AIGA Design Archives

This text-only record is part of the interactive AIGA Design Archives where you can view more details, zoom into images and explore other works in the definitive online resource on American design.

Design Category
Information design, 1996
Design firm
Fairbairn & Company (Fredonia, New York)
Collection
(1997) Design of Understanding 2

Description

Anna Clift Smith was an artist, writer, illustrator, carpenter, and a feminist who lived alone in a small cottage on Lake Erie. The book includes a facsimile of Smith’s original diary as well as a biographical essay and photographs and illustrations of the area. The choices for design, type, size, paper, and binding are all sensitive to the original diary and reflective of the author’s humble, independent, and pioneering spirit. Many people collaborated harmoniously on the project, which celebrates the strength and joy of women.

Credits
Art director/designer: Jan Fairbairn
Photographer: Sue Besemer
Writer: Wendy Woodury Straight
Typefaces: Adobe Garamond, Abobe Garamond Expert
Printer: Thorner Press
Fabricator: Lynne McElhaney-Kirk/Dun Bindery
Papers: Mohawk Superfine Text, Soft White Eggshell; Cover, Mideggen, Paste Paper Surface Treatment
Publishers: Friends of Reed Library, State University of New York College at Fredonia
Client: Friends of Reed Library