The Printing Rhythm at One At a Time Press

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Cathy

Patricia Barron of One At a Time Press lives life to the fullest daily in her garage-turned-studio in the picturesque Sierra Madre mountain range of sunny California. Her ambitions to pursue her passions in letterpress have been fostered by exceptional printing mentors and the thrill of the creative challenge. We caught up with Patricia to see how her part-time printing adventure is treating her.

THE JOY OF CREATING I am a born and raised, Southern California lady through and through. I live in Sierra Madre with my husband, Jeff. I went to college at UC Santa Barbara in 1969 and then transferred as a junior to UC Berkeley, where I graduated with a B.A. in psychology.

I began my business on my 60th birthday in 2011, after having raised two boys to men as a stay at home mom. I was lucky to be able to take art classes at Pasadena City College, the local junior college. These included drawing, life drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture and photography. I love the challenge and joy of creating, and am inspired by nature, people, places, music, books and life. Sierra Madre has beautiful views, mountains, and green spaces so there is much to inspire.

LETTERPRESS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT My first exposure to letterpress began at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. I immediately became enthralled with the process, from imagining what to print to making it a finished product. At first, I though I’d have trouble thinking of enough ideas of what to do, but I’m way over that!

MEET THE FAMILY My first press was a 1950’s Chandler & Price Pilot Tabletop Press that I bought in 2011. In 2015, I was very lucky to buy a Vandercook SP-20 press that I had shipped out from Chicago.

SERENDIPITY IN SIERRA MADRE My studio is in our garage. We have two garage doors, a double and a single. The one car garage is my studio. My favorite thing about my studio is that I can open the garage door and get lots of fresh air, light and a view of the mountains.  While it’s cold in winter, I can use a space heater. In the summer, I am up very early or very late, printing in the cooler part of the day. I am very proud of having my own business and the quality of my work.

PRINTING MENTORS Denise El-Hoss is my teacher and mentor, and I have been taking classes from her at the Armory for almost five years. Through her encouragement, I began my business. She is totally awesome as a teacher and friend. In fact, I bought my first press from her.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS I design my work using old blocks, my linoleum carvings, designs I create on Adobe Illustrator and have made into blocks, as well as images I find that are copyright free. I also use wood type and metal type that I either have or can use at the Armory. Lastly, I use Illustrator to create words or sentences that I need to be made into a block.

PART TIME PRINTER, FULL TIME FUN I do not print full time, but do print as much as I can. My goal is to do more custom work and larger scale prints. I love to experiment to create original work. My process is often a combination of planning and serendipity. I often begin without knowing exactly what will come next. I love the challenge of solving for the answer! I sometimes begin with an image I like and then bring it to life with words. Or I’ll find a poem or saying that I like and come up with a background.

PRINTING FEATS My art prints, Fauve Look I & II, make me proud, having hand-carved three different linoleum blocks (one for each color) and succeeding in printing them to my satisfaction. I love the way they turned out. The image is based on a textile design from France, 1925.   I also printed a 2016 letterpress calendar which turned out to be worth all the work involved! I was very happy with the result.

SHOP TIPS Use AlignMate! Their product helps in making sure your text is straight and centered.

WHAT’S NEXT I have been accepted into various shows, including the Patchwork show in Long Beach in June and a show in Claremont. I also have my work in Lulu Mae’s in Pasadena and at Creative Arts Group in Sierra Madre.

A huge round of thanks to Patricia for letting us take a sneak peek at her creative world at One At a Time Press!

Learning Letters with The Alphabet Press

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Rebecca Miller

Like letterpress, the city of Selengor in Malaysia sits on the crossroads of both traditional techniques and revolutionary technology. The country also is home to Zeejay Wong of The Alphabet Press, a custom letterpress print shop that offers unique letterpress stationery featuring bold colors and bright imagery in the form of endangered Malaysian animals and favorite food delicacies of the country. We caught up with Zeejay to see how the letterpress journey started with an across-the-globe trip to Melbourne, Australia and resulted in a thirst to make print come alive again in Malaysia.

HANDMADE CREATIONS I was trained as a web designer and it was my profession for eight years before I got into letterpress printing. Shifting from high speed digital works to something that seems to be technologically backward; it was truly a transition. I am now a full-time printmaker at The Alphabet Press and I enjoy creating products that are made by my own hands.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS Three years ago, we were a web design company who set out to look for something special for our business cards. We believe that the first impression is very important. I have been looking for printing technique such as letterpress in Malaysia, but we lacked the knowledge and resources. We decided to fly all the way to Melbourne to learn the craft itself from Carolyn from Idlewild Press. Since then, intrigued is an understatement to how I am at awe of the attention to detail that goes into letterpress printing.

MARVELOUS MALAYSIA I co-founded The Alphabet Press with 3 of my fellow partners. We rented a small shop in Selangor which is the second busiest town in Malaysia. Compared to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, Selangor is less busy a town with good neighborhood. Everything is easily accessible. Our shop is located in a small town in Selangor surrounded by suburban neighborhood, which fits the nature of our business and choice of lifestyle a lot.

