gilah press + design

The History of Letterpress, Part 3

2012-01-11T09:54:00.005-05:00

May we get personal for a moment?

We were doing research on our own presses, planning to work blurbs about them into our history lessons, and we discovered that our little friends have been holding back some good stories from us. Our presses have fascinating histories of their own – fascinating enough, in fact, that we think they deserve more than blurbs. We think they need their own article. So, given that, here are the life stories of the Chandler & Price New Series and the Heidelberg Windmill, as told to us over glasses of wine and axle grease in the wee hours of Gilah.

May we introduce you to the Chandler & Price New Series.

Harrison T. Chandler and William H. Price essentially got their start copying earlier designs from a press called the Franklin Jobber, which was the brainchild of one George Gordon.

Gordon was one of the first people to release a jobbing press after the Card & Billhead press (first-ever jobber, 1851) arrived on the scene. The Card & Billhead was an inspiration to many inventors, and Gordon was among those who tried their hands at one-upping it. His first effort was called the Alligator, which was rather apt given the press' tendency to snap shut on the fingers of its operator. It did not catch on.

The Alligator was followed by several moderately-successful designs, then in 1854 Gordon struck gold. His Franklin press, named after his hero Ben, was a huge hit.

Gordon took out over 50 patents on various components of his press between 1850 and 1875. As the patents started expiring towards the end of the century, other manufacturers started releasing presses modeled after the successful Franklin. Chandler & Price, founded in Ohio in 1881, was one of those manufacturers.

The New Series press, which was a sturdier and more user-friendly improvement on their original model, was impressive enough that by 1930 about 90% of presses operating in the U.S. were manufactured by Chandler & Price.

As offset lithography started butting into jobbing press' territory, entering the field of small runs and cards and the like, Chandler & Price fell out of relevance, and their last New Series platen press was manufactured in 1964.

Now we'd like you to meet one of our other presses, the Heidelberg Windmill.

Andreas Hamm started his company in Heidelberg, Germany in 1850 to make engines. In 1856 he met up with a man named Andreas Albert, who was something of an expert in letterpress manufacturing, and the two put their heads together and came up with some reasonable and moderately-successful designs. Albert ended up leaving the company in 1873 and the two became competitors, which undoubtedly led to a lifetime of regret on Albert's part.

In 1912 a man named Karl Georg Ferdinand Gilke came on board and invented what would become the trademark of the Heidelberg company: the rotating feeder arm.

The arm rotates in quarter turns. First it picks up a sheet of paper with little vacuum suckers, then it continues holding on while the platen presses the paper against the text, then it drops the printed paper off on a receiving tray. The fact that the arm is double-sided means an instant doubling of sheets per hour, because as one page is being removed another is already being inserted.

The Heidelberg Original, featuring this iconic rotating arm, was released in 1913, and it was such a runaway success that in 1924 Hamm created the first-ever press factory assembly line, which completed 100 new presses every month.

One major factor in the success of the Heidelberg press was the creative marketing of the new management board director, Hubert H.A. Sternberg. Sternberg mounted one of the presses to a car and drove around the continent, visiting print shops and giving live demos. He would pull into a shop's driveway and print their own work right then and there, proving the superior efficiency of his product to anyone who cared to watch.

During WWII the shop cut back on its press manufacturing and started also producing metal lathes and hydraulic devices, so that the government wouldn’t have any excuse to draft its skilled workers – if they're already contributing by making war-necessary products, you don’t have to drag them away to battle, right? In this way the company managed to retain most of its trained workers through the war.

Once the war ended the Heidelberg company started up where it had left off, doing major business internationally and continuing to innovate. In 1957 they opened the largest printing press factory in the world in the town of Weisloch (near Heidelberg). They started producing offset presses in 1962, but unlike most press companies, they continued making their platen machines as well.

The History of Letterpress, Part 2

2011-09-14T11:15:00.007-04:00

Gutenberg's press design was pretty much unchanged from the 15th century until 1800. Our old friend here:

…kept that up for a good three hundred years, until a man named Earl Stanhope made three significant improvements that made our pressman friend's life much easier.

