Drew’s ABCs is a limited edition letterpress book of 360 copies. This project of passion is a unique children’s alphabet book completely developed through the letterpress process using our extensive woodblock collection. These editions were printed on two Universal III Vandercook presses in collaboration with a team of design students from both Pace University and Rutgers University-Newark.
For 20+ years, we have been collecting and building our library of woodblock type and line engraved images. With the birth of our son, our objective for this eclectic and diverse library we have built became clear, letterpress a unique, playful typographic book of ABCs. The concept for the book was to expose the richness of diversity within typography and celebrate its differences. We wanted to bring to light our love of typography and our reverence for design history and letterpress. We whole-heartedly embrace the imperfections as it unveils the history of each letterform. Every nick, crack, and exposed wood grain unmasks a detail about the life of the artifact. By drawing out these unique distinctions and differences, our goal is to impress upon the audience that “we learn to see as we see to learn.”
While the book also serves as a tool for learning to read using formal relationships and color to help guide the viewer through visual connections of word and image, we believe there is no age limit when it comes to appreciating the beauty of letterforms and craft.
- Designer
- Brenda McManus
- Designer
- Ned Drew
- Printers
- Brenda McManus, Ned Drew, Dalia Abdalla, Nadya Andrianova, Flora Balla, Julia Briganti, Shawn Collins, Emily Corson, Rachel Craig, Tyren Crowley, Diana Diaz, Natalia Dymora, Ayah Elgendy, Allie Gallagher, Marylin Gomes, Cindy Guzman,Yolanda Hung, Shaneen Johnson, Joseph Labib, Antoinette Lacy, David Lisi, Gisela Ochoa, Roshani Pise, Donald Portillo, Alexandra Pozo, Susanna Seery, Ronald Solano, Arely Velasco
Project link