DESIGNED FOR PRINT I am both a designer and a printer. I graduated from Multimedia courses in a local university, and I was trained to do everything that design entails from graphic to video to 3D modeling, web design, and more. But now, I have found my niche, which is letterpress printing.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS Malaysia is a big pot of culture. The vibrant nature of our nation that makes up from different races, cultural, food, and architecture really inspires me. I like to observe the little things that happen around me. Before I start doing any design, I will walk around in the town to get myself some fresh air and let the surrounding inspire me. And hopefully, I can find something that interests me and make it into a design subject. There are too many things to learn in Malaysia and the only thing that worries me is that I do not have enough time and resources to make it into something tangible. I usually don’t see this as just design but the documentation of our culture.

FULL TIME FUN Yes, I have been a full-time printmaker for two years, since we started The Alphabet Press.

PRINTING FEATS We finally released a series of social cards, notecards, and notebooks featuring the endangered animals in Malaysia and favourite foods of Malaysians. We launched the debut at Kinokuniya Book Store in Malaysia and to us, it’s more than just a product launch. We did a letterpress demonstration as well to educate people about the old craft of letterpress with the lead types we salvaged from the old printing shops around Malaysia.

BOXCAR PRESS We’re loyal supporters of Boxcar Press! There aren’t many resources for letterpress in Malaysia, and Boxcar Press has truly been our lifesaver. We started The Alphabet Press by purchasing most of the important tools from Boxcar Press. It’s not an exaggerated statement to say, without Boxcar Press, it would be pain in the arse to start a letterpress studio here. Oh, and the videos are particularly helpful for a beginner to start to learn how to use their Heidelberg platen press.

PRESS HISTORY A 1969 Heidelberg Platen Press (Windmill). We acquired this press from an old veteran printer. At first, he was quite reluctant to let it go. It took me 2 months to convince him to sell the press to me and promise that I will take care of it. Since then, we became good friends and he is also a good mentor of mine.

SHOP TIPS Paper is expensive for us, especially when we import most of our papers. We used to have a big margin on our printing. Now, we have reduced it to just 14mm (0.551 inches) for top and bottom and 10mm (0.393 inches) for left and right of the paper. We usually stick the plate to the very edge of our aluminum base and use a gauge for my print jobs most of the time as I require a perfect registration. Besides, I will always have rosin powder around me to fix the most irritating problem – the ghosting when I print a large blotch of colors. Apply a little bit on the roller track and it can solve most of the problems.

WHAT’S NEXT We will be focusing on our bespoke services. People love their wedding and business stationery printed with letterpress. Besides that, we will keep on participating in local art festivals to promote the craft of letterpress to the people in Malaysia. We want to make print alive again in our community and to upkeep the traditional printing skill that would otherwise become obsolete in the fast-moving world of technology.

Huge round of thanks out to Zeejay Wong of The Alphabet Press for letting us catch a glimpse into his vibrant printing world!

Keeping Creative With London Bellman

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Cathy

Diving into the letterpress printing realm sometimes starts like an archaeology adventure: layers of beautiful history and technology are uncovered, past projects are found as remnants on the tympan paper of newly discovered (and obtained presses), and and entire chasm of knowledge is revealed when the printing press starts to clink, buzz, and whirl to life. London Bellman knows this thrilling adventure all too well. The creative virtuoso has been been discovering new ways to apply his innovative passions from past endeavors such as a toy sculptor, painter, and tattoo artist into letterpress printing. His command over line and layout in his tattoo work has translated breathlessly and beautifully into letterpress printing (and it’s quite easy to be enraptured by it all as well). We caught London in both of his ink shops to see how the printing journey started and where the creative momentum has taken him.

INKING UP PAPER AND SKIN I’m a guy who married an awesome lady who puts up with all my scattered visions. We walk a lot, garden, cook, live simple and enjoy the hell out of each other. I’m very thankful and fortunate to have Steph in my life. Career-wise, I have been in the tattoo world since 1991 and that is my primary income stream. This last year I shifted my focus on what it is that I want to convey in my work tattoo wise and personal art. I was a toy sculptor for about five years before I entered the realm of tattoo. The company I worked for did prototypes for the toy industry such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, McDonalds give-aways, Garfield, Felix the cat, etc. I learned a lot there but also realized sitting in a factory type environment was not for me. Tattooing gave me the life I have now and I owe so much to it. Almost every person I am acquainted with has been through artistic or tattoo endeavors. I also started painting and now sculpting again is in the works.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT Letterpress seemed like the simplest way to reproduce my art with the least amount of equipment and is the least toxic. That’s what I thought. 😉 Compared to screen printing (with lots of solvent fumes) which a close friend of mine does. I like that you can use soy solvents and not lose a liver over it.

I started reading Briar Press’s blog and was going crazy with all the information. Learning the difference in presses, how they worked and performed different tasks. Searching, searching, searching for the right press. In the beginning I would buy a press, dismantle it, clean it and test print primarily. It was a slow process. At one point I drove to San Francisco from here in Portland, Oregon straight through, loaded up a Pearl No.1 and drove home. My wife thought I was press crazy. I’ve had them shipped, get broken, repaired them, all to just find the right fit for my needs. When I would realize a press was not for me I would look for another one and start all over. The movement and mechanical beauty of the machines themselves is a big part of the magic of letterpress. The history of these machines is a big part as well, and where they have been & what they have done. A few times a press has come with boxes of type, quoins, all the extra printer’s goodies and there would be remnants of past projects. Sometimes layers of past projects still on the tympan paper. That part was a fun kind of archaeology. I have not printed a ton of projects, it took me most of the time gathering my equipment and momentum.

