Don and Karen’s Love of Letterpress

Don and Karen’s Love of Letterpress - A collection of curated videos in order of appearance.

Windhover Press (1978): directed by Karen S. Nulf, this 15-minute documentary is about Kim Merker, the professor at the University of Iowa who established the press for printing books.

Weingart’s Teaching Philosophy (2013): Directed by Don E. Adleta and filmed in the Azores, Portugal, this 6-minute video documentary focuses on Weingart, the foremost educator of letterpress at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland.

The Adleta Perpetual Calendar (1996): a short video of Don E. Adleta discussing his design.  This calendar was originally set on the letterpress in Basel, Switzerland in 1981.

Adleta Calendar Promotional Video (2018): This short video was produced by Don E. Adleta to promote the 25th anniversary edition of his Adleta Perpetual Calendar and its reprinting.

All of these films are united in a direct way. Their message reaches out to the future of design education at Ohio University. This new initiative is being fostered by Professor Shelley Gruendler, our most recent Chair of the graphic design area. In support of this initiative, the School of Art + Design has established the Don E. Adleta, TypeShop and Bindery, which will be dedicated this Spring to that venture.

All of these kinetic essays link Karen Nulf and Don Adleta’s ventures in the timelessness of letters. Don and Karen have preserved their respect for of the printed word and show this through these short films. Don and Karen also exhibit their passion for preserving the tradition of the printed form by the dedicated efforts it took to save, build, and use our historic typeshop and bindery in design education. 

Windhover celebrates the heritage of printing the letter, word and the book. Weingart describes the methodology of preserving design education and the readability of the word. Adleta Perpetual Calendar is an application with its design and sketching roots in letterpress printing to create a future generating vision of time.