Keepsakes & small items not linked to books, DVDs,CDs,Videos

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Keepsake done for Lorson's Books by D'Ambrosio __/150 – 1988  

felt slip-cover.

From A Memoir of Book Design:

When Jim Lorson of Lorson's Books & Prints in Fullerton, California, requested a keepsake for the Miniature Book Society’s Conclave VI, I decided to make a fabrication that would charm the viewer. This would complement the wonderfully pleasant personality of his wife, Joan. I layered different colors and textures of paper in

such a way that they provide a visual background for the lines of poetry and also enhance the meanings of the words. The entire piece is so dependent upon all the parts and pieces that the poetry alone, without the tactile surface or the color of the papers, would not produce the same result. This is a good example of my creative methods. The idea was only partially conceived, the poetry lightly sketched, and then the papers chosen. All of the facets were then altered by degrees until a harmony prevailed. One would find in the original only tiny seeds of the final form. The poetry is a blithe satire about procrastinating (Pro-grass-tination) while lying in the grass and watching the clouds roll by. The clouds are suggested by white lace paper cut out with intentional billowing tops and laid on top of Japanese paper composed of multicolored fibers to suggest a vibrant sky beyond. The third and uppermost paper, upon which the poetry is printed, has cutout areas so the reader can see through to the other layers with no difficulty. The three tiered papers are glued together only on their outer extremities so they can bounce forward when the folio is opened. A fan-shaped enclosure of heavy-fibered Ogura paper completes the presentation.

©Book Club of California

From A Memoir of Book Design:

This work begins my association with the California State Library in Sacramento, working with Gary Strong, the State Librarian at the time, and his associate, Gary Kurutz. The state library would soon become my archival resting place and the source of a number of very important commissions This was the first. I was asked to design a bookplate that would be used by the California State Library Foundation, a separate entity that was created by the talented and innovative Gary Strong, and which supports many projects for which the State cannot, or will not, find the funds. a I created a new logo coalescing CSL (California State Library) with the California poppy (the state flower) in three stages of openness. A line drawing of the California poppy is a very difficult subject. Because of its undulating petals, it is not easy to project its natural image without resorting to its brilliant orange color. All the renderings that I found were line drawings and lacked the genuineness that I was seeking. I can't remember what time of the year it was at this point, but it must not have been spring because if it were the mountains above Los Angeles would have been glazed with the orange color of the flower as it intermixes with the blue and purple of the other wild flowers. I did find a wonderful color photograph taken by a fellow artist who would much later become a subject of one of my books, Martha Jacobsen. I used that photograph as the model for the three stages. The three different sections of the flower were drawn on stark white paper and then brought together by placing them in layers beneath a light table so the best configuration could be achieved.

After printing and placing the typography (Bruce Rogers' Centaur typeface), I surrounded the visual with a theatrical billboard motif using rounded objects with shadows to evoke the circling bulbs of a vaudevillian proclamation (before the use of neon for such purposes). A metal plate was then photographically made from the entire configuration which was used to print letterpress. My idea was to create something new that also carried a sense of history. After all, the state library would be one hundred and fifty years old in the year 2000. And, unbeknownst to me, I would later use the coalesced CSL (minus the poppy and the circling bulbs) as the center motif for the rotunda floor of the new state library. But, I am getting ahead of myself. Finding adhesive backed paper that was also archival and nonacid was difficult but suppliers are now available.

©Book Club of California

keepsake for the Sacramento Book Collectors Club __/60 – 1993 

From A Memoir of Book Design:

This is a keepsake for the Sacramento Book Collectors Club, and a direct result from having worked with Michelangelo's poetry in D'Ambrosio's David (1993), because Michelangelo wrote much of his poetry in the terza rima (literally, third rhyme) scheme. I like it because it is somewhat complicated (as aba, bcb, cdc) and becomes a challenge to the discipline of a poet, and of poetry. The hyphen between terza and rima in this keepsake is not correct according to my dictionary. "Would that I would"

have checked more carefully before I did it.

The typeface is Humanistic and the background is the repeating pattern of a lace curtain that was mounted on four-ply paperboard and then shimmed to type-high elevation for letterpress printing. To keep the background in the background without conflict with the black type, no ink was used to print it. Instead, pencil carbon paper was employed to create very soft lines. The carbon paper was laid face up (carbon side) over the lace curtain block. Then the cylinder of the press, with the paper to be printed upon attached, was rolled across it. It is the use of a product in the reverse order of its original intentions. Ink was used to print the type. This reproduction is a fifty percent reduction of the original size.

Using the Humanistic typeface for this keepsake presented an additional problem. I had only a bare minimum of lead type to work with. In some cases I would have to change a word simply because I did not have enough letters to spell it out completely. Of course the new word would have to supply the same meaning, but it also would have to have the correct number of single letters to coincide with what I had available in the type drawer. Since this was the only Humanistic lead type available on the West Coast, there was no way I could order more. And I knew that the typeface for this work had to be Humanistic.

The basic reason for this work is that I wanted to communicate how much more alike we are than we are not. My basic nurturing included the teaching that respect should be shown to all we come in contact with regardless of race or creed or color-nothing was said as to sexual preference. But today is a different era than when I grew up. We all have about the same anatomy and body functions, which is a great leveler to say the least, but only if one will admit to mortality. And l am asking that you look at me as a fellow being in spite of our differences, and in spite of the fact that I am using a lace curtain instead of chicken wire behind the batter’s box.

