Continuing to October 12, 2025
“10×10 for 10: Ten Years of Letterform Archive” brings together a selection of 100 examples from the Archive’s collection of calligraphy and typographically oriented graphics in celebration of the institution’s tenth anniversary. Founder Rob Saunders’ lifetime of collecting is reconceived as an orchestral score, with each section played by a different ensemble. The Archive’s staff formed ten curatorial teams drawn from across its departments — docents, marketing, education, finance, administration, publishing, and curatorial — to select ten objects apiece from the vast holdings. Each team contributed a brief statement illuminating their choices. As the publishing team aptly expressed, “Each and every object at Letterform Archive is a portal into the rich narrative of human creativity.”
Rich as it is, the resulting exhibition offers no more than a tantalizing, if revealing, snapshot of the Archive’s more than 100,000 holdings. Highlights range from a ca. 2000 BCE cuneiform tablet to some of the most iconic typographical works of early Modernism, such as Guillaume Apollinaire’s, “Calligrammes” (1917), and Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero’s “The Bolted Book” (1927). More recent highlights include a 1950 Cliff House matchbook cover and a 1968 banner proclaiming, “Free Huey.”
Other staff picks are downright surprising. Who would have thought that the Administration/Finance Department would choose works by Baba Ram Das and Jenny Holzer, providing both spiritual and contemporary “Truisms?” Or that the docents would include a 2013 album cover by Fierce Pussy? The Marketing Department “found inspiration in the cultural diversity, beauty, and joy of our home state of California,” culling an orange crate graphic, a luggage label from the Mark Hopkins Hotel, and an Avalon Ballroom poster, all emphasizing California-based objects.
Other vitrine ensembles embody the theoretical approaches taken by each of the curatorial divisions. The Collections Team states, “In our stacks, exploration of personal identity is in conversation with identity systems.” Spanning objects from across the centuries, their choices include an early French treatise on weaving theory printed in 1882; a Milwaukee transit ticket from 1938; a work by celebrated surrealist poet and literary editor Charles Henri Ford created in 1966; and the 1976 NASA Graphic Standards Manual. From corporate graphic conformity to avant expression, the objects displayed here echo the Collection Team’s expressed intention of unearthing typographical diversity within the Archive itself.
The Publishing Team’s mandate to respect each object in the collection as a portal into the “rich narrative of human creativity” prompts us to view each of their selections for their diverse design accomplishments. This diversity is exemplified by commercial design manuals from France (1875), Japan (1929) and Switzerland (1960). Among artists chosen for their use of contemporary design theory, the Publishing Team selected work by well-known Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha and an unknown designer’s movie banner promoting the film, “Mars Attacks the World.”
The big picture of “10 x 10 for 10” reflects the collective sentiment that diverse design wonders occur throughout time, in both likely and unlikely locations (22 different countries are represented here), by persons both celebrated and unknown. Notable figures that pop up include Victor Moscoso, Corita Kent, Paul Rand, Mucha, Ford, Ram Das, Holzer, and Bay Area artists Ward Schumaker and Tauba Auerbach.
Other design marvels range from a “Coca-Cola Standardization Committee Manual” to the cover of “Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing,” both reflecting the expansive taste and curiosity defining the Letterform’s aesthetic ethos.
The gallery fittings — steel panels, magnets, polycarbonate glazing — allow posters, ephemera, and original artwork to be mounted without need for traditional frames, emphasizing both immediacy and preservation. The 100 objects of “10×10 for 10: Ten Years of Letterform Archive” go beyond demonstrating the inclusivity and vitality of Saunder’s vision. Out of so many marketing publications and functional objects we come away with a fresher and deeper grasp of the vast cultural — not just visual — landscape that we inhabit.