First, he built his press entirely out of iron, which made it much stronger and allowed for larger images. Second, he invented a series of clever levers that reduced the pressman's efforts by about 90%, allowing him to work faster and more efficiently. Third, he added a moving carriage—so instead of raising the platen (the surface that presses the paper onto the type, i.e. the top piece of sandwich bread) high enough to ink the type every time, he only needed to raise it an inch or so and the type bed would slide out from under it for inking.

Taken together, these improvements increased the speed of the printing press fourfold, to 480 pages per hour.

But the real innovation was to arrive several years later, when Freidrich Kroenig invented the first automated press, powered by steam.

He'd spent a decade of his life trying to put together a mechanized printing press, and the final concoction was not only the first press powered by steam, it was also the first to use a cylindrical platen–so instead of being impressed by a flat surface coming down all at once, the type bed went under a roller that would press the paper down an inch at a time.

Nobody in Kroenig's native Germany wanted to buy one of the presses; they were too weird. He tried instead in England, and found his first customer in the London Times. Once all the kinks got worked out, and Kroenig added a new invention called a "perfecting machine" that allowed for both sides of the paper to be printed at once, the steamy press was churning out over 2,000 pages per hour. Stanhope's 480, which had been a major breakthrough only a decade earlier, suddenly looked sad, and his press became obsolete.

Many historians credit Kroenig's invention with the spread of newspapers, and with an increase in literacy generally.

But meanwhile, in America! A Bostonian named Daniel Treadwell had seen Kroenig's steam-powered press and was not impressed with its impressions. Kroenig's press did have its drawbacks: its prints tended to be sloppy, with blurred text, and it was extremely difficult to register accurately. Treadwell saw that old-fashioned platen machines produced better work, and he sought to make a mechanical version that used the same basic principle (no cylinders here, thanks), but would be powered by steam and would be fast enough for industrial applications.

In 1824 he unveiled the "Bed and Platen" press. It was somewhat slower than Kroenig's machine, and it took three people to run, but it produced much finer work making it suitable for fine book editions (i.e. lots and lots of Bibles).

Treadwell's press could be rigged to run off of steam, waterwheel, or horse-whim. If your press was horse-driven, though, you would have a problem because at the moment when the platen actually pressed into the paper the horse would get a sudden lurch. As a result, you would need to employ a horse-restarter to kickstart the animal once per cycle, as it would usually stop walking at this point.

Treadwell's presses, and others modeled off his, had a good run in America (they never really made it across the Atlantic), but by the 1880s improvements to cylinder presses like Kroenig's made the bed-and-platen obsolete. Once the cylinder press, which had always been faster, dealt with its sloppiness problems, Treadwell's fell out of favor– except, oddly, with one stalewart Bible maker in Tennessee who owned twelve Treadwells and refused to give them up until finally he was forced out of business around the turn of the century. The rest of humanity, though, moved on.

In other innovations:
In 1857 Richard M. Hoe invented a rotary press that could print on rolls of paper, removing the need to feed individual sheets and greatly speeding up the process.

The linotype machine was invented in 1887. It allowed an operator to type an entire line of text that would then be cast as a single piece of metal, removing the need to reset individual letters. It was mainly used for newspapers, which had to be printed fast. The main drawback, clearly, was that if the operator made one mistake, the whole line would have to be recast.

The monotype machine, also from 1887, was similar to the linotype machine except that when it cast the letters they weren't actually attached to one another. This way a single letter could be replaced without having to redo an entire line.

So if Kroenig, Treadwell, and Hoe were the godfathers of modern industrial printing, Stephen P. Ruggles was the spiritual ancestor of today's small press movement. As he himself unambiguously put it, "In 1830 or 1831, I invented and built, in New York, the first card or job press, I believe, ever constructed in any part of the world."

A job press is a press designed specifically for the printing of small items, such as cards, billheads, envelopes, and stationery. While Ruggles claims to have built his first "jobber"–as the presses came to be called–in 1830, his design wasn't patented or put into use until 1851. It was called the "Card & Billhead" press, and it's the basic design of all the platen presses being used by craft shops today.

