This collection consists of the organizational records and design examples from the Society of Typographic Arts (STA), and Chicago based organization of graphic design professionals. Records in the collection include documentation of membership, by-laws of the organizations, meeting minutes, planning materials and documentation of conferences and retreats, and a range of designed materials created by STA as well as those submitted to STA in annual competitions.Digitized material from this collection includes exhibition catalogs, letters and individual publications.
The Society of Typographic Arts (STA) has a long history as a professional association for designers in Chicago. Originally established as the Society of Typographic Arts in 1927, the organization existed until 1989 and during that time sponsored many memorable events, seminars, and conferences; including the ICOGRADA "Design that Works" Conference in 1978. STA publications include "Trademarks USA", 1964; "Fifty Years of Graphic Design in Chicago," 1977; "Herman Zapf and His Design Philosophy," 1987, and many others. Throughout its existence the STA offered the Chicago design community both formal and informal opportunities for exchanging ideas and getting to know one another.In 1989, the organization changed its philosophy, direction, and name to become the American Center for Design. The American Center for Design ceased to exist on April 24, 2002. However, the new STA (which still exists) emerged in 1990 resurrected by a small group of former officers and board members of the STA and other affiliated organizations in Chicago who wanted to continue to focus on local and regional issues as well as on any global issues that might affect Chicagoland designers. Their goals included rekindling pride in Chicago as a major center of design and encouraging participation in the STA by top graphic designers regardless of where they live and work. The new STA began having annual conferences in 1994 in order to develop an in-depth dialogue among professionals in the Chicagoland area. In 2000, it was reincorporated in the State of Illinois and developed a Board of Directors from those attending its 7th annual conference."The Society of Typographic Arts (STA), previously the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), became an autonomous Chicago-based organization on October 17, 1927, organized and directed by a group of Chicago's leading designers and typographers, among them Paul Ressinger, the STA's first president, Ray DaBoll, Douglas McMurtrie, William Kittredge, and R. Hunter Middleton.The STA eventually had over 2,800 members. R. Hunter Middleton, STA president in 1945 and graphic designer for Ludlow Typograph Company, wrote in the March 1953 number of Print, which was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the STA, that, "From the beginning, the STA leaders. . . determined that 'good design' be the basis of all their activities. These founders were men of taste. Design to them was something organic, somthing with historic background that served a purpose and could be recognized by other men with good taste any time, anywhere." Sussan Jackson Keig served as the STA's first female president in 1955.From its inception in 1927, the STA has sponsored lectures and workshops by great local, national, and international designers, including Karl Hermann Klingspor, Lucien Bernhard, Bertha and Frederic Goudy, John Henry Nash, Oliver Simon, H.D.C. Pepler, Giovanni Mardersteig, Albert Kner, Victor Hammer, Beatrice Warde, L. Moholy-Nagy, Gyorgy Kepes, and Carl Purington Rollins.