Central Illinois native and Park Ridge resident Rex Parker will present an original, illustrated program, “The Titan of Type,” honoring legendary typeface designer Frederic W. Goudy at 10 a.m. on October 13th at the McLean County Museum of History, 200 North Main Street, Bloomington, Illinois.

Thirty of Parker’s original artworks, designed as posters and inspired by Goudy and his Arts & Crafts era, will be on display at the McLean Museum, Oct. 13 through Nov. 24.

Parker also will be interviewed by Mike McCurdy of WGLT, the Bloomington-Normal affiliate of National Public Radio.

Parker’s dynamic career as a Chicago-area graphic designer and his rural origins in Moweaqua, a small town in central Illinois, have both inspired his affinity with Goudy, another native of the area whose design work took him to Chicago, New York and other major cities during the burgeoning early industrial era.

Parker also shares another connection with the famous type designer. Goudy’s time in the once-rural Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois brought him in touch with other Arts & Crafts-era talents based in Park Ridge, notably Clara Barck Welles and her renowned Kalo Silversmiths.

“It’s fascinating to me that memorable creative work has often been done in small and rural communities, not just in the major cosmopolitan areas,” Parker says. “We need to support the arts in education everywhere, so that tomorrow’s creative people can develop and share their talents with all of us.”