Sycamore Street Press

After months of hard work, we are so excited to launch over 2 dozen new items for the National Stationery Show! Gift wrap, gift tags, new cards, card sets, baby shower invitations, and Baby Milestones: The Heirloom Set. See them in our online shop here.

For all you US retailers out there, we’re offering free shipping if you order during the NSS (either in person or online). We’ll be in booth #1851. We also have a wholesale catalog and lookbook available (just email kirk@sycamorestreetpress.com to request them).

Thanks! – Eva

Behind The Press is a blog series by SSP’s owners: Eva and Kirk Jorgensen. In it, we share our experience with letterpress, paper goods, running a small business, and work/life balance in the form of tips, how to’s, and more. We hope you enjoy! – K&E

We bought our Heidelberg Windmill (a type of letterpress) from a family-owned Salt Lake commercial printshop. They were the original owners of the press and were wanting it to go to a good home.

I had a quick 15 minute lesson from the previous pressman which covered the absolute basics (on/off button, paper goes here, etc…).

These machines are built to be very efficient and have adjustments for just about everything. This is great if you know what you’re doing, but if you’re unsure you can end up deep in a rabbit hole of micro-adjustments. Since I didn’t have a firm grasp on the mechanics of the press, I didn’t get too far with developing the necessary skill set to use it for our printing.

A few months ago, Eva posted a picture of our press on the SSP Instagram feed with a caption asking if anyone had any recommendations or advice for help learning how to use this machine.

As it turned out, we weren’t alone in having a Windmill and not knowing exactly how to use it. Amber, from Flywheel Press, heard about all of us and invited us to the Bay Area for a Windmill Workshop. We spent a long weekend in great company, learning everything from oiling and basic maintenance to printing and die-cutting. It was also wonderful catching up with friends (old and new) from around the country.

San Mateo (where Flywheel Press is located) is a charming city with tons of great places to eat and great weather.

I’m back from the workshop and feel much more comfortable around the press and less overwhelmed. I’ve made some good progress and am excited to keep working at it.

Amber is looking to host another Windmill Workshop this summer. If you’re interested in learning, or have a press and need help, I couldn’t recommend this more. You can write her here: store@flywheelpress.com

- Kirk

We’re in the running for the Trendy Awards! And yes, you’ve probably never heard of it, but it’s put on by Stationery Trends Magazine, which is THE go-to publication in the paper goods industry. If you have a moment, we’d love to have your vote! Just click here. Thank you so much! – Eva

We’re having a sale!

The Details:

Discount: 25%

What: Everything in the Sycamore Street Press inventory

Where: In our shop and on Etsy

Code: feb2013

Dates: Thursday, February 28  - Thursday, March 7, 2013

Behind The Press is a blog series by SSP’s owners: Eva and Kirk Jorgensen. In it, we share our experience with letterpress, paper goods, running a small business, and work/life balance in the form of tips, how to’s, and more. We hope you enjoy! – K&E

Admittedly, we are not always the most organized people. We try to be. We LOVE having everything in its place. Sometimes it seems like there’s just not enough time in the day, though. And then we think about how much time we’d be saving in the long run if we could just put things in order. It’s a catch-22.

Well, this past year we decided that was it. Time to make some real progress.  And it’s incredible how making a few small changes has really helped things run more smoothly! We still have a lot of plans to implement. But we’re happy with how far we’ve come, and are committed to keeping up and getting better.

If you’re a small business owner like we were — never feeling like we had the time to get organized — we hope this post can help you out. (And no, we are not getting paid for this post. We just use these organizing tools every day and love them!)

1) Google Drive – We used to trade long emails back and forth with the rest of the Sycamore team. Photo shoot plans, design brainstorming, production schedules, etc… Inevitably, we’d have to search through mountains of emails to try and find the one with the correct attachment for a certain project. Now, at the suggestion of a couple of our team members, we just create the document in Google Drive, share it with each other, and file the documents into folders. So simple. It’s great to be able to find all of that information in one place, that we can access it all from any computer or device, and that they won’t be lost if a computer crashes.

