The story of
Boxcar Press is a nationally established commercial letterpress shop based in upstate New York--a beautiful, hilly, and often snow-covered part of the country that not enough people seem to visit. With 50 tons of equipment housed in 10,000 square feet of space, we are one of the largest letterpress print and pre-press shops in the country. But we know it’s not all about heavy machinery—we are friendly heartfelt printers with perfectionists’ souls. We are also 100% letterpress fanatics! Go letterpress go! We’re committed to creating the finest handcrafted letterpress printing and the finest photopolymer plates in this entire universe. We are actively working hard to lessen the environmental impact of our business. We believe in the power of business to do good.
Why are we here? To print beautifully; use the best materials; and support and inspire the letterpress community.
The Legend
At the end of the 20th century in Southeast Minneapolis, on the right side of the Union Depot train tracks, in a 6th floor loft shared with a record label and an itinerant trucker, Boxcar Press was born. From the beginning, we had a love for letterpress printed poetry, an admiration for the potential of digital letterpress, an appetite for caffeine, and an obsession for heavy antique printing equipment. We tried to change the world back then through impractical but beautiful CD packaging that we letterpressed for local rock bands. We bought a Bunting Base. It was heavy, magnetic, and made us unhappy. At night, we dreamed of a world where printing with polymer was easier and transparent--a world where presses were coddled instead of scrapped, and letterpress was everywhere, in the trees and in our hair.
We like to think our youthful idealism has paid off. Now nestled in the rolling hills of Central New York, Boxcar Press has expanded into a digital letterpress shop of 18 employees that expertly processes plates for over 1,000 letterpress shops around the world. We’ve had the thrill of creating plates for fine press legends including Walter Hamady, Robin Price, Gaylord Schanilec, and David Esslemont. Hundreds of commercial and fine press shops use our Boxcar Base system. Our base is probably the only letterpress printing base to be featured in both Lucky Magazine and Extreme Makeover (Home Edition)! We’ve helped outfit one-person letterpress shops, universities, and commercial printers for 21st century letterpress printing.
We’re also a print shop that treats our commercial printing work with enthusiasm, love, and fine craftsmanship. Our printing clients have included Sony BMG, AOL Time Warner, The Whitney, Domino's Pizza, Hickory Chair, Barnes & Noble, Republic of Tea, P-22 Type Foundry, and individuals and design firms of all shapes and sizes. In 1999, we founded Bella Figura, our line of wedding invitations whose goal is to letterpress more love into the world.
Our current home is the Delavan Center–a rambling building in the warehouse neighborhood of Syracuse, New York. A John Deere factory in a previous life, the Delavan Center now houses many of the city’s painters, photographers, sculptors, and ceramicists, and is also home to one of Syracuse’s largest art galleries.
The Founders
Founder Harold Kyle was trained in the book arts at Carleton College and at Campbell-Logan Bindery, one of the most respected hand-binderies in the nation. While serving his time as the youngest printer-in-residence at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA), he received a coveted Fine Press Minnesota Book Award for his platemaking and printing of MCBA’s winter book The Summer House. In addition to collecting heavy machinery, he also collects objects with the word “Heidelberg” on them. He is especially fond of the raisin-walnut bread made by the Heidelberg Bakery in nearby Herkimer.
Debbie Urbanski, assistant founder, joined Boxcar Press in 2002 with the intent of creating lots of forms for people to fill out, so that the office could keep organized. She is now serving as Boxcar’s writer-in-residence and travel correspondent, in addition to monitoring the Boxcar web sites and dreaming up ways to get Boxcar Press on Oprah.
Jasper Kyle is the first Boxcar Baby, born November 17, 2006 after a whole lot of hard work. His favorite press is the Pearl #11 Improved, his favorite ink color is purple, and his favorite typeface is Founder's Caslon. He assures us that he loves letterpress as much as his parents do, though he has hinted that during his years of teenage rebellion, he may fall in love with photocopying and go and work at Kinko's.
