Edwin Pickstone, Glasgow School of Art

This seminar will also be live-streamed. Register below and a Zoom link will be emailed to you on the day of the seminar.

Visual identity of language is a key factor in cultural identity and national heritage. From the designed writing systems of Cyrillic and Hangeul in Russia and South Korea to guillemots of France and ‘long s’ of Germany, the use of distinct characters, diacritics, conventions and the regional variation of visual typographic heritage that grows around a written language, helps to locate you in a particular country or region. This talk will introduce a new project led by staff from The Caseroom, Glasgow School of Art’s collection of traditional printing equipment. The project explores Scottish Gaelic’s contemporary visual identity and how the language’s rich but largely unknown visual heritage might be bolstered through the re-manufacture of traditional print equipment and used to support the development of distinctive designs for the future.

Edwin Pickstone lives and works in Glasgow. Focusing on the material nature of print Pickstone uses letterpress technology, collaborating with artists and designers on a wide range of projects. His work spans academic, artistic and design worlds, with particular interest in the history of typography, graphic design and the nature of the book. He is currently Lecturer, Researcher and Typography Technician at The Glasgow School of Art, where since 2005 he has cared for the school’s collection of Letterpress printing equipment. He has spoken and exhibited internationally.