2) Google Calendar – Even if the only thing we had to do all year was to plan for and exhibit at our annual trade show — The National Stationery Show – this app would be worth it. We’re big fans of paper (obviously) and both love our little Moleskine planners. But they just weren’t cutting it anymore for the business. We needed a calendar that could be updated frequently (without an eraser or White Out) and that everyone on the Sycamore team could access. We got a lot of suggestions from colleagues, but when it came down to it, Google Calendar is free, simple to use, and it gets the job done. We plan months in advance and have a color coded system set up. (Production tasks in cobalt, events in yellow, PR in coral, etc…)

3) Dropbox – When our daughter Ingrid was 6 months old, our computer crashed. Inconvenient, but not a big deal, we thought at first. We had Time Machine set to automatically back up everything on our computer to an external hard drive. Well, it turns out that there was a disconnect between iPhoto and Time Machine. So we lost pretty much all of our photos. From the first 6 months of Ingrid’s life, and from the 6 years prior to that — ever since we got our first digital camera. We were devastated. (There may have been a crying fit ending with someone flinging themselves across the bed with a loud, slobbery moan. Not saying who.) Luckily, we was able to retrieve a few off of an old laptop and discs. But literally, it was just a handful compared to the thousands that we lost.

Obviously, this couldn’t happen again. Enter Dropbox. We signed up, downloaded the software, and began backing up all our photos. We love that we can access it easily on our computer’s hard drive itself, or from the “cloud” on the dropbox website from any computer or device. We’ve since started using it to back up all of our product photos, design files, etc… It’s also great for sharing files — high res photos with members of the press, Illustrator files with manufacturers, scans of drawings with other members of the Sycamore team, and more.

4) Quickbooks – We can’t tell you how many creative small business owners we’ve talked to who confess that the bookkeeping for their business is pretty much non-existent. And yes, we made the same mistake. Every year, we’d sit down with print-outs of our bank statements, categorize everything with highlighters, and then send it all in one big Excel spreadsheet to our accountant. He’d get it sorted out and make sure we were legit with our taxes, but that was it. No profit and loss statements, no monthly reports, nothing. Organizing our business finances was always a big dark cloud looming over our heads. Something we knew we needed to do to really grow our business, but dreaded with our very souls.

As of a couple of months ago, though, we are leaving that big dark cloud behind! And it feels sooooooo good. To get started, we sat down a couple of different times with our accountant to ask his advice. Then we bought Quickbooks, set it up on our computer, and hired someone to do bookkeeping part-time, along with other office duties. Let’s face it, the two of us were never going to be organized enough to do it ourselves. We figured that in the long run, it was worth the expense of hiring someone. By being able to see regular reports, we can start to see so much more clearly where the money is coming from and where it is going. It’ll make a big difference in our business planning, and will be a key to helping us grow.

If you don’t want to hire someone in-house to do this, you could have your accountant do it for you, or hire an independent bookkeeper. Or, you could show us up and do it yourself.

5) Freshbooks - It took a few tries to find an invoicing system that clicked. We signed up for Freshbooks over a year ago and have loved it for many reasons. It’s all cloud based, which makes it easy to manage orders while traveling with our laptop/iphone as well as accessing our account from multiple computers in our shop. It is simple and convenient. We have linked up our merchant account so that when a wholesale client receives the email from Freshbooks, they can view/download their invoice as well as pay their invoice by credit card. The other feature we really like is the report generator. We can easily generate reports showing total revenue by client or item number in any given parameter of time.

Obviously, there are many different tools and programs out there that can help small business owners get organized. But these are our favorites — the ones that have really helped us.We hope that one or all may be of some help to you, too! And if you have some tips or tools of your own to share, we’d love to hear in the comments below! – Kirk & Eva

The three images in this post are sneak peeks of Sycamore Street Press’s 3 new gift wrap collections debuting this spring! 

