E.M. Ginger, President
E.M. Ginger has worked with fine and rare books and scholarly material for over five decades as a writer, editor, typographer, reviewer, designer, instructor, bibliophile, and weekend printer. She began her fine book training at The Stinehour Press, a printer/publisher of scholarly journals and bibliographic catalogues of rare book and fine art collections for libraries. For twelve years Ginger was managing editor of Fine Print: The Review for the Arts of the Book, a letterpress-printed journal whose contributors included librarians, booksellers, publishers, and book artists. Following this, she worked for Adobe Systems as a manager of the Adobe Originals Type Group as well as a writer, instructor, and printing and type historian. Ginger was the founding editor of Octavo where she conceived the Octavo Editions, and she developed and directed their publication for eight years. She is the co-author of Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works, and author and editor of works on type, typography, and information design, as well as the editor of several award-winning cookbooks.

 

Detail of Plate L, engraving
by Jan Schenk. Johan van
Zyl, Theatrum machinarum
universale; of groot algemeen
Moolen-Boek. Amsterdam:
Peter Schenk, 1761.

 

Martha Blegen, Imaging Director
Martha Blegen has worked in printing, publishing, and photography for thirty years. She was employed for a decade at Thomas Todd Printing in Boston and specialized in offset lithographic prepress for duotone fine art, architecture, and photography book printing. She worked for over ten years as a book designer and design production manager at HarperCollins Publishers, where she developed a proprietary electronic text management process. As Octavo’s first Imaging Director, Blegen developed rigorous protocols for the handling and imaging of rare books and manuscripts; she integrated library conservation and preservation criteria into daily practice, developed innovative lighting techniques, and managed imaging systems both in-house and off-site. She has a degree in Fine Arts Photography from the Kansas City Art Institute and a graduate degree in Book Arts from Mills College.