On Thursday 12 September at 6.30 pm, we kindly invite you to join us in the CAC Reading Room for the fourth event of our series The Graphic Design Archives, which will be hosted on this occasion by Gabrielė Gudaitytė and Inga Navickaitė-Drąsutė from Hands On Press.
Many people visit the CAC Reading Room to absorb knowledge from a diverse range of books. However, what often goes unnoticed are those who come to appreciate design elements such as book covers, text layouts, design solutions, binding methods, and more.
The collection of books in the CAC Reading Room is not only a valuable repository of knowledge but also a versatile archive of graphic design artefacts. To honour and showcase the work of these designers, the CAC Reading Room initiated the event series The Graphic Design Archives. The series aims to bring together a community of practitioners by inviting them to talk about their experiences and show work in progress to a broader audience. While many of us are familiar with a designer’s finished products, such as the posters in our towns and cities, exhibition identities, or publication typesetting, The Graphic Design Archives series seeks to shed light on what often remains unseen or unspoken about – the creative process, experimentation, and, of course, the inevitable failures.
The fourth event of The Graphic Design Archives series, titled “Design Practice In Self-Publishing And Analogue Print” will be hosted by Gabrielė Gudaitytė and Inga Navickaitė-Drąsutė from Hands On Press. Two pairs of hands, printing machines, and creative chaos – such are the tools of Gabrielė and Inga, the founders of the analogue printing press and self-publishing studio, “Hands on press.” The analogue printing techniques used in the printing press – risograph printing, screen printing, letterpress – literally require “hands on the press.” Designers and illustrators Gabrielė and Inga will invite you to take a closer look at the process of self-publishing design taking place at a semi-basement in K. Donelaitis Street in Kaunas, starting with an idea and ending with a hand-made publication that smells of paint. During the informal presentation, they will discuss several individual projects implemented in recent years.
Following the event, a collection of books produced by Hands On Press will be displayed in the reading room throughout the September.