When I started Sycamore Street Press in the fall of 2007, I had no idea what it would become. Yes, I had high hopes, but I thought it would remain a one person show, a part time project, a micro-business. Over the years, though, it’s grown into something much more than that. Kirk joined me full time in 2009, and since then it’s been the sole source of income for our family (with member #4 arriving soon!). We are also able to employ Kirk’s brother Karl, our sister-in-law Kate, a team of freelance designers/friends, and our newest team member, former intern and student of mine, Allison. We feel so lucky to be able to do something we love with people we love — it really is a blessing! And we know it wouldn’t be possible without you, our loyal supporters. So thank you!

In celebration and thanks, we’re having a week-long anniversary sale. Everything in the shop is already marked down by 20%. And if you enter the code 5050, you’ll get an additional 10% off. (This applies to retail orders only.) The sale ends Tuesday, November 27th.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! – Eva

Time to get a head start! See our entire letterpress holiday collection in the shop.

p.s. FYI: My phone was stolen on the second day of our trip, so if you’ve tried calling me in the past few weeks, I apologize. Now that we’re home, I’ll have a new one soon.

We’re growing and we need some help keeping up! Please pass this info along to anyone you think would be qualified and interested. Thanks! – Eva & Kirk

Graphic Designer, Part-Time

Description:

Sycamore Street Press is a busy, nationally recognized and respected letterpress and paper goods company; located in Heber City, UT. SSP is a small business quickly expanding and we are looking for a graphic designer to help us meet our demands.

Candidate should be organized, reliable, friendly, with high attention to detail. Candidate may be a recent graduate or college senior. Looking for a candidate who can work on site 1-2 days a week (M-F), and roughly 8-16 hours a week. Paid hourly BOE. Start Date: January 7, 2013.

Responsibilities:

Include but are not limited to:

+ Preparing design files to go to press

+ Ordering printing plates

+ Onsite press checks (in SLC or Provo)

+ Organizing design files (old and new)

+ Using existing branding to design collateral such as catalogs, line sheets, flyers, graphics for the web, website updates, etc.

+ Blog post layout and design

+ Eventually: Custom Order Project Manager which would include: laying out type for wedding invitations and other custom orders, communicating with customers, getting files press ready, ordering plates, etc.

Requirements:

+ Proficient knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite; especially: Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

+ Very strong design skills

+ Interest in paper goods, including letterpress

+ Interest in creative online businesses and blogs

+ Ability to meet deadlines

+ Ability to take the initiative

+ Ability to work well with a team

+ Strong customer service skills

+ Ability to work at our studio in Heber City, UT

+ Ability to drive to press checks in Provo and Salt Lake City

+ Commit, after a trial period, to at least one year*

Qualifications:

To be considered please email: eva@sycamorestreetpress.com with ‘GRAPHIC DESIGNER’ in subject line. Please attach your resume and portfolio.

*Note: There will be a 30 day period in which SSP or new graphic designer will have the right to terminate the contract at anytime and for any reason, including if employee or employer determines the fit to be incorrect.

Photo by Candice Stringham

Behind The Press is a new blog series by SSP’s owners: Eva and Kirk Jorgensen. In it, we’ll be sharing our knowledge of letterpress, paper goods, and running a small business in the form of tips, how to’s, and more… This is no. 2 in the series. (Find no. 1 here.) We’re really excited about this new series and hope you enjoy! – K&E

You love letterpress, right?  You love how it looks — the texture, the vintage appeal. And maybe your wedding is coming up (or you’re having a baby, or starting a new business), and you’ve decided you want to design your own invitations and get them letterpressed. You might know your way around Adobe Illustrator, and have an idea of the look you are going for, but you have no idea what you should keep in mind while designing for this particular printing process. In fact, maybe you don’t even realize you should be keeping anything in mind. Well, now you do.