OREGON’S VERY OWN My home and studio are one and the same. I like to call it Atomic House. The actual business is Atomic Art Tattoo Studio and that’s the basement of my home. The main floor is where Steph and I live and the attic space is where my presses and paper cutter reside. I am a hobby printer at this point and really enjoy it when I do print. The best thing about my home, shop, and studio is that it’s all right here and at my fingertips whenever I want to make something — I don’t have to leave the premises to make it happen.

THE CREATIVE FLOW I would say I design for tattoos and my personal art whims but I don’t design for peoples’ personal projects. I am very low tech as far as designing goes. I play around with some small sketches, decide whether I like the composition, and let it rest in my stack of images. If I like it enough to proceed to making a print, I’ll redraw the design, ink it, and have a plate (or plates) made. I keep a sketchbook going daily and have lately been going back to my past imagery and borrowing from there.

FUTURE PRINTING As I mentioned before, I am a hobby printer but would love to make more images and find a market for my art. I have been pushing towards that lately. I haven’t fully figured it out but I have some ideas in the works.

PRINTING FEATS I am proud of what and where I am at this point in my life. I’m rich in love, imagery, where I live, whom I am surrounded by and the country I was born in (I mean this in a not crazy patriotic kinda way). I feel lucky in general when considering the state of the planet as a whole.

BOXCAR’S ROLE Boxcar Press is awesome! I have not used you for a ton of services but you did make me a couple really cool base plates for my presses and your online video tutorials are indispensable.

PRESS HISTORY I’m not sure which was my first press? I’ll try and go down the list, which are mostly tabletops. I’m sure I’ve had a couple Kelseys 5×7’s; a Sigwalt or two have arrived broken; Three Pearl No.1’s: basically a tabletop with cute cabinetry below; my largest was a 10×15 Craftsman (unfortunately I let it go but it was a beautiful beast); and one Pilot 6×10 old style which I sold. Currently I am printing on a Craftsman 6×10 and I have a Craftsman Monarch 9×12 made out of aluminum.

SHOP TIPS I’m still learning and always will be. My advice would be: don’t rush, take your time, walk away and come back to it later. If you screw it up… re-run it and print it again. I did this just the other day.

WHAT’S NEXT This time last year I started a letterpress project based on Bio-Mechanical inspired art. The artists in the first set of five prints provided me with a design of their choice in the aforementioned genre. I printed 120 of each image mailed them to the artists to sign and number.

Once they send them back to me I collate them into sets and each person gets 20 sets of prints to sell, gift, or whatever they want to do with them. I am onto a second and third set currently. I recently printed a few images in the same vein (Bio-Organic) as an off shoot of Bio-Mech, but it leans more towards nature-inspired forms. I would like to increase my inventory of prints, nature-inspired stuff primarily, sticks and stones, mushrooms, bones, landscapes etc. I have been offered a couple opportunities to show so hopefully more of that will happen in the near future.

An exceptionally large round of thanks and applause out to London for letting us get a larger glimpse of his creative world!

New North Press Pushes Printing Boundaries

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Rebecca Miller

Richard Ardagh of New North Press pushes printing boundaries by uniting technology and old-world printing traditions. The UK-based letterpress printer melds his traditional printing background, his reverence for type (and boy does New North Press have a few fonts… 700+(!) typefaces), and his love for technology. We caught up with Richard about how working with the 3-D printed typeface A23D (a first of its kind) continues to inspire him on a daily basis.

LETTERPRESS IN LONDON My name is Richard Ardagh, I’m a partner of New North Press letterpress studio in London, UK. I studied graphic design at Central St. Martins and that’s where I was first got a flavour for letterpress. A few years after graduating, around 2008, I met Graham Bignell (who had founded NNP in 1986) and we began working together producing posters. In 2010, with the help of Beatrice Bless, we held an exhibition called Reverting to Type, showcasing contemporary letterpress from all over the world. New North Press is now run as a partnership, focusing on keeping the craft alive through teaching, working on commissions, and producing our own work.

SHOP STORIES The building we’re in is an old shoe factory on a cobbled street in Hoxton, a previously industrial and now increasingly gentrified area of East London. The press shop is full to the rafters of type treasure. I love seeing people’s expressions when they visit for the first time. We have over 700 wood and metal fonts and three large cast iron hand-pull presses – two Albions and a Columbian – plus two proofing presses and an Adana.

PRINTING MENTORS Beatrice and I are hugely fortunate to benefit from Graham’s 30 years of experience and enthusiasm.

DESIGNED FOR PRINT We set type by hand, so design is an integral part of what we do. We’re lucky to have clients who appreciate that and want to work with us because of it. It’s also an important part of our teaching to help people understand how to best communicate their intended message.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS Personally I start with a pencil and paper, getting ideas down and thinking through how to order the information. I prefer to start with a fairly clear vision, but have learnt to accept and work with the quirks of the process.

PRINTING FEATS In 2015 I ran a project to produce a 3D-printed letterpress font, with the idea of making a prototype that connected the newest and oldest forms of print technology. Thanks to an Arts Council grant I was able to commission the best people I could think of to work with: A2-Type to design the font and Chalk studios to fabricate it. The result, called A23D, is a font like no other; a wireframe design with each character made up of 0.3mm lines giving them a 3-dimensional appearance similar to an architectural plan. I’m very proud of it and hope it inspires the next generation to keep evolving what letterpress is and can be.

