A Quick Shop Tour

I love my shop. I love that I feel at home here. It's my happy place. It's where I can be Chelsey, not mom, not wife, not daughter, just me...doing my thing. 

That's me (Hi!) at my 1923 Chandler and Price platen press. She's my baby. We've had her in our family since the 1940's when my grandfather bought another newspaper. I have pictures that have this press in it from the time, which I love. She's the first press we refurbished and the one that I started this business with. 

I was so excited in the beginning to order my first supplies. I love all the little pieces it takes to do letterpress printing. We have had hoards of wood type in our collection for decades and it was so rewarding to practice printing with them. 

I have a couple of sets of wood furniture and a collection of ink that stand in front of one of my favorite features in the shop...my navy blue brick wall. 

Well, that's a quick tour of little parts of the shop. I'll share more soon, only for the fact that I LOVE to see other peopel's shop spaces, and hope that other people will like these. 

Now..back to work!

Chelsey

Home

Home from Josh Brine on Vimeo.

I was sent this video recently and it really struck me. I don't normally share things like this, but this piece seemed to make sense. I've been doing a lot of reflection lately on what I do, and where I find my inspiration. It's not an easy task with so many blogs and Pinterest drawing my attention. I think my angst ridden teenage self had an easier go at it. This video by Josh Brine is so simple, and you really get a sense of what's important to him. I can use more inspiration right now, and was grateful to see the home I love protrayed this way. 

I hope you like it, I bet Josh does too.

Have a great week,

Chelsey

Custom Stationery: Kinfolk Magazine

I think I picked this career at the right time. I am always amazed...excited...stoked when I get new custom orders for personalized stationery. I appreciate so much that people still want to express themselves in writing (on paper!). 

One of my clients, Kinfolk Magazine, embodies this movement back towards more personalized correspondance. Their brand is all about the value of connecting with people. I printed a set of flat notecards and subscription cards for them recently. If you have seen their magazine or visited their website you will get a sense of simplicity and beauty in that simplicity. These cards represent that. 

For this project we used an extra thick bamboo paper. I hadn't used bamboo paper until now, so it was fun to see the differences in printing on it. It is a super meaty paper. It is sturdy and substatial. If you receive a notecard on this paper you will know that whoever sent it to you has an appreciation of the texture and feel of the card. It makes you stop and feel it, and look at it a little closer. 

The printing was straight to the point. No ink on the notecard, and black ink on the subscription card. The paper is a slightly off white color which makes it feel very rich. 

The magazine is a great one to keep on your coffee table. The images are so beautiful you will want to keep flipping back through. A subscription would make the perfect gift!

I really love when they incorporate a quote on their printed pieces. This one reads "It isn't so much on the table that matters, as what's in the chairs." Cheers to that. 

Chelsey

Branding

I love good branding. I respond to well thought out brands, that's the goal right? I've had a few brand versions since I started my business three years ago. The last go around my designer gave me some different elements that I could use for different purposes, all that stay with my nautical vibe. I really like being able to play around with my own marketing products, mixing it up keeps it fun. But it's really important to keep everything recognizable as the Type A Press brand.

I never have enough business cards, so I decided to play with one of the elements I hadn't used yet. I like this little flag, and I mixed it up by doing it on a square piece of extra thick cotton paper. Now I just have to print my name.

How do you feel about your brand? If you would love a letterpress business card I can also help you with new branding or a refresh of your current logo. I work with amazing designers that know letterpress printing, together we can help you jump start a new look. And who doesn't need that from time to time?

Chelsey

BTW - I did the post all from my iPhone...sa-weet.

Envelope Line

Sooooo, I've been a little distracted lately. I recently got an order from a sweet client in Connecticut asking me to make her daughter some custom notecards. She wanted to add liners into her envelopes for a fun extra element. It was a lot of fun coming up with the color combo and patterns with her. During this process I got thinking about what other things could be used an liners. I had seen somewhere (Pinterest?) some liners made from book pages. So I went to my local used bookstore to see what treasures I could find. Now, you should now that I am a huge book lover. So the idea of "destroying" a book almost made me nauseous. But the sweet woman at the bookstore made me feel better about being an "artist" and said she wouldn't tell on me. 

The magnolia liner above and the group below were lovingly removed from a book on trees. I liked to think they are having a second life. I promise to mail something special in these envelopes so that they will make at least one more person happy. 

Once I finished this set I started to look around the shop, with scissors in hand, to see what else I could convert to a liner. I have a collection on pretty wrapping papers (doesn't every stationer?), so those were converted. And then the idea came to me to make copies of some of our old press shop and newspaper buildling photos and turn those to liners. The result is below. I love the old photos that were taken in a building right down the street from where my shop is now. I think they turned out pretty cool. I think it would be so great to do this with family photos. We could make a truly one of a kind notecard set. 

I hope that my distraction has given some inspiration to others. Maybe for Mother's Day I will give my mom a set of photo liners from our family. Why not?

Have a great week!

Chelsey

BTW - I think I took photos for this post at least 5 times, it is tricky getting the light to be your friend. I apologize for the unevenness...it bugs this little Type A girl.