During many years at the University of Brighton, Bob Gordon lectured on graphic design, typography, digitally enhanced and manipulated imagery and the digital assembly of publishing resources within the media of print. As Senior Lecturer in Typography and Computer Studies at the University he worked across all levels of the BA courses in Graphic Design and Illustration and interacts with students from a range of other design disciplines. Bob's special interests were in systems and processes of multiple imaging.
Much of his early work has been reproduced serographically, by letterpress and intaglio - though later work has been by electrostatic and planographic processes. He later turned his attention to the expanding use and viability of the giclée method, as process and with reference to both studio installations and high end commercial configurations.
Bob Gordon worked in close collaboration for Her Majesty's Government in the establishment of renewed reprographic resources in developing countries both in Africa and the West Indies. His consultancy work in the field of training, teaching, and digital media has been with leading national and international industries including names such as Unilever, Kodak, Martini Bacardi, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and The Oxford University Press. In 1969, as a Beta tester for Quark Inc. he produced an experimental interactive site for Clarion Artists' Agents which was showcased, worldwide, via the QuarkImmedia demonstration CD.
Bob worked in many varied fields of graphic design as a practioner both in the public and private sectors. For many years he ran his own design company and became a member of the Chartered Society of Designers. During his career his work has covered publishing, signage, exhibition design, advertising, stationery and publicity.
His work has encompassed design projects as diverse as annual reports, logotypes, posters for London Underground, and for several year his company designed the corporate styling and materials for the Brighton Festival. He has experience within the printing industry and has headed up teams of designers and print personnel. While working within the print industry he developed innovative techniques for large-scale acquisition of electrostatic installations within tightly defined cost benefit parameters. He has written a book on the subject of digital typography with particular reference to the intricate tasks of user defined character tracking, kerning, text/tone control and font management (Making Digital Type Look Good ISBN 0-500-28313-3). In collaboration with Maggie Gordon he has written and co-edited a book on digital design (The Complete Guide to Digital Graphic Design ISBN 0-8230-28560-8) which has been published in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and has been translated into 8 foreign languages. Bob Gordon is also an avid collector of xylographic ephemera and allied items.
