Craig Welsh

Presenter

Joseph Low’s self-published, promotional pieces from linoleum cuts that he carved and printed via letterpress at his home studio - Eden Hill Press - are exquisite.

A copy of Print magazine from 1951 profiled its cover designer/illustrator, Joseph Low. I, like many, had never heard of Low or been aware of his work. That has changed.

In the past 18 months I have located and visited Low’s daughter (now 80), assembled a collection of several hundred pieces designed and/or printed by Low, and have begun work on a book and exhibition of Low’s career that reached from the 1930s to the 1980s. The work spans children’s books, New Yorker covers, LP records for Haydn Society in Boston, and 70+ cook book inserts for Woman’s Day magazine - most driven by Low’s desire to use letterpress printing as his method for image making.

In the 1930s Low produced work at Tarbu Press. In the 1940s Low taught at Indiana University while helping establish its Corydon Press. While living in New Jersey Low worked under the Quattrocchi Press name. It was his move to Connecticut that established Eden Hill Press as the moniker by which his most significant works were produced.

Craig Welsh

Welsh has had design and letterpress work exhibited and published widely; receiving recognition from Cannes Lions, Communication Arts, D&AD, One Show, and Type Directors Club, among others. After earning a degree in architecture from Penn State University, Welsh earned his MA Advertising Design degree from Syracuse University and MFA Graphic Design degree from Marywood University. Beyond his studio, Welsh is currently an associate professor of communications & humanities at Penn State Harrisburg.

gowelsh.com