©Book Club of California 

 keepsake for Sacramento collectors club __/? – 199From A Memoir of Book Design: 

This is another keepsake for the Sacramento Book Collectors Club Credit must be given to Vincent Lozito of Sacramento and the Club for continually prodding me to do these keepsakes once a year, promising as a bribe his wonderful handmade anise laced biscotti. How could I refuse? It is not a book; instead it is one sheet of paper much like a broadside but considerably smaller upon which a poem is printed. The word "Sacramento" sits behind the poetry in a large sunburst pattern with each letter radiating outward from a central point. It is printed from a paper plate, hand cut from four-ply paperboard and coated with white glue. While the glue was still tacky, I stippled it with a stiff brush to obtain a mottled texture. After being raised type-high with shims for letterpress printing, it was printed in a lavender color. The poetry, printed in black, is in the foreground, and the first letter of each line once again spells out "Sacramento." I have ever been enamored of the city and even contemplated at one time settling down there. But it was not to be. This poem reflects my fondness for the city and all it stands for. My feeling for it stems especially from its site at the base of the incline to the Sierra Nevada mountains, its history of gold rush days, and its importance as an agricultural center as well as the seat of government for the large and beautiful Golden State. When one flies into or out of its airport, sunlight is reflected off many waterways giving the area its jewellike appearance from the sky. Hence the title, "Sierra Jewels."

©Book Club of California

keepsake for Sacramento collectors club __/? – 1997

From A Memoir of Book Design: 

This is another keepsake for the Sacramento Book Collectors Club, and yet another lesson learned. It is a song I wrote while pretending to be a "forty-niner" miner crying in my beer at the local saloon. The triteness is intentional as that is what gives the lyrics and the tempo their charm. It is meant to be sung as if the singer were totally sloshed in alcohol as I presume was the necessary way to survive the rigors of gold mining in that era at that time-in spite of the fact that some lines of the song imply modern conveniences.

The music was partially computer generated, whereas the notes were drawn in by hand. The lyrics were also computer generated. Then magnesium plates were made from which to print letterpress. It is a shame that I didn't use "spell check" because I made some unforgivable spelling errors within the lyrics themselves. But that was not my only downfall. I discovered some wonderfully heavy ecru paper which had inclusions that seemed to come from the vegetable products of farms surrounding the city.

From A Memoir of Book Design:

If I am going to do something different, I want it to be very different! There is absolutely no reason for me to waste my time continuing to do what has already been done. If I can't extend a particular design beyond itself into new realms of communication then it should be done by someone else. My purpose is to open new avenues of graphic design within the telling of a story and/or with letterforms themselves. No wonder I am sometimes perceived as being arrogant. However, that does not mean that I will design only to be different. And it does not mean that I will always design a totally new concept. Everything I do must show the viewer that the design has roots in another form. I try desperately to show the viewer the new form along with a hint of where the original form came from. If the viewer is not familiar with the old concept, then he or she has to accept the new until that day when the previous form is confronted and the light of recognition goes on in the viewer's mind.

Gary Strong asked me to design a bookplate for his private collection. At this point he had left the post of the California State Librarian and accepted a position in New York City as head of the Queens Borough Public Library System. Where once Gary was a national figure, he became a man of the world. He travels around the globe contributing his knowledge to enhance foreign library systems. Consequently, I wanted to give his aura an international flavor. In this case it is French by using the French for book and the French possessive: livre d’Strong. It is derived from "livre d'art" (book of art). That didn't seem to be enough. I needed to let the world know of this man's humble origins, because that is how they may judge how far he has gone. I did this in a subtle way with an outline (as opposed to bold black letters) of his first name, and more specifically by showing the letter "g" in lower case to keep it from being grandiose. And it does not intrude on the "strong" French flavor because it barely hovers in the background, seemingly softer in tone because it is an outline.

For the most part, this is computer generated-all except for the bug in the lower section of the ellipse. After I had positioned all of the letters in the oval, I felt it needed a little something more-something to give it an other than-rigid-computer look. I played with the letter "O" of Queens Borough Public Library System until it became a living breathing design element. It is something the world hasn't seen before. It is new. It is interesting. And it is intriguing. Happily, Gary approved. A plate was made and the bookplate was printed letterpress on archival paper.The reproduction above is the actual size.

©Book Club of California

Prototype of Keepsake for the SBBC, 2004

at California State Library

Small book with giclée reproduction of On the Sacramento River, the George Greene Ivy Banks house, by Gregory Kondos 

Information on white labels and differs from final version

Blue cloth boards

3 x 2 1/4 inches

Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California

Keepsake for the SBBC, 2004

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Sacramento Book Collectors Club 65th Anniversary Keepsake broadside for the  meeting February 13, 2004. 11 x 17 inches includes Sierra Jewels (JD’A–K&S–9) and a reference to a slide show that will be given by D’Ambrosio about A Memoir of Book Design. This was printed by Robert Dickover and Vincent Lozito.

Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California

JD’A–K&S–17: A View of Mount Rainier: A Keepsake for SBCC __/? – 2007