Dr. Fiona Ross, type designer

Third Annual Updike Prize Ceremony, Exhibition & Lecture at Providence Public Library, October 17

September 19, 2016

Pioneer Type Designer Dr. Fiona Ross to Lecture

Providence Public Library will hold its Updike Prize for Student Type Design Ceremony on Monday, October 17 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm.  The event will feature the opening of our typographic exhibition and a lecture by Dr. Fiona Ross, a pioneer in the design of non-Latin typefaces.  The ceremony and lecture begins at 6:00 pm in the Library’s 3rd floor Auditorium.  A tour of the typographic exhibition in the Providence Journal Rhode Island Room (1st floor) will begin at 5:30 pm.  The entrance at 225 Washington Street, Providence will be open at 5:15 pm.

Dr. Fiona Ross of the University of Reading will be our featured speaker at the third annual awards ceremony for the Updike Prize for Student Type Design.  We’re excited to be announcing the finalists and winners of our first competition to inspire student type design through the use of our collection of historic typographical materials in the Daniel Berkeley Updike Collection.

Dr. Ross is a pioneer in the design of non-Latin typefaces, beginning with her work in the 1970s with Linotype. In 2014 she received the Society of Typographic Afficianados’ Typography Award. Her lecture for this evening is titled “Collections-Based Research for Contemporary Typeface Design – With Special Reference to Non-Latin Scripts.”

The lecture will be accompanied by an exhibition of materials from the Library’s Updike Collection as well as specimens produced by the finalists for the prize.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Updike Prize is generously sponsored by Paperworks.

For more information about the exhibition or Special Collections, contact Jordan Goffin, the Special Collections Librarian, at jgoffin@provlib.org or by phone at 401-455-8021. For more information about Special Collections and the Updike Collection, visit www.provlib.org/special-collections.

To register for this free event, visit updike2016.eventbrite.com

Support for the event is provided by Paperworks

The Daniel Berkeley Updike Printing Collection at PPL

Daniel Berkeley Updike was one of the most celebrated printers in America’s history, and he created one of the premier private collections on the history of printing. Early printing manuals and type specimens as well as books from his own Merrymount Press formed the core of his collection, which came to the Library upon his death in 1941. This gift, coupled with his generosity to the Library during his lifetime and continued additions throughout the years makes it one of the finest public library collections on printing in the country. Entailing more than 8,000 volumes, as well as ephemera, manuscripts, and artifacts the collection includes the works of great printers from the 15th century to the 20st, as well as hundreds of portraits of members of the book trades and one of the finest collections of typographic specimen books in the country.