The Card & Billhead was run by a foot-treadle and required just one operator. Unlike larger industrial presses, it had a fast setup time, and it was actually remarkably efficient–a practiced pressman could turn out over 1,000 pages per hour without needing a steam engine or a horse.

Incidentally, Ruggles was also the inventor of a machine that produced Braille Bibles for the blind.

The descendants of Ruggles' press are the platen presses mainly used by craft pressmen working today.

In our next installment, we'll look at the very first movement to refer to itself as the "Private Press Movement," which arose in opposition to the mechanical fist of the Industrial Revolution.

Welcome to the Team, Allison

2011-07-25T17:48:00.006-04:00

Photo by Ellen Culpepper

We'd like to welcome Allison Fisher to the Gilah Press + Design team! Allison just graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art with a BFA in graphic design. She played a big part in MICA's Friends of Globe organization where she helped secure a permanent home for Globe Printing's collection at MICA (more info here).

After learning and printing alongside Kat and Erin for the past couple weeks, Allison has made it obvious that she is the perfect addition to the Gilah gang. Yay, Allison!

The History of Letterpress, a Series

2011-06-28T14:19:00.003-04:00

This is a guest post from Alexis, a friend of Gilah Press + Design. Thanks, Alexis!

I'm going to tell you the history of letterpress printing, slowly, one article every two weeks. I'm going to start with Gutenberg, who didn't invent the letterpress but did invent the movable type that makes the process possible.

Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type around 1440 in Mainz, Germany. He also invented a press based on the wine presses of his time, with a large screw that had to be turned manually by this guy:

While this seems stupid time-consuming by today's standards, it was a huge improvement over the hand-lettering that had been the standard earlier.

Not surprisingly, the first book that Gutenberg printed was a Bible. It had blank spaces for large letters, decoration, and illustration, which customers could have added in by artists after purchase. No one knows exactly how many were made, but only 21 survive today, and they're generally considered to be the most valuable books in the world – no one knows for sure, though, because none have changed hands since 1978. This is the New York Public Library's Gutenberg Bible, the first to be brought to the United States:

The rapid spread of Gutenberg's design was actually due to a legal mishap: one of his investors managed to successfully sue him and he lost the rights to his invention. The investor let the schematic secrets out, and Europe started casting letters and building presses like crazy. By 1500 – about 50 years after Gutenberg printed his first Bible – there were over 1,000 presses that had printed over 8 million books.

Gutenberg's timing would turn out to be impeccable. He invented this tool for the rapid dissemination of information right before Europeans started opening major trade routes with the East and the Americas. Missionaries enthusiastically adopted the new technology and would print Bibles on board ships bound for America, then when they arrived they would be armed and ready for their holy takeovers. The first press to begin running outside of Europe was set up in Mexico City in 1544, and was used by missionaries to facilitate the distribution of holy literature.

(This is a random 17th-century illustration of Europeans arriving in America; note the meal preparation in the lower left.)

Some people weren't as pumped for the press as the Europeans. It was completely banned in the Ottoman Empire until the mid-1700s, on penalty of death. Two reasons: Muslim legal scholars weren't sure that the process was in accordance with Islamic law, and manuscript scribes had a lot of influence. European scribes had also tried to battle the spread of the press, but had less power and thus less success.

Ottoman rulers who found printing presses made this face:

Next time: the invention of the automated letterpress during the Industrial Revolution!

trying our hand at handkerchief printing

2011-06-21T17:09:00.006-04:00

A couple months ago we had some fun printing on handkerchiefs sent to us by a client for a surprise party invitation. We've only ever printed on fabric twice before for our "ten postcards" line, so we thought it might be a bit of a struggle.

In the end it turned out to be time-consuming, yet manageable. The easiest part about printing on the handkerchiefs was that they were all the same size, but it was a very custom job. Whitney, our senior letterpress printer, said, "We didn't turn the press on once." She worked together with Erin (Whitney's printing partner-in-crime) hand-cranking the press for each impression to make sure every print turned out perfectly.

The end result was stunning, and because of the girls' amazing patience, not one of the handkerchiefs were lost due to messy printing. We've since taken on another job that required printing on handkerchiefs.

