Troy Patterson

CATCH AND RELEASE

While I fish, and let the small fish go, and keep the large fish, my mind also performs a kind of catch and release, a freedom to collect and reflect on my thoughts about my practice of graphic design.

Intrinsically, designers are collectors. We collect research, concepts, images, information, and transpose these collections onto our work. In my practice collecting is a necessary formulation of how I make my work. I like to unearth old relicts and rejuvenate them into something new. I collect things and make other things out of them through an investigation of new methodologies. I also collaborate with others through community engagement in order to release objects, ideas, and design into the world.

In my studio we get our hands dirty. Projects are produced that combine letterpress printing and digital type design. Visitors have the opportunity to work with their hands to feel connected to more tactile kinds of production. To many, it is foreign, but they gaze with wonder. To others it brings back collective memories of nostalgic days gone by.

My design practice, like my fishing practice, is made of two parts. On the one hand I’m a collector, a sampler. I capture ideas and the imagination of an audience. By allowing others into my world of making I have captured their minds. On the other hand, through these processes and methods of making and shared experiences, I am then able to release the results of what I have learned, or the products I have built, out into my community. I cast a net and pull it in and then I feed it out again. One after another. Catch & Release.

Photo: Letterpress lock-up, Give Away Everything & Replenish. Assembled with a collection of salvaged lettering from abandoned automobiles, custom physical type from serpentine belts as well as vintage metal and wood type. Dimensions are 8 1/2” x 11”.

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