book Title: The 2002 Anthology of Short Fiction

Client/Publisher: Seattle Country Day School / M2 Press (2002)

Role: Design, typesetting, copywriting

Author: Various young adults

Size: 5.5 x 8 inches, perfect bound

Each year, during his tenure at Seattle Country Day School, English teacher Dave Pippin rallied his 5th-grade students to create an anthology of short fiction. The students spent most of the school year refining their work, preparing it for publication in the Spring.

I was recruited, as an extension of my week-long artist residency at the school, to design and letterpress print the cover. The 2002 edition was the first in a series of 3 anthologies that I designed and printed.

An exhuberant brainstorming session with the students (“Monkeys in sunglasses!” I was told) inspired the cover’s art and text, which I designed digitally and then had made into magnesium printing plates. I then letterpress printed it in an edition of 180 on a Vandercook 4 press, which Mr. Pippin then had bound to the interior book block, which he typeset himself. The books were presented to the students during their last week of school.

Amada Press is the private letterpress studio of Seattle visual artist and designer Amy Redmond. The main focus of her work is on handset typography using metal and wood type. Amy offers letterpress classes for beginning and advanced students through Partners in Print and teaches typography at the School of Visual Concepts. Her professional design work can be viewed on AmyRedmond.com.