Visiting artist focuses on developing new typeface

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

July brings another artist in residence to the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center’s artist residency program, though one with quite an uncommon medium.

Mia Cinelli is an associate professor at the University of Kentucky in the School or Art and Visual Studies. In Lexington, Ky. she teaches courses relating to graphic design including publication design, advanced graphic design, layout and typography. These same mediums for graphic design lend themselves to her artwork.

“I teach students who are really joyful to work with,” said Cinelli. “I’ve got a whole new group of students lined up for typography and for publication, which I’m really excited about. Teaching is so much fun and students are so curious and they make the coolest stuff.”

While in NY Mills, Cinelli has been working on her original proposal of creating a typeface based on historical and cultural aspects of the area. This is a series of typefaces she has made since 2012. Her inspiration for the font family came in the first few days in town, after first looking at the creamery building’s original word work, as well as the city’s railway sign.

“I spent the first couple days thinking about what type is around, what historic type is around, and what could be interesting,” said Cinelli. “So I started doing type tests. One idea was the really beautiful text engraved on the creamery. What could that look like? Is there an interesting story behind it? What does it tell about a community?

“Something I found really interesting was in the photos of NY Mills,” she continued. “I found there were quite a few that were taken by the same person, a photographer named Philip Adelbert Friedell, who bless him, signed all of his work. And he has really distinct handwriting, because most cursive slants forward, but his slants backwards. And he took really great care to letter all of them.”

Friedell spent time in NY Mills in 1907-08, taking photos of the old creamery building as well as a logging train and surely others. He married NY Mills native, Frances St. Clair Reynolds in February of 1908 and then spent time in Montana. They returned to NY Mills and he took photographs between about 1911-13, often numbering, naming, and signing each photograph.

“In a very specific time, he signed all of these works,” said Cinelli. “I found out he had a postcard business and was thrilled to find some original postcards here at the Cultural Center. His handwriting is lovely, it’s so thoughtful and so measured and so distinct.

“Making a typeface from historical sources is not just tracing letters,” she explained. “They don’t work together in that way. So right now, I’m doing some initial historical tracing. It’s quite complicated, but I have a collection of what I’ve found so far.”

Finding photos bearing his signature from Montana, International Falls and NY Mills, Cinelli has been working also to learn more about Friedell, his connection to this area, and his photographic works. Some of his later works include a typed signature of his photo studio in International Falls, Minn.

“I’m really fascinated to learn through newspapers, archives, and photos, what was the life of this person and what was their connection to this very specific place?” said Cinelli. “It feels nice to spend hours going through these newspapers online. I just like being really curious about something, you just really want to know. That’s what drives you to know more, the sheer curiosity.”

Originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Cinelli has been happy to find herself back in the Upper Midwest where the scenery and people are so much like they were back home in Michigan.

“Something that really drew me to this residence was, this place looks exactly like the U.P.,” she said. “It’s a super similar population, when I saw the issue sign downstairs, my husband is from a big Finnish family, so super similar culture. This feels familiar, it’s really exciting to be back in the midwest.”

Graphic design makes up the majority of Cinelli’s artwork mediums as she said it can be utilized in so many varying ways. Along with being a functional art medium, it can also be used for any tone of work and type of need.

“It’s such a broad medium,” she said. “You can use it to be expressive, so solve problems, to make statements, you can use it to be helpful in your community, so I really like that it’s a creative field that has a lot of outlets. I feel really lucky that in my career, I’ve been able to do a lot of commercial work: logos, branding, things like that, but also I get to do creative work. I get to do installations, art exhibitions, make typefaces, I get to do residencies, and all of that falls under graphic design. So I feel really lucky that this is what I’ve chosen to do, I like the flexibility of it. It’s really fun.”

While in NY Mills, Cinelli has enjoyed the ability to focus on her work in a dedicated capacity. She gave an artist talk and workshop on typography last Thursday at the Cultural Center and taught a group on how typographers begin their work. She enjoys being able to teach others about design and share her curiosity through her work.

“Curiosity and hopefulness,” she said. “What’s interesting and what can I do that’s meaningful? My favorite thing about graphic design in my artwork is the ability to convey ideas and emotions effectively. All graphic designs intends to communicate something. So being able to have the tools and the skills of visual language in order to communicate, I think is a really powerful thing. I feel very lucky to be able to do it.

“Something that’s great about digital typefaces is they have no boundaries,” she continued. “I can share one with you, you can share one with your friend, you can print it in the paper, it has a life outside itself and it comes from a specific place. So in that way, I think it can tell that story about a specific person, or narrative, or location, especially something that otherwise people might not have access to.”

Cinelli wraps up her time in NY Mills on July 31, but has made the most of her nearly two weeks in town. Between research, talks and her workshop, as well as her work on the new typeface, she has been busy working on her connection to the city.

“I feel quite humbled to be a part of this, it’s a real honor to be here.”