David Esslemont, Decorah
Member Since July 2011
Artist Statement David Esslemont is an award-winning British artist, designer, printer, bookbinder, and publisher now living in America. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England in 1953, Esslemont studied Fine Art (painting) at the Central School of Art and Design in London (now The University of the Arts).
From 1985 to 1997 Esslemont was Controller (managing and artistic director) of the Gregynog Press in Wales. At Gregynog he designed and printed several prize-winning books including Giraldus Cambrensis for which he won the Felice Feliciano Award for Book Design in 1991. At Gregynog he was responsible not only for the design and printing but also the strategic development, marketing and general management.
As a designer Esslemont has worked on a variety projects from a book stamp for the Bodleian library to a whole new visual identity for the University of Wales Swansea, including design guidelines and the application to signage and marketing. Many smaller commissions such as bookplates have been undertaken for private individuals and the design of stationery and logos for associations and small businesses. Digital typesetting and design projects include books for the British Library, Previous Parrot Press, and the first two issues of Parenthesis for the Fine Press Book Association.
From the outset Esslemont has also bound his books himself and most were issued in leather bindings: full leather, quarter leather and designed fine bindings, often with gold tooling. Today, David Esslemont is pleased to offer his services as a bookbinder for small editions of fine print books. For example All in Good Time and Angels for the Celtic Cross Press. He also welcomes commissions for one off bindings such as the binding on Wood Engravings by Agnes Miller Parker. Occasionally he finds a book that inspires and will create a binding specially for that volume.
Esslemont was invited in January 2005, by the late Robert Woof, inspirational Director of the Wordsworth Trust, to be an Artist in Residence with the Trust in Grasmere in the English Lake District. This provided a unique opportunity to pursue watercolour painting and work on illustrations for a projected new edition of Wordsworth's poem, The Prelude.
Esslemont has lectured widely in the U.K. and U.S.A., and his work can be found in both private and public collections worldwide. His archive is held at the University of Iowa. He has been artist-in-residence with the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere, England, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) in Minneapolis. His recent work includes illustrated editions of John Keats' poem To Autumn; Wordsworth's The Prelude; Barack Obama's inaugural address; and a suite of digital flowers – Florilegium Solmentes.
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