José Clemente Orozco Farías ’85 (1960-2021) was a Mexican artist, book designer, and typographer.  Clemente was the grandson of famous Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco, who painted the magnificent Epic of American Civilization in 1934 in Baker-Berry Library. 

Clemente attended Dartmouth as an undergraduate and majored in Art History and Studio Art.  He was a renowned printmaker and publisher.  He founded two printing houses in Mexico: first Taller Ditoria, and later Impronta Casa Editora, also known as Taller Impronta, both in Guadalajara, Mexico, his hometown. Clemente published many works of his own writing and art design, as well as that of others. The 32 linotype chapbooks in the Colección del Semáforo, which include works by Mexican authors as well as translations of Montaigne, Whitman, and Boccaccio, were produced by Clemente Orozco with the intention of being sold at streetlights (hence the name “Semáforo,” Spanish for streetlight). Clemente Orozco’s untimely death in January 2021 of a heart attack represented a major loss to the artist book and printing community worldwide.