Many people have approached us over the years who are in exactly this position. Actually, they mostly contact us after the design is already “done” and are upset to learn that they’ll have to start from scratch if they really do want it printed on a letterpress. (Understandably so.)

Like many beautiful things, letterpress is fickle and demanding. You need to design things a certain way in order to get the distinctive inking and impression that it’s known for. With that in mind, we decided to devote this Behind the Press to the basics of letterpress design. Please note that this isn’t meant to be all-inclusive. (This only covers printing from polymer printing plates, for example, not hand set type.) But if you are a beginner to the process, we hope this will help you wrap your head around the idea and get off to a good start.

8 Tips for Letterpress Design

1) See everything in black and white. (No grey.) Yes, you will be able to print it in color, but the artwork that you will be making into a printing plate must be in black and white. You can create the artwork the old fashioned way with black paint or ink on a piece of white paper or you can create it all in Photoshop or Illustrator. Either way, you can’t have any blended gradations. If you want to include shading, think of how artists would create light and dark through cross hatched lines in old engravings (like on a dollar bill) or with dots (like the halftone dots in old newspaper photos).

2) Think in layers. Letterpress (and other traditional printing techniques) aren’t capable of printing all the colors at once. They’re not digital printers. Each color you want to use will have to have its own black and white layer which will be turned into a printing plate. Then, the paper will need to be run through the press separately for each color (layer) you are printing. This is why crop marks are really helpful. It’s also why going from one color to two colors in letterpress almost doubles the amount of printing labor, which means that printing many colors/layers gets expensive FAST. Letterpress designers have to be clever at using very few colors to great effect. For example, you could overlap two transparent colors to create a third color.

3) Dark on light. Letterpress ink, as a rule, is pretty transparent. If you try to print a pale color on top of a darker color, it probably won’t show up. (One exception: silver ink on dark paper can work pretty well.)

4) Size is limited. Most letterpress printers these days use platen presses (the kind that open and shut like a clamshell) and can’t print an area larger than about 5 x 7″. Some have standard flatbed presses (in which  the paper rolls across the printing plate) and can print up to about 12×18″. That’s usually about as large as you can go. There are a handful of print shops in the country (Hatch Show Print, for example) who still have some larger scale letterpresses and can go quite a bit larger, but they are few and far between.

5) Not too thick. If you want to print large solid areas of color, letterpress is probably not the way to go. (I’d go with screen printing.) It’s extremely difficult to get even pressure and ink over a large surface with letterpress, and if you try, the end result will most often look splotchy. Sometimes this can be the “vintage” and “handmade” look you are going for, though. Just be aware.

6) Not too thin. On the other hand, if the lines or type you are using are too thin, the line can easily get lost and disappear in the platemaking process. Even if it doesn’t, it is extremely difficult to print extra thin lines with the pressure and impression you are probably looking for while maintaining a neat, precise line. Because there is so little surface to cling to, the ink often gets pushed out, creating a messy halo effect.

7) Be consistent. For crisp and even printing, it’s best if all the lines & shapes on a particular color/layer/plate are approximately the same size/thickness. If, for example, you were to have some big blocky type next to some really thin type, either the fat type will look uneven and under inked, or the small type will look messy and over inked. You can try and split the difference, just know that neither extreme will look great this way.

8) Try combining methods. In spite of all its beauty, letterpress does have its limitations. Why not combine it with another method to get the best of both worlds? For example, metallic inks don’t look very shiny in letterpress. (They just have very faint shimmer.) For maximum impact, we’ve been combining letterpress with foil stamping here at Sycamore Street Press and are loving the effect! (In foil stamping, an actual piece of metal foil is stamped right into the paper in the shape of your design.)