If you're not sure if something can be letterpress printed, just shoot us an email (info@gilahpress.com) and we'll let you know if we can do it. We're more than happy to take on any and all challenges, so bring it on!

Father's Day Greeting Ideas

2011-06-10T11:47:00.012-04:00

When's the last time you contacted your dad? It's been that long, huh? Well, why don't you surprise him this Father's Day (coming up Sunday, June 19th) with a handwritten note straight from the heart?

Here are a couple Father's Day card suggestions from our own letterpress printed greeting lines that would work perfectly for your sweet message. To purchase the card, just click the image!

Two colors on 100% cotton paper. Measures 4.875” x 3.5” and comes with a gravel colored envelope.

One color on 100% cotton paper. Measures 5.5" square and comes with bright red envelope.

Two colors on handmade seed paper that grows wildflowers when planted! Measures 4.25” x 6” and comes with a khaki colored envelope.

Two colors on 100% cotton paper. Measures 6.25” x 3.5” and comes with a white envelope.

And for those stylish dads:

Both of the above: Two colors on 100% cotton paper. Measures 3.5" x 6.25" and comes with a gray envelope.

You could even consider sending him one of these manly postcards:

Two colors on 100% cotton paper. Eight cards per pack, two of each design. Measures 4.5″ × 6.25″ and comes wrapped in a belly band.

Whatever you do, just don't forget!

New/Old Machinery Calls Gilah Home

2011-06-03T17:25:00.012-04:00

Before the Stationery Show we obtained a new Chandler and Price press! Unfortunately we weren't able to get an old press out of our hair in time, so with the help of some friends the old press was moved to another place in the studio to make way for the new one.

Chris, Jessica's boyfriend, was up on the truck getting the new press secure enough to be rolled into our studio...

...while we all stared and worried ourselves to death (from left to right: Jessica, Erin and Whitney). Was the truck's bed close enough to the door? Would the press fall over? Would it go as smoothly as we were hoping?! Only time would tell.

After what seemed like an eternity, the new press was finally rolled into place. Quite easily, at that. Yay!

Just a couple weeks later, Jessica and Chris purchased a retro General Electric fridge from a local antique shop. Jess and Chris didn't have the ability to bring it into their current apartment, so we decided to let the fridge live at our studio for now.

We were really excited about the built-in wine rack and the fact that all the shelves turn outward and all the way around!

There's nothing quite like gorgeous new/old machinery to brighten our day.

National Stationery Show 2011

2011-05-20T17:18:00.007-04:00

Phew! We just got back from the whirlwind that is the stationery show. It was our 6th year and, as usual, we had a great time. Our set up on Friday night took quite a bit longer than expected, but it all came together in the end.

This is the disaster zone our studio turns into every year when we get ready:

Here we are during one of our late-night assembly parties:

And a couple more shots of the booth in New York:

We were pleased to come back from the National Stationery Show to quite a bit of online press! Here are some of the sites we've written for or have been featured on, not to mention all the Twitter mentions we got:

- Fantabulously Frugal Weddings
- Martha Stewart Weddings: The Bride's Guide
- Design*Sponge
- HOW Design
- The Present Perfect

Birthday Party for Pica

2011-04-18T11:18:00.005-04:00

Okay, so we didn't actually throw a party for our studio cat Pica, but it looks like we could have. The amazing folks over at Blow Up! posted photos of a birthday party they threw for their own cat, Mr. Humperdink, who happens to look just like Pica! So cute. Check out the rest of the photos here.

Below: The real Pica is on the right.

Hatch Show Print Visits Baltimore

2011-04-11T11:11:00.004-04:00

This is a guest post from Alexis, a friend of Gilah Press + Design. Thanks, Alexis!

Gilah Press recently took an educational field trip to a lecture by Jim Sheradden of Hatch Show Print, the legendary Tennessee letterpress shop whose posters have influenced a generation of graphic designers even if they don't know it.

Sheradden's visit was timed to correspond with the official public announcement of MICA's Globe purchase, and hundreds of letterpress enthusiasts showed up to learn and to celebrate. Sheradden, for his part, arrived confident, goateed, and vaguely un-PC, and explained the history of his shop with affectionate zeal.

