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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1999)
UNL graphic designer gets royal title I ECKERSLEY from page 12 The three brothers met their future wives there, too. Eckersley was used to the hustle and bustle of .London city life, but he was curious about small cities and towns, which he said was indirectly responsible for him moving to Lincoln. .. " “WEen I had free afternoons~(in London), I used to take trains to small cities or towns to see what it’s like,” he said. “I went to Bath, and I didn’t real ize there was anything like that in England. It was like coming upon an Italian city. There was beautiful Georgian architecture.” Eckersley found a house there the next weekend and stayed for three years. I continued to move west, in a way,” he said. Eckersley next moved to Ireland, but he got his first taste of the United States shortly before that. He spent four months in Amherst, Mass., at the University of Massachusetts Press as a visiting design and production manag er. There, he discovered his love for small college towns and designing for a university press. “Most Londoners, like New Yorkers, think it would be quite impos sible to "survive outside of the big city, but life in Amherst was quite peace fill,” he said. He said university presses are unusual in England. “There is no real equivalent to die university press system in Britain. There are a number of famous presses, but very few of them,” he said. “The famous presses, like Oxford and Cambridge, are more like trade publi cations now. There isn’t the same sort of intimacy. It’s much more commer .cially oriented.” - That intimacy is what Eckersley got in Ireland and what he gets at UNL. In Ireland, he was a senior graphic designer for Kilkenny Design Workshops, an Irish government agency set up to compete with other countries’ design standards. Eckersley worked with a variety of designers there. “It was very enjoyable to work with a community of designers so mixed,” he said, adding that he worked with computer, ceramic, textile and product designers. A poor economy forced the gov ernment to withdraw sponsorship, and the work became more commercial, disillusioning Eckersley. He decided to come to America. Eckersley got a job as a visiting associate professor at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. The job ended after a year, and Eckersley was scrambling for a job so he could get a green card. Then-director of the University of Nebraska Press, David Gilbert, was looking for someone to establish the press in design, and Eckersiey got the 1 job. He’s been here ever since. “I’ve been very lucky to work here,” he said. “I’ve been given much more freedom than I would have enjoyed at most other university press es. Nebraska has a tradition of good relationships between the departments of the press, so it’s possible for produc tion and editorial to work together.” Eckersiey said he has been allowed to be creative and not be restricted by convention at UNL. In addition to his work at UNL, he may have some new duties as an RDI. “It comes with some obligations, which will be difficult to fulfill living so far from England,” he said. “It’s been established to have an impact on design standards in Britain, particular ly through design education.” He said he wasn’t sure exactly what he would be doing, but RDIs have been talking about establishing summer schools of design. Eckersley said he would probably teach a few workshops in England in the summer for these schools. Until then, he will stay busy at the . the University of Nebraska Press, a job he says he feels strongly about. “Part of die mission of a university is to distribute knowledge to the public outside the university walls, and it’s very exciting to be involved in this generating of new ideas and opinions,” he said. “I feel that it’s a useful job with a point to it.” ! H-----__ j" Nebraska Bookstore"! ! Location Only | 13th & Q Thursday-Sunday I I l I I •Double Your Minutes ($29.99 Rate Plan) •FREE Weekend Calling •FREE Nokia 252 •FREE Case & Cigarette Light Adaptor •Rate Plans To Fit Everyone’s Needs We Will Beat Any CompetitQre^lces! j CELLULARONE* ! Authorized Dealer Hardt Communications 580-0070 Have fun! Get paid! Meet new people! The Daily Nebraskan has positions available in the design and art departments! Cain valuable experience while learning about the gritty and glamorous world of newspaper production. It’s so much fun you won’t believe you get paid for it! 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