PRESS HISTORY Graham’s first press was the Albion and this was the press I learnt on too.

PRINTING TIPS Pressmanship is a complex art, I seem to learn something on each job I print. There are a million little tricks with hand-presses, ways of using the tympan for makeready and masking using the frisket.

WHAT’S NEXT We’ve been invited to be part of some exciting projects and also hope to attend the International Letterpress Workers Summit in Milan again.

A huge round of thanks to Richard of New North Press for letting us catch up with the delights of his printing abode.

Printing In the Mitten: an interview with Lynne Avadenka

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Rebecca Miller

Following the hum and surge of industrial buzz that abounds in Detroit, Lynne Avadenka uses letterpress printing to create distinctive mixed media works in the forms of prints, artist’s books, and personal art. Coming from a printing background that boasts over 35 years of passion, printing curiosity, and a love for type, Lynne re-crafts the components of being a power printer in today’s market by combining these sought-after traits and being able to share the joys of printing by pioneering Signal-Return — a community based print shop. We caught up with Lynne between print runs to get the scoop on how life with letterpress keeps one’s heart skipping a beat.

FALLING FOR LETTERPRESS I have lived in the Detroit area all my life and I studied art and printmaking at Wayne State University. I’ve always loved letterforms, books and prints, I’ve worked as a professional calligrapher, and I fell in love with letterpress printing while in graduate school.

DETROIT INK When I graduated with an MFA in 1981 there was very little communal printmaking activity in Detroit, so I set up my own studio/print shop. I now have an SP-15, but began printing on a small platen press, moved up to a Vandercook #4, and then traded that for the SP-15 around 20 years ago. I also have an etching press. I love the fact that my studio is steps away from the rest of my house and that I can go to work in my pajamas.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT When I was in graduate school, Susan Kae Grant came to teach photography at Wayne State University. She learned letterpress and book arts at University of Madison-Wisconsin and wanted to share it with Wayne students, so she set up a shop (one Vandercook #4 and some type) in the basement of the Fine Arts Building. I took her class and everything I loved ‐ books, letterforms, making multiples, and hand printing ‐ all came together.

left: Gone I, 2014, letterpress from wood type and photopolymer, powdered graphite
right: Gone III, 2014, letterpress from wood type and photopolymer, powdered graphite

I was in graduate school before there were degrees in book arts and printing, so I learned by printing on my own, reading as much as I could, and taking workshops (thank you Center for Book Arts New York).

DESIGNED TO PRINT I am artist/printer. I use my press to create limited edition books and prints, but I also consider it a crucial art-making tool to create unique mixed media works.

The Solutions to Brian’s Problem, 2011 (written by Bonnie Jo Campbell), pochoir, letterpress from photopolymer, wood veneer

PRINTING FEATS My limited edition books and prints have been acquired by institutions all over the world: The Library of Congress, The Meermano Museum, in the Netherlands, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Biblioteck zu Berlin, The New York Public Library, The British Library, The Jewish Museum NY and numerous university special collections libraries.

For the last three years I have served as Artistic Director of Signal-Return, a community letterpress studio in Detroit. I am one of a talented team of four sharing the beauty of letterpress printing with a wide community of artists and arts enthusiasts across the Detroit area.

The Solutions to Brian’s Problem, 2011 (written by Bonnie Jo Campbell), pochoir, letterpress from photopolymer, wood veneer

BOXCAR’S ROLE I started using Boxcar plates on a particular limited edition project, the first in a series of works devoted to contemporary Israeli writers. I didn’t have enough Hebrew type in metal to produce the edition, so I designed the book pages using a digital design program and then had Boxcar make plates from my files. I can’t remember who first recommended Boxcar Press, but after trying several other companies, I have been using Boxcar Press exclusively for years now for both text and image photopolymer plates.

PRESS HISTORY My first press was a small Chandler Price platen press with an 8 x 10 chase.

SHOP TIPS Years ago an excellent Detroit letterpress printer, Leonard Bahr, shared an invaluable trick with me — and although the better-trained letterpress printers might frown at this, I’ve found it to be invaluable. If you want to set type in an asymmetric shape, or “sprinkle” type on the bed, roll up snake like coils from oil based modeling clay and form them around the type to hold it in place on the press bed.

top: Lamentations 2009, (Chapter 5), woodcut, pochoir, letterpress from photopolymer
bottom: Lamentations, 2009,(title page) letterpress from photopolymer

WHAT’S NEXT I intend to make some real progress on limited edition projects that have been languishing: one is a tribute to the Dutch letterpress printer/artist H. N. Werkman, and the other is a book project based on a prominent contemporary writer’s story written and published totally on Twitter.

An immensely large round of applause out to Lynne for letting us get a look inside her wonderful printing world!