Sheradden began working for Hatch after his dream of becoming a songwriter had quietly deposited him in Tennessee, jobless. The shop had already been in continuous operation since 1879, and when Sheradden arrived it was in danger of going under due to the advent of faster, cheaper printing methods. What Sheradden realized was that letterpress' historical interest and homespun appeal could be combined with contemporary technology to make a new business model, and rather than trying to update the shop, he chose to celebrate its oldness.

These days, a lot of Hatch's revenue is produced not from the physical prints themselves, but from the scanned images of them. Usually, the shop will receive a commission from someone music-industry affiliated (sometimes a venue, sometimes an agent, sometimes a merch company) and produce a small run of posters which are then sent off to be scanned and reproduced using the modern methods. The hand-printed posters are sold as collectors' items, and the shop also receives payment for the right to copy its images onto t-shirts and mass-produced advertisements. Everybody wins.

What was really interesting was hearing Sheradden talk about how he sees his shop – he doesn’t really see it as "his" shop at all. He calls himself the "steward" of the Hatch collection, and says that he feels a responsibility to the heritage of the shop. For this reason, he's never added any type to the collection, though his employees do still produce original linoleum cuts for some prints. The phrase he kept repeating, his favorite soundbite I suppose, was "preservation through production." He also kept referring to the shop as a "working museum."

Hatch's aesthetic has become so tied to the visual history of country music and rock and roll that most people simply take the look for granted without realizing where it came from. As Sheradden's introducer (a novelist whose name I wish I could remember) put it, "Hatch has put an idea in the reptile brain of designers of what a poster should look like." That horrifying digital font that's supposed to look like old wood type? Nobody ever would have bothered inventing that if Hatch hadn't made hand-done cool.

Publication and Mutiples Fair

2011-03-23T17:19:00.003-04:00

This is a guest post from Alexis, a friend of Gilah Press + Design. Thanks, Alexis!

We're excited for the upcoming Publications and Multiples Fair at Baltimore's Open Space Gallery. Since its inception in 2009, the gallery has been extending fibrous roots into the local art scene, showcasing a wide range of emerging talent in areas from sculpture to print to doo-wop singing. Last year's publications & multiples fair was great:

…and this year promises even more delights because the fair has almost doubled in size, expanding from 13 to 22 participants. Newcomers include record label Wildfire Wildfire, champions of local heroes like Dan Deacon, OCDJ, and Ecstatic Sunshine; AK Press, publisher and distributor of radical texts by both fresh-voiced newcomers and anarcho-heavyweights like Noam Chomsky and Guy Debord; Creative Capitalism, legendary local publishing/performance art/music collective; and over a dozen more fresh faces drawn by Open Space's steadily-growing reputation (it was City Paper's "Best Gallery 2010") and unabashed lust for young, tender concepts.

Expect prints, zines, comics, and books, and also live poetry readings from Jeremy Sigler and Eileen Myles and a lecture from North Drive Press founder Matt Keegan (click on that link; North Drive Press is fresh and innovative and awesome).

The Fair takes place this Saturday, March 26, and Sunday, March 27 from noon until 6PM at 2720 Sisson Street in Remington, Baltimore. The lecture will be given on Saturday at 3, and the poetry will be read on Sunday at 7.

And, yes, those familiar-seeming posters were printed by Globe. Cool!

Friends of Globe Make MICA History

2011-03-16T10:06:00.003-04:00

This is a guest post from Alexis, a friend of Gilah Press + Design. Thanks, Alexis!

James Brown, Ike & Tina Turner, Pink Floyd, and The Jackson 5 have more in common than just musical genius and questionable emotional stability: all these musical superpowers, along with hundreds more, turned to Globe Poster to advertise their tours.

Globe was in operation here in Baltimore from 1929 until last summer, when it was finally forced out of business. While the shop also took on more nitty-gritty projects like "public auction" and "home for sale" signage, it's best known for its huge contribution to the visual history of R&B and rock and roll. The shop stopped operating its enormous letterpresses ("enormous" = 24,000 lb) in the late 1980s in favor of cheaper offset presses, and recently sold the old Miehle letterpresses off as scrap metal.

