Calligraphy at Reed

This guide can serve as a starting point to exploring Lloyd Reynolds calligraphic style, influences, and tools for practice; both online and on-campus.

If one had to select a single word to describe Lloyd J. Reynolds, it would be “passionate.” He was passionate about teaching, literacy, culture, history, the spirit, and about letterforms and calligraphy. Although he was an excellent calligrapher, he was a teacher first, able to merge beautiful letterforms into his vision of the world, successfully and permanently influencing his students, and providing them with part of his vision. As Jaki Svaren ’50, a student of Reynolds and later an author and teacher herself, said, “The calligraphy got students to come to the class, then Reynolds took off, talking about the whole of the human condition . . . As he made so clear, when you raise a daily activity to the level of art, you begin to look differently at the other seemingly simple aspects of your life. Lloyd Reynolds was trying to open us up to the miracle.”

Reference: https://www.reed.edu/calligraphy/history.html

Italic Styles	Roman Styles	Black Letter Styles

Images courtesy of the Reed Digital Collections: Reed College Archives

Reynolds was inspired by and an inspiration for many other calligraphers and creatives. Browse the resources below to explore some of the related names.

Email, call, or visit the library for more in-depth help with your questions!

This guide was initially created by library graduate students at Emporia State University, Gregory MacNaughton from the Cooley Gallery, and the Reed College Special Collections staff.