Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Like many small businesses, we have been slow lately. This week, for a change, we got slammed. Not that I am complaining, I will take the work any day.

For the first time in a long time, we will be In production on Saturday. I have had to jump in to get the work out. I have only run a printing g press once in the last ten years. The first reason for that is because the nature of our business changed and the second is that Hank is so efficient.

So, in helping out where I need to, I have been operating our letterpresses. I am in no way a press operator, merely a tender. Hank and Bob set the jobs up and I stand there and keep them running.

Yesterday, I die cut several thousand sheets of labels on our Heidelberg Windmill. That is the press featured in the video on our website.

Today I'm a watching our 70year old Kluge letterpress while we die cut a few thousand paper wrap labels. As this machine runs, which looks like it was made from the cast Irene version of the game Mousetrap, I'm writing this blog post. I am writing it on my new WiFi iPad.

Two different forms of communication, one seventeenth century, the other 21st century, living side by side. That's the way it is.

The Internet did not kill print. Just as TV did not kill radio and videos did not kill TV, print will live on. It will remain a vital part of our lives.

Gotta go, my Kluge needs me.


Sent from my iPad

Letterpress Video

I just added a video to our website (the first one ever). It was shot and edited by Al Landsberger, a local graphic designer and friend of mine. The subject is our 1950s era letterpress. It turned out really cool.

Letterpress

My guys recently had a successful test of letterpress printing. Before this test, we had used our letterpress for embossing, die cutting, and perforating paper. Lots of different stuff, but not for printing. Not bad for a fifty+ year old printing press, huh?

But there is an increasing interest in this old fashioned printing. Why? Nostalgia is part of it. The other part is the craft of letterpress printing. It looks different than our traditional printing or photocopying. There is a texture to the printing. It has a feel. It does not look flawless. It has character.

Some studios are commanding top dollar for stationery and wedding invitations of their letterpresses. We are looking at a slightly different model. We want to make note cards, business cards and invitations that are elegant and affordable. New techniques have helped to breathe new life into these old presses.

The movies American Psycho and the recent Seven Pounds have featured characters in an elegant business card throw-down and a letterpress printer respectively.