Best of luck with all your design and letterpress endeavors! For further tips and nitty gritty details like file types and sizes, Boxcar Press is a great resource. (They’ve made our plates since we started SSP in 2007.) I’d also recommend having an in-depth conversation with the letterpress printer you plan on using before you start the design process. – Kirk & Eva

A few more links you might like: 7 Tips for Finding a Letterpress, The evolution of a printshop, 5 New Favorites from the National Stationery Show.

p.s. These are some of the styled shots that our photographer Zuzanna Audette has taken for us this year. Doesn’t she do a great job?

Behind The Press is a new blog series by SSP’s owners: Eva and Kirk Jorgensen. In it, we’ll be sharing our knowledge of letterpress, paper goods, and running a small business in the form of tips, how to’s, and more… We’re really excited about this new series and hope you enjoy! – K&E

So you’ve taken amassed a large collection of cards, taken some classes, tried out a few different models, and talked to your friend of a friend who works at a printshop. After all that, you’ve decided that you’re ready to take the plunge. You’re ready to purchase a one ton piece of machinery that can turn out the prettiest paper goods you’ve ever seen: aka, a letterpress.

Keep in mind that letterpresses haven’t been manufactured since the 60′s. And since then, many have been turned into scrap or sold to print shops outside of the US. However, in recent years, with the resurgence in popularity of this heirloom craft, the demand for these printing presses has been growing more and more. If you want to find one, you’ve got to be patient, do your research, and when the opportunity arrises, act quickly.

Kirk and I have bought 3 different presses over the years — each from a different source. Many people wanting to start their own print shop have written and asked us for advice on how to find a letterpress, so we thought we’d share our top sources with you.

……………………………………………………………………….

7 BEST SOURCES FOR FINDING A LETTERPRESS

……………………………………………………………………….

1) Briar Press – This is the go-to online place for anything and everything letterpress. Get tips and techniques in the forum, go to the classifieds to find classes, jobs, and presses all over the country.

2) Don Black Linecasting – This Toronto-based family operation has been in the business for decades. The presses they sell are clean and in top-top  condition. If you order a press from them, you know it will be in perfect working condition the day it arrives. They also can arrange for crating, shipping and customs. You’ll pay top dollar, but you won’t have to deal with any headaches. We bought our Vandercook flatbed letterpress from them in 2007.

3) Your Local Classifieds – I know several people who have found a letterpress simply by combing their local classifieds… over and over and over again. In Utah (where we live) KSL is the place to look.

4) NA Graphics – The owner, Fritz Klinke, has over 50 years of letterpress experience. He sells a variety of letterpress parts and pieces, and occasionally has a press to sell as well. When we were thinking about adding another press, I called to see if he had any available. Even though he didn’t have one for sale at the time, we ended up being on the phone for a half an hour, while he patiently listened to our circumstances and then gave his advice as to what kind of press we should get.

5) Hot Metal Services – Dave and Beth travel the country, servicing and repairing letterpresses (including ours) along the way. In fact, Dave is one of the only letterpress repairmen left in the entire country. Because of this, they have a wide network, and are often the first to hear when a “new” press goes on the market.

6) Sterling Type Foundry – Dave Churchman has been stockpiling letterpress parts and pieces for a quarter century. I visited his warehouse in Indianapolis when I was just starting Sycamore Street Press in 2007, and got a number of bits and bobs that we still use today. If you’re lucky, he might have an entire press for sale, too.

7) Letterpress Friends & Associates – You have them, right? Not only is it fun to get to know other people who share your interest in letterpress, it can come in very handy, too. We’ve found that in general, the letterpress community is very friendly and willing to share information. So get to know other printers — locally, out of state, and abroad. Go to shows, take classes, attend creative meet-ups, etc… We found our last letterpress through someone who was taking one of the letterpress workshops we teach periodically.

……………………………………………………………………….

We hope this helps you to find the letterpress of your dreams! – Kirk & Eva

A few links for you: My visit to Dave Churchman’s letterpress warehouse, moving our Heidleberg Windmill into the studio, we heart teaching…