Winter 2025

Just ink it

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.: Citizen Printer

Published by Letterform Archive, $60. Foreword by Austin Kleon.

A ‘man of letters’ is how Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. describes himself and his type-driven letterpress activity.

Kennedy has always seen his craft as communication to the masses. His fearless handbills and posters on social justice, politics, race and capitalism, bursting with colour, are powerful, expressive statements of intuitive, spontaneous print activism: ‘INK it, don’t THINK it. Just have fun.’

Inspired by the legacy of African American printing and culture, Black protest and early twentieth-century Dutch printmaker H. N. Werkman, Kennedy’s humanistic letterpress prints combine message and form – incorporating the rich textural qualities of imperfection.

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.: Citizen Printer (Letterform Archive, $60, foreword by Austin Kleon) has a dynamic, generous design and layout by Gail Anderson and Joe Newton. The hefty book shows a good number of full page letterpress prints and workshop photographs and portraits by Aundre Larrow. High production qualities support a tactile, craft-like, print workshop feeling, right down to its sturdy board cover. The posters are loosely grouped into ‘Social Justice’ (‘One Love’, ca. 2002, above left); ‘Shared Wisdom’; and ‘Community’ (‘Ideas’ and ‘Tee’s Lounge’, above).

Contextual essays, by scholars Kelly Walters and Myron M. Beasley, tell Kennedy’s inspirational story as an activist printer.

Hans Dieter Reichert, senior lecturer and art director, Maidstone

First published in Eye no. 107 vol. 27, 2025

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.