Clark’s Studio
view enlarged panelThrough his work at Clark’s Studio, Willard Clark left a graphic description of a bygone time and place in New Mexico history. He was just passing through when he came to Santa Fe in 1928 and decided to stay. Within a year he set up El Estudio Press, the town’s first job printing shop and an unusually creative firm where he put his commercial art training to use.
Skilled at producing woodblocks, Clark applied his talent to even the most mundane projects — necktie ads, placemats, napkins, business cards and fliers — transforming them into works of art. His use of type coupled with the whimsical Southwest images he cut into wood established a graphic style that designers still employ to evoke an earlier Santa Fe. Though he closed his shop in 1942 and took a job in support of the war effort, he returned to printing in 1982 with the same distinctive style and completed his most important book work during the last ten years of his life.
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