Rachelle Woo Chuang

In the past month I’ve been contacted by several graphic designers wanting to add letterpress to their services or just for artistic interest. The swell of interest in letterpress has been growing exponentially in the past 10+ years. Each year there are dozens of new letterpress printers at the National Stationery Show in New York and hundreds and hundreds go up on etsy and into business weekly I’m sure.

So how do you get trained in letterpress, particularly those who have emailed me in Orange County? There are indeed pockets of fine letterpress printing but I don’t believe our community is as networked as LA, the Bay area and San Diego. Please correct me if I am wrong! In 2007, I was fortunate enough to connect with the fine folks at the Irvine Fine Arts Center to establish the first community-accessible letterpress studio for classes and renting. Several people have rented the studio for wedding invitations and private projects. At present the wonderfully-capable Katy Metz and Jamie Russom are working on increasing class offerings and open studio times. I’ll keep you posted.

We can’t keep up with the demand as most of the letterpress classes have a waiting list. So here are some options for those of you in OC trying to get into all of this.

1. Take letterpress classes from any of the resources listed here. It is worth the drive and expense to take classes from the experts, including Gerald Lange at Otis and Art Center.

I also recommend a two-class session from Madeleine Zygarewicz at the International Printing Museum. This summer you can take Letterpress 1 and 2 which will give you some basic training in hand-set type and polymer plate printing which I assume most of you will be doing for your businesses.
Info and registration here

Contact gary@printmuseum.org if you have any questions about the classes

Nationally there are incredible classes in letterpress worth the effort. Take classes at New York Center for the Book, San Francisco Center for the Book, Minnesota Center for the Book and many other such locations.

2. You design, somebody else prints.
Just want to design and send it out to get printed? There are many, many expert printers who may be able to take your job. I’ll be compiling a list, for OC soon (send me proven, quality printers you trust in OC). There are tons in LA, and Madeleine also prints jobs:

Panorama Press (Madeleine)

3. I’m not set-up yet, but I may be offering classes, studio time and other letterpress workshops at my studio in Laguna Canyon Artists. It won’t be until August most likely. Also I as an organizer, I have an idea to get a workshop on “how to start your own letterpress business”, or add letterpress to your offerings. I’ll connect with my AIGA contacts and see what resources they offer, but it would be great to have such a workshop/conference here in OC. These are just open thoughts, I have no idea if they will materialize. Depends on time and money.

4. Read-up.
Lots of terrific resources on the web. Scope out briarpress and Five Roses listed on my links page.

Join the Letterpress Listserv and read up their “How to get started” section and more.

Remember, it takes a lot of time to be a seasoned, expert letterpress printer. Do not go into letterpress thinking it will happen overnight. There are many considerations that take a keen eye, a knowledge of fine printing and paper and a respect for the history of the craft.

And finally, if you MUST use the L Letterpress tool, discard the plastic plates which break and scratch easily and use polymer plates as described in detail from Boxcar Press here.

**Get Inspired, come to the 2nd Annual Los Angeles Printers Fair and see what locals, hobbyists, professionals and educators or doing in the field.**