We happily accept commissions, however there are some important factors that govern our practice and pricing:

LETTERPRESS IS A SLOW PROCESS
Setting type isn’t the same as typing and arranging it on the screen. Every letter of every word (and the white space surrounding them) is a physical object and it’s with these elements that we compose layouts, by hand. Changes and corrections are also hands-on interventions – there’s no ‘delete’ or ‘undo’. Once ready, we print on hand-operated presses – Albion and Columbian hand-presses and a Korrex Berlin cylinder press – carefully controlling inking, registration and strength of impression, print by print. And, lastly, our richly-coloured oil-based letterpress inks can take several days to dry. In summary: these methods can achieve an outstanding level of quality but it takes time.

WE ARE AN ARTISAN PRESS, NOT A COMMERCIAL PRINTER
This doesn’t mean we won’t do your job, but if you want it done cheaply and/or in a hurry we’re not the right people to do it. Every job is unique, but as a rule of thumb quantities of above around 1000 we usually have to decline (but can often recommend someone else to talk to). We always price jobs honestly based on the time they will take us to do them well.

WE HAVE AN AMAZING LIBRARY OF FONTS
We have hundreds of cases of wooden, metal and 3D-printed fonts and we’re keen to keep them in use, so we prefer to set type from this collection, wherever possible. If you are looking to print custom artwork, eg logos, illustrations or fonts we don’t have, we can get artwork plates made, but please bear in mind that these come at an additional cost.

COME AND SEE US
We realise this isn’t possible in some cases but we encourage people to visit and see the way we work up close. This will give you a far better idea of the letterpress process and the resulting conversation often helps inform important design decisions.

The cataloguing our font library is a work in progress and we currently don’t have an online catalogue available, or digital versions of our type specimen sheets. But, rest assured, whether you’re looking to use sans-serif, slab-serif, script, Latin, runic, tuscan, clarendon, antique, blackletter, grotesque, ornamented, outline, inline or shadow typefaces – the chances are we have it in our collection.

We enjoy developing relationships with designers and working with them to produce graphics for identity and branding projects and typeface designs.

We are a small press and currently have no job vacancies. We do occasionally offer work placements but only when the arrangement is such that it can be mutually beneficial.

Here is a combination of the many replies we have written which you are welcome to use extracts from for educational writing purposes. If these don’t answer your specific query we will try our best to answer it by email, but please remember we are a working press and may not have time.

Why do you like letterpress?
Letterpress is tangible typography and feels to us like an infinite jigsaw of possibilities. We enjoy the physicality of handling type and also the ability to control the tiniest details of both design and printing. The process is slow and exacting, requiring problem-solving at many levels, but learning to work with these inherent restrictions is where the satisfaction lies.

Why has letterpress had a recent surge in popularity?
We don’t honestly know. It could be seen as a response to the digitisation of the modern world, in a similar way to the Arts & Crafts movement’s reaction against industrialisation, or just a passing trend. Letterpress is certainly of vital importance to anyone studying graphic design and can also benefit to anyone who wants to understand the origins of the words we all type so easily on screen today. We try our upmost to keep teaching a part of what we do to pass on knowledge and share the enthusiasm.

What does the future hold for letterpress?
It’s an exciting time for letterpress, as our Reverting to Type exhibitions and A23D projects have shown, and we’re grateful to be part of a growing international community of artists finding ways to use keep this craft in use. We hope to document the fantastic work being produced in another exhibition soon.