The multi-talented W. A. Dwiggins — designer of typefaces and books, calligrapher, illustrator, playwright, set designer, and marionette-maker — often used his artistic powers to argue for change in matters that concerned him, from graphic-arts production to larger social issues. Dwiggins’s approaches were highly personal, and different from the AIGA’s current Design for Good initiatives, yet his goals were similar.
He also understood that humor and satire are more effective vehicles for advocacy than are finger-wagging and lecturing, and to deliver his messages with levity he employed a cast of colorful characters, chief among them his alter ego, Hermann Püterschein. Sometimes he indulged in fun purely for the playful pleasure of it. Dwiggins biographer Bruce Kennett will present examples of this work, all of it infused with Dwiggins’s wit and joyous spirit.
WHERE: Noble Lounge, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 36 College Street, Monpelier, VT
WHEN: Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 7:00pm-8:30pm
Free to AIGA members, $5 non-members
