Everyday life in Reading: what can printed ephemera tell us about the way we were?

The Lettering, Printing and Graphic Design Collections in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication have material that tell us about the history of Reading and the local area. As well as artefacts and visual material about ‘bricks, bulbs and beer’, we have collections of printed ephemera that tell stories about everyday lives: shop invoices and packaging; theatre programmes; flyers for societies and events.

We want to share this resource with members of the local community and find out what they remember when they see them.

Working with members of the Friends, University staff and students and our Centre for Ephemera Studies, we will co-curate a digital exhibition of items of local ephemera accompanied by voice-overs of people who are prepared to share memories inspired by what they see.

We are looking for funding for photography/digitisation (2 days of professional photography time) and 2 days for a sound recordist who will manage, record and edit the conversations. We have assumed a day rate of £350.00. Design work on the digital exhibition will be undertaken by students in Typography & Graphic Communication as part of the ‘real jobs’ scheme.

The exhibition will be made available for use throughout the community and will serve as a prototype for enabling community engagement with stories inspired by our throwaway print.

Total requested: £1400

Prof Sue Walker, Director of Collections and Archives in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication

Dr Emma Minns, Assistant Curator, Lettering, Printing and Graphic Design Collections