Designer

Michael Russem

Michael Russem grew up in North Andover, Massachusetts, before moving to Syracuse, Florence, Athens, and now Cambridge. For a good eighteen years he was a printer and a book designer at Kat Ran Press which he co-founded in 1994. Now he’s just a book designer. When he’s not designing books, he’s looking at books or reading books or visiting book stores or wearing a cardigan.

Michael learned to make books the old-fashioned way: one letter at a time. He also knows how to turn on a computer. Because he has had his fingers and faces in ye olde metal type, he knows that letters aren’t just pictures of things. They are things, which he treats with respect. Better still: He treats readers with respect.