Craig Jobson, Associate Professor in the Art and Design Department of Columbia College Chicago, has transformed 22 years of art direction for design, books and magazines into a passion for the publication arts. In his design career he has held positions as Art Director for the National Office of the American Heart Association; Art Director for Tracy-Locke/BBDO Advertising; Design Director for Holt, Rinehart and Winston and Design Director for McDougal Littell Houghton Mifflin. He holds a B.A. in Literature and B.F.A. in Printmaking and Design from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts concentrating in Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago. His studies of the Private Press movement in Britain and the United States, resulted in the purchase of a Vandercook Press and the founding of Lark Sparrow Press in Evanston, Illinois. In the Spring of 2009, he was the full-time faculty recipient of The Excellence in Teaching Award, awarded by Columbia College's Center for Teaching Excellence.
Recent work consists of a 64-page, fully illustrated, three-color, letterpress printed abecedarium:
A Field Guide to Urban Fowl, editioned to 100 copies. In the summer of 2006 Lark Sparow Press published a volume of poetry,
I Am Already, printed on hand-made paper and set in Ludlow typography. The book was dedicated to his editor/attorney and editioned to 100 copies. The suite of short stories titled
The Billy Chronicles, that represent the first offerings of the press, were completed over a period of three years from spring of 2002 to the summer of 2004. Each of the Chronicles three stories are illustrated, letterpress printed on hand-made paper, recorded on a CD and editioned to 15 copies. The Chronicles consist of
D.B. and the Double-Five,
Lizard and Julio Go Nel-o, and
The Colonel’s Chicanery. All stories are true Texas tales of transgression, retribution, reconciliation and dominoes.