Printing Inclinations With Jennie Putvin of Nane Press

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Cathy

Part-time printing doesn’t have to mean small design. Big-hearted printer Jennie Putvin of Nane Press excels at breaking the mold as a side-business letterpress printer. The tactically inclined and design-centric Jennie has been printing up a storm in her unique studio that gleans its creative current from surrounding artists within the building and from the fact that her studio is part of a refurbished church. We caught up with her between late night print runs to check out how beautiful the perfect balance of makeready can be to the thrill of holding the final finished custom letterpress piece.

photograph courtesy of Eliza Gwendalyn

A LOVE FOR PRINTING At my day job I’m a graphic designer, but at heart I’m a craftsperson. Letterpress printing is a great marriage between the two; making something wonderfully tactile with your own two hands gives you a sense of satisfaction you just can’t get sitting in front of a computer.

HOME IS WHERE THE PRESS IS My studio is in a refurbished church with gorgeous original details and kooky additions. While I’m the only printer in the space, other artists of different disciplines are always working and creating. Feeding off the creative energy in the environment is definitely something that keeps me going.

NATURAL BORN PRINTER I took printmaking classes in college, and as a designer, I’ve always been interested in type and book design. So it sort of came as a natural progression to take my first letterpress printing class at the Center for Book Arts in New York City. It was also great to be able to rent studio time in their facilities before I bought my first press.

DESIGNED FOR PRINT I design and print my own work, as well as print other people’s designs. Other designers’ work always poses an interesting technical challenge, and I think makes me a better printer.

THE CREATIVE FLOW I’m always collecting images and writing down ideas. For custom jobs, I always make an inspiration board with a color palette. Some of my projects are hand-illustrated, and some are only type-based. In the past, each of my designs has been tailored towards a specific client, but I’ve got plans to start building cohesive ready-made designs that look more like my personal style.

(above photographs courtesy of Eliza Gwendalyn)

FULL TIME FUN I don’t print full-time, but I would love to one day!

PRINTING FEATS Paper has the ability to impact people’s daily lives in a very unique way. I’m always excited when my work is shown in galleries or published in a book—but when I hear that someone has received an invite or card I’ve printed and loved it enough to save it, well, that’s the best compliment a girl can get!

BOXCAR’S ROLE The great folks at Boxcar help me troubleshoot along the way. If there’s a part of a design that’s going to be challenging for the plate to print (usually with punctuation in a thin font), I get a call from them with the heads-up. Knowing more about the limitations of the photopolymer has probably saved me dozens of hours of headache on the backend.

PRESS HISTORY A Vandercook Universal I. Her name is Phyllis, and she’s a great press.

SHOP TIPS I couldn’t live without my calipers. My shop isn’t humidity-controlled, and I spend a decent amount of time getting packing right. I’m always swapping in and experimenting with different types of paper, and knowing how thick your makeready is before you disassemble what’s under the drawsheet takes out a lot of guesswork.

WHAT’S NEXT I’ve got a collaboration in place with a calligrapher that I’m super excited about. I also just got a die-cutting jacket for the press, so I’m really looking forward to experimenting with that!

A huge round of thanks to Jennie of Nane Press for letting us catch up with the delights of her printing abode.

Printer’s Paradise at Vahalla Studios

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Rebecca Miller

Passing the decade-mark of printing & creating adventures (from first getting into the printing rhythm of a Vandercook to adding ink to his ’57 Heidelberg Windmill), Dan Padavic of Vahalla Studios continues to amp up his letterpress design game with eye-popping pieces, expertly designed (and memorable) prints, and a creative edge that pushes the boundaries of letterpress. We were able to catch up with this cross-discipline printer (have you seen their screenprints?) for a chance to talk shop and to catch up on what keeps him motivated, covered in ink, and ever creative.

A DECADE OF EXCELLENCE I graduated from the University of Kansas in 2004 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design. My entire time in college I took numerous printmaking classes as electives and always incorporated a tactile process into my design work. I officially began Vahalla Studios in 2006 only a couple of years after graduating college and have been running the studio ever since. We are approaching our 10th year in business and it’s amazing to think about how far we have come in such a short time. I am married to my wonderful wife Melissa who helps run the office and books here at the studio, she is a talented seamstress and amazingly creative as well.

We have a 2 year old son, Tucker, who keeps us on our toes at all hours of the day and we are expecting his baby sister here soon in April. My family and our business keep me motivated, challenged and ever so grateful that we get to do what we do and work with such amazing clients and friends.

THE FIRST PULL OF LETTERPRESS My first experience with letterpress was at the University of Kansas. We had an elective letterpress class that was a great introduction to the craft. If my memory serves me correctly we had 3 Vandercook proof presses. I cannot recall the models but some had powered inkers and some you had to ink by hand. We worked on typesetting the old school way and had fun projects such as greeting cards and poster making.

THE PERFECT PRINTING ABODE Our shop is small and we really like it that way. We have about 2,000 sq. ft. tucked around the backside of a building that is a little difficult to find if you do not know exactly where to look. Honestly we kind of enjoy the privacy and the fact that we don’t have much walk up business.

We typically schedule meetings by appointment only, but the majority of our work comes in through the web. In that 2,000 sq. ft. we have 2 Windmills and a paper cutter, as well as a composing table, type drawers, and an ink mixing station for the letterpress work. We are also a full service Flatstock screen printing studio.

We like the term analog printmaking because both the screen and letterpress processes on paper share so many similarities. It’s spot color printing at its best!

