February 21

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ADCD – Keynote Speaker Andy Cruz of House Industries

House Industries came on the scene in the mid 90s, and their first efforts barely foreshadowed what was to come. Type foundries were sprouting like mushrooms. Nearly every day an email would contain a poster, postcard, or brochure announcing the release of a yet another set of fonts by yet another new foundry/person. Many have since disappeared, probably realizing that making and selling fonts is not nearly as easy as first imagined. But the flyers, booklets, and catalogs from House Industries never stopped coming. And with each offering their work showed more maturity and an increasingly distinct approach to type design and particularly type marketing.

To be young offers an opportunity to create your own reality, to make new work, to ignore the past and invent the future. House Industries doesn’t seem to be very interested in that. The only future they’re interested in is the future as imagined in sci-fi movies of the 50s and 60s. Curiously, however, they don’t like their work to be labeled “Retro.”

When House Industries mines the past it usually involves putting a spotlight on the very people whose work they resurrect. The fonts of Big Daddy Roth are a good example. Not only did House Industries revive and preserve Big Daddy’s vernacular lettering, they made sure he benefited from the venture as much as they did. Appropriate royalties were paid, and a friendship was solidified. A similar project has just been finished regarding the well-known New York type designer Ed Benguiat. A 70s icon of American type design, Benguiat echoes the blue collar, roll up your sleeves, craft oriented, design approach of House Industries. They are a perfect match.

When: Thursday, February 21, Networking: 6pm; Presentation: 7pm
Where: Denver Newspaper Agency Auditorium, 101 West Colfax Avenue (Parking is at the Adams Mark)
Info: ADCD ; RSVP

NDAC – Media Interest Happy Hour sponsored by United Advertising

Join Denver’s Media sellers, buyers and planners in celebrating this challenging media environment. Your first drink is on United Advertising but feel free to toast any one of the following: TV writer’s strike, biggest political advertising season ever, slow Q1 media sales, Olympics eating up all kinds of inventory, reduction of many ad budgets, many Denver advertising lay-offs!

When: Thursday, February 21, 5pm – 8pm
Where: Purple Martini, Tabor Center
Info: NDAC

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