Jack Stauffacher

Jack Werner Stauffacher (December 19, 1920 – November 16, 2017) was an American printer, typographer, educator, and fine book publisher. He owned and operated Greenwood Press, a small book printing press based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

He taught classes in design, typography, and printmaking at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, University of California, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco Art Institute. in 1920, and he grew up in nearby San Mateo, California. His father Frank A. Stauffacher was a plumber, and his mother was Elsa R. Stauffacher. His brother, Frank Stauffacher, was a filmmaker and ran the pioneering Art in Cinema series at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from 1946 to 1954. His sister in law was designer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon.

At the age of 13, he established the Greenwood Press. His first printed book appeared in 1941 when he was 20 years old, Washington Irving's "Three Choice Sketches By Geoffrey Crayon, Gent" based on The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.. and decided to close Greenwood Press. He went on to become typographic director at Stanford University Press and to teach at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), and University of California, Santa Cruz. and resumed producing books and limited editions such as Albert Camus and the Men of Stone (1971). In 1967, he was commissioned to redesign the Journal of Typographic Research, later renamed Visible Language. The typographic composition he used for its cover was used for many years.

Stauffacher was added to the distinguished list of AIGA medalists in 2004.

Several of his experimental compositions using wood and metal type are in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Stanford University Library, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). 2011 – Arch: A Book Project by Holly Downing and Jack Stauffacher (group exhibition), Graham Foundation and Festival of the Architecture Book, Chicago, Illinois 2008-2009 – 246 and Counting, Recent Architecture + Design Acquisitions, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, California 2004-2005 – Belles Lettres: The Art of Typography (group exhibition), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California 2002 – Jack Stauffacher: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Architecture and Design (solo exhibition), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California