DESIGNED FOR PRINT + BEYOND Design has been an integrated part of the studio since day 1. I have my degree in design and have taught courses in typography and printmaking as well. I see design as an integrated part of printmaking. The better the design work, the more fluid the printmaking process becomes. I like to say that what we do is 75% prepress and 25% production. With this approach the printmaking process is an extension of the design process and successful projects are achieved when the two process are thought of as one.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS Everything starts in my sketchbook. Even typographic layouts. Ideas can be sketched & hashed out much more quickly and fluidly with a pencil and paper than in the constraints of a computer, and I think that is super important. Once a concept or sketch has all the elements it needs, I then begin to execute the design in the computer. Whether that is scanning in a key line piece of art or composing a typographic composition, I try to use the computer as a tool and not so much a platform for idea making.

FULL TIME FUN Yes, I have been printing full time for almost 10 years.

PRINTING FEATS I was super stoked to receive a best invitation award for the wedding suite that I designed for my own wedding. I entered it in the Neenah Un-Show a few years back and was awarded best in that category. The contest was judged by some very respected designers in our community and that is why I felt so honored to receive the award. Below are a few photographs of the suite for reference.

Our work has also been featured in many design magazines and print annuals over the years, and we have had the great honor of working with such clients as Square, Kickstarter, Ralph Lauren, Ray-Ban, Myspace, Warner Music, Disney Music, Zynga, and many others.

PRESS HISTORY My first letterpress was a 1957 Black Ball windmill. I knew that any form of proof press or hand crank / hand fed press would be limiting from a production standpoint, and so I decided to jump in with both feet.

BOXCAR’S ROLE Boxcar has given me a seamless and efficient resource for ordering my letterpress plates. They are also a great resource for inks and pressroom supplies like my swing away lay gauge and pins.

SHOP TIPS The best advice that I can give would be to try and be as systematic as possible. The mistakes I made learning to letterpress were all due to inconsistencies with paper grain, cutting down, grip and guide, etc… keep everything in the same direction as it comes off of the cutter and pencil mark your stacks with the grip and guide edges so that you can keep everything nice and tidy! Oh yea, and ALWAYS CLEAN YOUR ROLLERS!!!

WHAT’S NEXT My plans for the new year are to keep pushing, keep growing and keep refining our processes. Maximize efficiency but also keep in mind our goals to stay small and manageable. We like the personal attention we can give our clients and we love building lasting relationships with designers. I also really want to up our social media game to highlight more work that we have produced and give more exposure to the artists and designers that we work with.

A huge round of thanks out to Dan of Vahalla Studios for letting us get a glimpse of his letterpress (and screen) printing paradise.

Keeping in Touch With Gutwrench Press

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Rebecca Miller

Letterpress has always been an ingenious outlet for creative and informative expression, and Hope Amico of Gutwrench Press is an avid subscriber to both. This California-based printer keeps the inspired gears turning each month via her community-involved postcard Keep Writing Project. We caught up with Hope as she let us in on the fantastic letterpress journey that has her smitten with printing.

FOR THE LOVE OF LETTERPRESS I have always loved letter writing and storytelling. I have had penpals since I was 10 and have been self-publishing stories since high school. Learning the craft of letterpress was one more tool for me to express this. Postcards are my favorite thing to print, and my monthly interactive postcard subscription, the Keep Writing Project, is my reason to keep printing.

INK IN THE BLOOD I was already printing woodblocks and etchings. A friend had a little tabletop press and some type and let me print a few woodblocks with captions for a print show I had coming up. After a few terrible prints, I got enough work together to apply to school. I went to art school as an undergrad in my 30’s because they had letterpress and papermaking equipment that I wanted to learn to use.

MY PRINTING ABODE I rent space from Painted Tongue Studios. They have a Heidelberg Windmill and a Vandercook 4 and a platemaker, which is about everything I need to print postcards. I print on the weekends alone. The other aspects of my work are so social I love having the quiet studio to myself. It is located about a mile from downtown Oakland but what I love is that it is about 6 blocks from my house, so I can usually get back and forth with just my bike.

PRINTING MENTORS Vintage postcards. I was an intern at Blackbird Letterpress and Kathryn taught me about patience, precision, and making good choices. I still write and read zines. I love collecting things, eclectic styles and experimenting.

THE CREATIVE PRINTER I do it all [designing & printing]! Though sometimes I team up with illustrator friends who design a postcard for me, most of the time it is all me! I am also a part time yoga teacher, and work 2 nights a week at a restaurant. I would eventually love to give it up to just print and teach.

THE DESIGN PROCESS For the Keep Writing Project I come up with a design that has both a theme and a question every month. I keep a list of ideas in my notebook and draw from that, sometimes trying to match ideas with timely events or holidays. This year for December I printed a holiday fill-in-the blanks card which was a challenge and a lot of fun. Writing your own mad lib-like story is tricky. The image I create is usually based on function — either trying to convey a message or an excuse to try a new trick.

PRINTING FEATS Maintaining the Keep Writing postcard project since 2008 despite multiple moves and 2 long-term stays in Italy. During my second trip, I brought a gocco printer and a bunch of cards with text already letterpress printed on them. I added the images with the gocco while my roommates slept. It was a lot of trouble to print with the little press — I accidentally packed it on my carry on and almost missed my flight because I forgot about the exploding flash! But I love that I have this monthly challenge for myself and it is also part of my job.