The shop's enormous collection of materials, equipment, type, cuts, photos, and posters is currently lying as it fell, in position in the company's huge Highlandtown warehouse. Owner Bob Cicero was stuck housing equipment that was no longer paying for itself – until recently, when help arrived in the form of 20 MICA students with matching t-shirts.

I recently spoke with Friends of Globe treasurer Sabrina Kogan about the process of saving Globe's collection from being auctioned off piece-by-piece and melted down into scrap metal.

Friends of Globe was inspired by Mary Mashburn, proprietor of local Typecast Press and letterpress instructor at MICA. She first heard about Globe's financial quagmire while trying to arrange a tour of the shop for her Fall 2009 letterpress class, and, as a hopeless letterpress romantic, she thought it would be a tragedy if the collection was split up. She began to work with people from various fields – designers, art editors, folklorists – to try to find a way to save it, but it wasn't until MICA students got involved that a solution was reached.

Sabrina told me that the project began with a blog and a run of screenprinted t-shirts. The shirts were donned by about 20 pro-Globe students at one of the quarterly "town hall" meetings where MICA President Fred Lazarus hears the opinions and ideas of his plebes. Apparently Lazarus was "pretty taken aback" by this color-coordinated display, and began exploring the possibility of purchasing the collection.

The Friends of Globe were then tasked with explaining why the purchase would be good for the school's curriculum. Sabrina, a graphic design major, explained one of the points they made: "I think it's crucial, when learning about type, that you have a chance to actually use type. So when you're talking about things like kerning and spacing, they're real things, not just buttons on the computer. It brings it to life."

The group also pointed out the value of the collection as a piece of art history, and one that no other art college can match.

After a few more meetings, the group successfully convinced the school to move forward, in a happy reaffirmation of grassroots power. The purchase was publicly announced last week, though specific details have not been released yet.

Of course, the sheer size of the collection is a problem. The school's purchase won't comprise everything in Globe's arsenal. They'll be taking about 2/3 of the wood type and 1/2 of the metal cuts, and only some of it will be moved into active rotation in the school's print studio. Much of the rest will be put into storage, and there has also been talk of using some of the archive space at Johns Hopkins, since they're much better equipped for historic preservation.

Bob Cicero is apparently very excited that his collection is being reborn as an art medium. There are tentative plans for him to teach a history class with the materials.

In the meantime, Friends of Globe is still fighting the good fight and raising money to help Globe pay its March (and final) month's rent. They're selling their badass "Friends of Globe" t-shirts on Globe's Etsy site (the t-shirts that melted Fred Lazarus' heart!), and they have more shirts in the works. You can also buy reprints of some of Globe's most popular old-school show posters there:

The Friends themselves plan to spend the upcoming spring break closing the deal, choosing which pieces to take, and beginning what will be a long moving process.

This is a huge victory for the rebirth of letterpress as an artistic craft. I suspect that this will ultimately save more than just the Globe collection. Such a major recognition of the value of historic letterpress, from such a well-renowned institution, will do a lot to raise the profile and prestige of the medium. Who knows? This could be the start of a trend.

Big News from Boston

2011-02-18T17:40:00.002-05:00

This is a guest post from Alexis, a friend of Gilah Press + Design. Thanks, Alexis!

What do you get when you combine dozens of linotype machines and letterpresses, thousands of drawers full of lead type, boxes and boxes of etchings and seals, and about a billion other historical and contemporary printmaking accouterments?

Depends on whom you ask. According to the City of Boston, you get a million-dollar-per-year expenditure, which is why the city recently decided to shut down its municipal print plant and auction off the contents. The equipment has been divided into 200 separate lots to be auctioned on February 24, and all of them can be viewed pre-auction here. There's everything from a four-color Heidelberg to a hand-operated platen press, a six-foot linotype machine to a lot of over a million sheets of paper. The most fun lot includes engraved likenesses of Boston public officials, a block declaring "The City of Boston" in Old English font, a cigar box full of official city seals, and thousands of lead type sets. There is also an antique phone booth, for some reason (sold separately).

