Kale Vogt,
October 16, 2024
We’ve taken a step back from assembling Exeter hammers long enough for me to poop out another Workspace Series post.
I’m taking you all to Willard this time, to an area of our storefront that isn’t typically blasted on our social media. I’m taking you all to my “office.”
I usually wouldn’t find an office space interesting enough to talk about, but our offices are where the majority of work is done at Lost Art Press.
When we’re not filming an ad in the bench room or prepping stock for class in the machine room, we’re at our computer desks, pushing out blog posts and emails like hens producing daily eggs. And Chris and Megan are, more often than not, working on the next LAP book.
“My” desk isn’t my desk at all, it’s Chris’s. When I began at LAP in February, Chris kindly gave me his workspace then created a new space of his own upstairs. You’re not imagining things if you think my desk looks familiar; it is one of the trestle tables featured in “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”
A few months ago Chris shared with me the inspiration behind this desk, printing off an image and putting it in front of me. The image is from the book “Tacuinum Sanitatis” by Ibn Butlan, a book first published in the 11th century that showcases artwork depicting health practices from the Medieval and, in later editions, Renaissance periods.
Plain as day in the image is Chris’s inspiration for the trestle table. The table design and decorative panels were copied nearly verbatim.
While chewing over how I wished to share my desk, I debated tidying it up – but where’s the fun in that? I want to be honest about how my space looks the majority of the time.
So for the sake of transparency, here’s where every Substack, blog post and email is conceived.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that my desk lives directly across from the library. For the most part, the organization of the library is still mystery to me. If I were asked draw a map of how the books are arranged, the result would provide the same energy as a crayon-drawn map of the United States from the mind of a 5 year old. Chaos.
But Megan has written a series of posts on the books in the library that I’ll one day have time to read, and lucky for me, either Chris or Megan is typically here to show me the way to any book I’m curious about.
I’ll eventually understand the lay of library land, but until then –
“Hey Megan…hey Chris…”
After careful study of the work area, I've concluded y'all really know how to party.
Not a stick chair for the desk? I'm shocked!