Erin Beckloff is a letterpress printer, designer, educator, and filmmaker who preserves anecdotal and technical knowledge of printing history and culture. Her research explores the letterpress community’s expansiveness through time and how the letterpress printing process will survive through educating others in the craft. She is the co-director and writer of “Pressing On: The Letterpress Film,” a documentary about the survival of letterpress and the remarkable printers who preserve the history and knowledge of the craft.
For over a decade she served as a professor of Communication Design at Miami University where she revitalized the Curmudgeon Press type shop and developed letterpress courses as part of the design curriculum. She holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Vermont College of Fine Arts and continues to study letterpress through practical application and the shared knowledge of master printers. She co-founded and coordinates LEAD: Letterpress Educators of Art & Design.
Erin disseminates her research through public and educational engagement. She has given presentations at two Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum Wayzgoose conferences; ATypI Antwerp; UCDA Design Education Summit; Type@Cooper New York; College Book Art Association Conferences; as well as taught workshops and lectured at universities across the US and UK.