Zeb recently left us to go travel the globe (Vietnam, Australia, maybe a little China or India, etc.), but he promised to come back someday with swashbuckling tales of adventure (and some souvenirs too, we hope!). We wouldn’t let him go without allowing us the pleasure of profiling him on our blog!

Job Title: Finisher

Describe what you do at Boxcar Press in 10 words: Inspect, wrap, mix, edge-paint, print, ship, assemble, give, organize, fold.

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We’re just doing the occasional post as this blogger (with the Boxcar Baby in tow) is traveling to warm weather places to visit with family. We realized we hadn’t posted pics of the Boxcar Baby lately….he has been spotted riding a big wheel around the offices, and also eating oranges while standing on top of the Boxcar Dada’s desk. Childhood sure looks fun….

Boxcar Press subsidized a CSA organic farm subscription for Boxcar employees this year. It was an amazing experience (and really yummy too!), and we loved feeling connected to our community in this very real way. The growing season in CNY finally ended, and so our 20 weeks of organic vegetable delivery came to an end. Carrie, our officer manager who found a way to make our CSA dream work, has these parting thoughts.

“Besides yummy veggies and fruits, what did Boxcar Press take away from our first annual CSA participation? This is the question I asked myself more than once over the past 20 week growing season. Sure, the veggies are good, but was it worth the hard work organizing, maintaining, safeguarding and cooking 20 shares of veggies (well, we each cooked our own shares, but it was still lots more cooking than I’m used to!)? The short answer is a resounding yes!”

“Being involved with the CSA was a direct opportunity for Boxcar Press to become involved in our local environment. It allowed us to use our spending power to support local farms that practice farming techniques which take a stewardship of our land and create hope for a safe planet for our children and their children, too. For some of us, it introduced us to vegetables we had never experienced before and for others it reminded us of the wonders of nature and the bounty our very own upstate New York land can provide. Best of all, it allowed Boxcar Press to enrich the community by providing Syracuse with its first every downtown POD (Point of Delivery), which made veggie pickups convenient enough to attract 13 new CSA members this year! When it is all said and done, bringing goodness to many is what we’re all about. Now go eat your veggies! (P.S. If anyone out there wants to know how to organize something like this, I’d be happy to share)”

Job Title: Letterpress printer

Describe what you do at Boxcar Press in 10 words: Operate wonderful, majestic, finicky, retro Heidelberg letterpress glory and other hats.

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We wanted to dress the Boxcar Baby up as a letterpress, but we couldn’t decide: Vandercook or C&P? C&P or Vandercook? Heidelberg Cylinder? Vandercook? The penguin costume was our compromise.

Thanks to Carol, our operations manager, for hosting! It was the perfect fall day for family & friends….

We fell in love with edge painting a year or two ago — it’s such a cool way to add a second or third color to a printed piece, and you can still pantone match the edge color (we mix edge-painting inks by hand, and then apply by hand too). We flat printed these invitations for Talbots announcing their Spring 2009 collection, and then we did the edge painting too — we love the BRIGHT PINK edge painting they chose. They added the embossed pattern on their end. Printed on our cotton paper.

This is one of our favorite days of the year…..

A few times a year, public school art teachers come to Boxcar Press to pick up our overstocked paper, offcuts, excess envelopes, cool boxes, and other odds and ends that can be transformed by students into art. The supplies we donate are met with such enthusiasm from the art teachers….though art budgets vary from school to school, we’re told by some teachers that they only have about $.70 to spend per student on art supplies for the year(!). We love our little community of Syracuse, and we love doing things like this that help us feel connected to where we work and live. Also, though recycling is good, reusing materials is even better…..we hope this will spark some good donation ideas for other letterpress shops. If you have other cool ideas about how to re-use your extra letterpress Stuff, we’d love to hear about it! (Our great neighbors Partners for Arts Education help organize all of this….thanks, Partners!) (photos by Carol, our operations manager. Thanks, Carol!)

Go letterpress love! Congrats to Syracuse Street Press for this great write-up in Design*Sponge. We loved seeing Sycamore’s beautiful home interior, and their beautiful Vandercook, and their beautiful printing, and (gasp!) their beautiful Boxcar Base! We’re in Design*Sponge (kind of) — hooray! See more of Sycamore Street Press’ letterpress magic at their web site: http://www.sycamorestreetpress.com/. (photo from design*sponge)