Draw Down Books

Draw Down Books is a publishing platform founded in 2012 by graphic designers Christopher Sleboda and Kathleen Sleboda (nłeʔkepmx). Draw Down produces publications on graphic design, typography, and art. Our online shop features a selection of titles from around the world, including type specimens and posters. Kathleen, an enrolled member of the Coldwater Indian Band of Merritt, British Columbia, is particularly interested in supporting Indigenous artists and language revitalization projects. In addition to Draw Down, Christopher and Kathleen operate a design practice and teach graphic design at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Draw Down has been active in the artist book space for over a decade, organizing and curating fairs including the Otis MFA GD Fair, Odds and Ends at the Yale University Art Gallery, and Multiple Formats at Boston University, and have participated in over 65 book fairs around the world.

Rachel Berger, A Toolkit for Gathering, Draw Down Books, 2025 © Rachel Berger

Every profession gathers. From conferences to convenings, residencies to retreats, we each have discipline-driven concepts of what it means to get together. These default formats (conferences, retreats, meetings, critiques, residencies)—often shaped by habit more than intention—can limit what's possible.

Defaults might seem efficient, but they rarely take full advantage of the value of getting together. There are simple ways to make professional gatherings more meaningful, productive, and joyful. This book presents a kit of tools on a spectrum from practical to poetic, alongside concrete, replicable tactics and provocations for new tools.

Originally conceived as the authors planned and participated in a two-day gathering at the residency program, This Will Take Time in Point Arena, California, in summer 2019, this book was written and designed over the subsequent year of COVID, a year of deferrals and uncertainty, and impossible working conditions.

This new edition shares knowledge and insights gleaned from experience, and shares pathways forward for sharing ideas and building space and time for dialogue.

Created to help others plan more fulfilling and less generic gatherings, all readers are invited to enjoy the shared curiosity, spontaneous invention, and surprising insights made possible by getting together—in whatever mode possible!

Includes a short list of further reading, and a new foreword by Christopher Sleboda and Kathleen Sleboda of Draw Down Books

Designed by Rachel Berger

Softcover, 144 pages, 2-color offset, 5.6 × 8.45 inches

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What Can Books Do?, Draw Down Books / Otis School of Art and Design, 2024

Cover of a collaborative publication produced during a publication workshop with Draw Down Books at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. The title includes graphic responses from Otis GD MFA 2024 candidates, as well as short interviews. The graduate student interviews and their graphic interpretations of contemporary design titles offer a unique perspective on the evolving landscape of design-related publications and publications by designers.

Graphic contributions designed and printed by Aurora Cecconi, Angie Chan, Wai Yan Cheung, Anthony Luna, Darah Haimovitz, Amanda Liu, Graciela De La Maza, Poppy Pu, Jack Riley, Yolanda Sinaga, Antonio Valverde, Xingfei Wang, Nano Wu, and Gama Yangzong

Cover design by Gama Yangzong

Softcover, 78 pages, covered saddle-stitch binding, 1-, 2-, and 3- color Risograph and 1-color laserprint, 7.25 × 10.10 inches

https://draw-down.com/products/what-can-books-do

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I Got Something to Say — Poster Inventory, 2013–2021, Draw Down Books, 2022

Texts by Jason Alejandro, Somnath Bhatt, Elias Chen, Ryan Diaz, Everett Epstein, Zak Jensen, Ian Lynam, Vaishnavi Mahendran, Anna Sagström, Christopher Sleboda, Kathleen Sleboda, and Mary Yang.

An inventory of posters produced by Draw Down Books for art book fairs, workshops, and lectures between 2013 and 2021. Documenting Draw Down's activities throughout the period, the publication also graphically maps the contours of the artist book publishing world during the second decade of the 21st century. A series of reflections and essays by prominent graphic designers provides context and insights, providing readers with new ways of considering their own poster-making and event documentation.

Designed by Christopher Sleboda and Kathleen Sleboda

Published by Draw Down
First edition, 2022

Softcover, 160 pages, with Swiss binding and lay-flat cover, 1-color offset printing, 5 × 7.5 inches

ISBN: 978-1-73-347441-2

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