I also printed a broadside for a bookstore in the city as a part of California Independent Bookstore day. It was designed in collaboration with John Waters, so when he read at the store later that month, I asked him to sign it for me. I told him I was the printer, but he was more interested in talking about how easy it is to find blue hair dye nowadays.

PRESS HISTORY I still don’t own a press! I had 2 presses that were given to me because they had been flooded during Hurricane Katrina — both were tabletop presses, one for etching and one was a proof press. I gave them both away to friends who needed them. I’ve always been lucky enough to be able to share presses when I need to. I’ve also moved around a lot, and I think I have been hesitating to commit to a press until I think I might stick around for a few years.

BOXCAR’S ROLE I ordered my first plates from Boxcar! Two years ago I bought myself a base so I could use the windmill I had learned on to increase production and efficiency. It was a big step for me. I have been slow to move from passion project to full-time business, and I am en route. But Boxcar has been supportive in every step, with every question.

SHOP TIPS I got great advice once in school that stayed with me — find the thing that makes your work yours and push that aspect. This was something I needed to learn about process — that despite all my training in letterpress and love of craft, I am not a minimal or precise or neat printer, so I learned to work with those aspects that made my work unique. I can print very fine lines with super tight registration and I did that as I printed other people’s work, but for myself I tend to keep it a little more loose. Also, staying true to my love of postcards has been a more difficult business choice but I love what I do so much, I am willing to find ways to make it work.

WHAT’S NEXT I want to print more yoga-themed cards, integrating my two favorite things. And maybe more collaborations this year. A few artists have asked and I love the idea of it.

Huge round of thanks to Hope of Gutwrench Press! Keep up the amazing work!

Sweetly Printing With Essie Letterpress

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Rebecca Miller

In the warm, flowing hills of Citrusdal, South Africa and nestled near the scenic Piekenierskloof Mountains is a tea, flower, and citrus farm. Explore just a little bit deeper into the farmland, and you’ll be surprised that amidst the sun-soaked fields is Essie Letterpress, the cheery printing abode of Ben and Vanessa Grib. From beginnings rooted deep in interior design, illustration, and a need to create, the printing duo took up letterpress as a means to satiate their creative cravings. We caught up with Ben and Vanessa between print and harvest runs to catch the scoop on how beautiful life can be with just a little more letterpress in the world.

FIELD CUT FLOWERS BY DAY, LETTERPRESS BY NIGHT We are a husband and wife team that operate from a flower farm on the Piekenierskloof Mountains in South Africa. We love creating notebooks, artworks, coasters and everything in between. Vanessa does all the printing and the day-to-day running of Essie Letterpress, while Ben does the design work when he is not farming. We just had our second little boy.

CREATIVE BEGINNINGS Vanessa started out as an interior designer. When she lived in San Francisco in 2001, one of her flatmates was taking a letterpress course and she fell in love with it. Ben has always been interested in illustration and design, and decided to teach himself while he was still a fruit trader. When we decided to move to the country, Vanessa needed a career change and was looking for something creative to do. Letterpress seemed like a new and exciting option, because it was not really done in South Africa at the time. It was quite a story to get the necessary equipment sourced and delivered to the farm, but we managed to find a machine in the back of a University storeroom. The rest was trial and error and Youtube videos.

IMPRESSIVE VIEWS Our shop is a large open space with beautiful views of the farm. We converted an old farm shed into our studio, so we still get the occasional odd surprise, like a flash flood through the roof or a snake living in your drawers. It looks over an awesome dam and is surrounded by daily farm activities, so you have to be careful of speeding tractors.

GETTING INSPIRED We wished we could have some mentors, but unfortunately they are all very far away. We had to stick to our manuals and run google hard for solutions. We are very inspired by Studio on Fire, Starshaped Press, Letterpress de Paris and Mink Letterpress. Artists that inspire… that’s a list too long to mention in case we leave anybody out. Every year we compile a list of our favorite local designers and invite them to do a calendar with us. That way we get to work with all our favorite people.

DESIGNED FOR PRINT We are trying to evolve to the kind of studio that only prints our own creations. I know this is not always possible, but we design with specifically letterpress in mind and we try and steer all decisions within the process’s limitations. It’s always fun being your own client. That being said, some projects need a specialized focus and then we get in the big guns for peace of mind.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS The design process normally starts with a spark of inspiration while we are walking our dogs or picking flowers. This leads to some rough sketches and normally ends up on the computer. We like to alternate between digital design and hand drawn, as we believe both have an equally important place in letterpress. We try to steer clear of one specific style, and it’s always most exciting to try a new approach or technique. We like to let the product lead us in the direction that it wants to go.

FULL TIME FUN Vanessa has been printing full time for the last five years, while Ben pops in through the day to fix the machine or mix a new color.

PRINTING FEATS We are very proud our own own little retail space in Cape Town that sells our products to the general public. It is nice to know that people are buying our products and putting it in their homes. It makes us feel that we have a small impact on people’s daily life.

THE IRON-CLAD BEAUTIES A Korex proofing press was our first press. There was a steep learning curve and a very tiresome process trying to print 150 three color wedding invites, one slow roll at a time. We learned a lot about the importance of paper quality and really thin ink.

SHOP TIPS These machines have personality, and as with all personalities, they sometimes have bad moods. So If something is not working, walk away, have a cup of tea, look at the trees, and then try again. It will always turn out better.

