Yeeeee Hawww, It’s Design Ranch Time in the Hill Country!

Written by Matt Porter in Education, Fonts, Print, and Paper

Design Ranch 2011 begins this Thursday in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Neenah is a big sponsor this year so yours truly, Blog-o-Matt, will be be down to cover the fast breaking news. OK, slow, two-step’n news. OK. Now news. But heck of a lot of fun. Yeeeeee-haaaaaawwwww!

This year marks the 9th gathering of this biennial Craft Camp for Tequila Drinkers. The line up of workshop leaders is excellent. We will reveal how Aesthetic Apparatus founders Dan Ibarra & Michael Byzewski, Aesthetic Apparatus will reveal what two snow stung MPLS cowboys look like in shorts in late Spring (is there such thing as whiter than white?) and wily screen-printing tricks. Jessica Hische will be there, too, sharing her artistry through typographic friendship bracelet making (cowboys can wear them, too!.

Craig Jensen & Gary McLerran of BookLab II will be sharing their sewn-booking binding skills and techniques. Wayne Geyer will lead designers in campfire song writing exercises. Letterpress expert Casey McGarr brings his craft and skills to the Big Table—and promises that you will not leave his workshop with clean hands. Master wood craftsman Zeke Leonard will lead campers on a walk in the countryside to gather illuminating ideas. Others will learn how Debbie Millman gets others to reveal their secrets, paper afficianado Judy Schulz will teach you how to “shoot from the hip”, model maker/illustrator Chris Sickels of the incomporable Red Nose Studio will make you into the next Tim Burton, and paradigm shifter Keri Smith will show you why “wrong” is oh-so-right. And, finally, Armin Vit & Bryony Gomez-Palacio of UnderConsideration who always make us think will show us how to express those thoughts on one of a kind posters.

In Austin Texas, it’s never too hot for coffee.