WHAT’S NEXT We are currently taking it easy due to our new baby and only printing a few select projects. But we are using this time to re-evaluate what is important and molding our company to a more streamlined and effective beast.

Huge round of thanks and applause out to Ben and Vanessa of Essie Letterpress for letting us get an up close look at their wonderful printing world!

Printing Paradise at Granja Grafica

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Rebecca Miller

Through the vibrant thoroughfare of the hustling & bustling Gracia district of Barcelona, Spain you’ll find a cornucopia of artisan shops, studios, ateliers, and little curio shops settled alongside industrial offices. But if you take time to meander into the middle of the city, you’ll feel like walking around a small town where people take the time to cheerily greet you. Move in a little bit more and you’ll find that this small-town hospitality extends into the bright life that buzzes in Granja Grafica, the letterpress shop & home to Gaby & Elies. The printing duo told us about their serendipitous meeting on the other side of world in Tokyo, Japan, and filled us in on the journey that letterpress has taken them on.

A SERENDIPITOUS MEETING We are Elies and Gaby. A Spanish letterpress printer and an Argentinian graphic designer that met by chance at the door of a hostel in Tokyo back in 2006. It was Gaby’s last day in the city and Elies’ first one, but during dinner we found many things in common and started a long distance – old fashioned – hand lettered friendship for a couple of years. In 2008 we decided to shorten the distances and Gaby moved to Spain. After a year of adaptation, the idea of Granja Grafica started to grow in our minds.

FOR THE LOVE OF LETTERPRESS Elies learned the craftsmanship from his father, Miquel Plana, who dedicated his life producing fine press books in Olot, Spain. He acquired a vast amount of knowledge and experience in engraving, typesetting, printing with platen presses, pochoir printing among many other things. When Gaby met Elies, she was finishing her graphic design degree and decided to do her final paper about letterpress printing. While investigating and observing the craft she developed an interest that went beyond the historical & theoretical learning and started helping Elies with his commissions.

WHERE LETTERPRESS LIVES Back in 2009, we were two newcomers in Barcelona but quickly fell in love with the city. We choose Gracia’s district to open the studio since it’s a very intimate and authentic neighborhood. There are plenty of studios, ateliers, and artisans still working and living in this area of the city. It is one of Barcelona’s most desirable districts since it is full of life, little shops, a great array of bars, places to have a drink, and many plazas where people gather around to watch the colorful life go by. You are in the middle of the city, but you feel like walking around a small town where people still take the time to greet you.

PRINTING MENTORS In letterpress printing we admire the experimentation with different materials in the work of Arcangela Regis here in Barcelona, the amazing and fresh work of Dafi Kühne and the exquisite books of Russell Maret. It is also very inspiring to see the commitment, the quest, and the experimentation of friends’ work, like the ones of Javiera Pintocanales, Dario Zeruto, and Ximena Perez Grobet.

DESIGNED FOR PRINT At first we were doing both design and print projects, but since we don’t have enough time for both, we decided to focus on printing and found some great collaborators for designing.

FULL TIME FUN We have been printing full time the last 3 years. That was the original goal and we were very lucky to achieve it, of course it was not only luck, we put a lot of hard work and lots of hours into it.

PRINTING FEATS I guess in this past year what we are most proud of is becoming entrepreneurs. Being a letterpress printer is a very easy thing to do if you fall in love with it. Time goes by fast and you are excited to be mixing the ink, preparing the originals, choosing paper, setting up the machines and find yourself already thinking about the next project.

Even though there are some rough patches, for example, when mysteriously the registration is off and you can’t find the way around the machines, and the original manual is in German and you have nowhere to go to for answers! But after a few hours & trials you find that the frustration is gone and you are back to your old enthusiastic self. We learned to be entrepreneurs the hard way. Some days you spend a lot of hours doing budgets, accounting, publicity, social media, and you just want to go fast to the machine and tell her all your sorrows. Some days we even get ink anxiety. But then you realize that all those things are a step in order to achieve what you really love, which is printing, so we learned to cherish this business side and hope that it will last a long time.

PRESS HISTORY In 2009 when Granja Grafica was only an illusion, we saw a special offer on Ebay for a set of 5 Adanas (Kelseys) in London. We decided to make a car trip through France and come back with the car full of machines and type. I guess machine-traveling became common since last April we did another car trip, this time to Germany to look for the second Korrex (a cylinder press) for the studio.

BOXCAR’S ROLE Boxcar has been of a lot of help since the beginning. Our second machine was a Heidelberg Windmill and neither of us had ever used one of them, so we watched the videos and manuals on the site a thousand times! The Boxcar Base helped us to work properly with the polymer plates and last year we were able to visit the headquarters, which was a great experience both in a human and a professional level.

SHOP TIPS I guess the most valuable lesson in everyday printing is to be patient and think that the speed of the craft is not the same as the one in almost every other aspect of our daily life. You need to manage anxiety and develop serenity so as to be aware of all the details in every part of the work and projects. If not, you can’t learn from your mistakes or grow as a printer.

WHAT’S NEXT The past few years graphic design students have approached us wanting to get to know the studio better, since this kind of printing is still very rare in Spain. We would like to have the infrastructure to be able to open it more to the public and share the craft and experiences with the community.

An extraordinary round of applause and thanks out to Elies and Gaby of Granja Grafica! Salud!

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