According to printmaking enthusiasts, of course, the sum of these parts is something wonderful and golden and good, and it ought to be preserved. The big question is what the purchasers of these items will ultimately decide to do with them. Much of the equipment is still contemporary and has practical, industrial value, but a lot of it is outmoded as far as large-scale production is concerned and has value only as part of the small-press revival movement, as part of an antiques collection, or as scrap metal.

So are letterpress lovers going to claim this type and keep it in use, or will it ultimately be relegated to a museum or, worse, a foundry? When asked his opinion, former City Council president Lawrence S. DiCara, whose face is depicted in one of the engravings, summed it up thus: "I think I'm far too young to be considered a historical relic."

the cosgroves

2011-02-11T16:09:00.004-05:00

We recently printed this stationery set for the Cosgroves, a young family in Baltimore. The design reflected both their interest in minimal compositions—with bright colors and strong contrast—as well as the warmth and importance of home. The half-tone is an image of their row house in Charles Village.

These were printed on 110lb Crane's Lettra Fluorescent White with a little neon ink to boost the 'pop' of the red. The large solid areas took a lot of ink and impression so a slower run was necessary for the paper to really take in the color and impact.

The amount of time the inked form is in contact with the paper (also known as the dwell) can change the look of the final print. A faster run will apply less ink to the form, and a lighter hit to the paper will result in a saltier look of large areas. And while saltiness is something we love about letterpress, some designs might require a little more coverage and time.

viva las vegas

2011-01-17T10:31:00.002-05:00

Last week we printed wedding invitations for our friends Karie and Chris. To reflect their wedding location and personalities, they asked for an invitation that was bold, simple, and spoke directly of Las Vegas.

The main invitation card acts as a "postcard"; on the back, a handwritten message lets guests know the date, time and location of the event.

The reply card acts as an actual postcard (Karie and Chris' address is on the back), so a thick 220# cotton stock was used to cut down on show-through, allowing for a much deeper impression. In turn, this helped with getting more even ink coverage on the sign, skyline and poker chips.

chloe, the third shift printress

2010-12-17T16:07:00.001-05:00

annual holiday party

2010-12-17T15:14:00.003-05:00

It has been insanely busy around here, but because we work hard, we play hard.

We had our annual holiday party last Friday at a gorgeous home owned by Cynthia of Soup's On in Hampden. Lots of delicious foods were consumed along with a variety of wine, champagne and beer. Everyone bonded around the roaring fire and, later, we were entertained by Cory, an aspiring card trick magician (who also happens to be Nathalie's husband)!

Kat invited everyone over to her place for the after-party where we tore up her kitchen with mad dance skills. We also made sure to engage in a team-building exercise: forming a pyramid.

From the top, going left to right:
Ahnhee, Cassidy, Nathalie, Whitney, Kat, Erin

Go team!

Drumroll, please...

2010-10-21T15:34:00.002-04:00

Okay, so it took us a year, but it’s your fault. You’ve been keeping us busy! Thanks for that, by the way...

Without further adieu, here are our Ready, Set Fly! winners:

Kim Bentley
Danielle Davis
Nick Kalivas
Julia Kostreva
Andy Mangold
Kelly Miller
Jon Stapp

Congrats everyone, and thanks for all of the great submissions! We’ll be in touch with the artists shortly to discuss the details.

AIGA Baltimore event: Letterpress Tour

2010-08-24T09:57:00.004-04:00

from here: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/event-detail?eid=47750854

Letterpress Tour at Gilah Press + Design

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
6:30 - 8:00 PM

Join AIGA Baltimore for our Letterpress Series. The first event is a tour at Gilah Press.

Started by MICA alum Kat Feuerstein, Gilah Press + Design uses letterpresses from the late 1800s and early 1900s to create all types of printed pieces ranging from greeting cards, invitations, business cards and stationery. Come smell the ink, take a tour of the shop and learn the workings of modern day letterpress printing.

Event is free! No registration necessary.

Questions: alissa@baltimore.aiga.org

gilah press + design wants YOU!

2010-06-21T17:15:00.002-04:00

We're hiring!
Full Time Letterpress Printer

Gilah Press + Design seeks a detail-oriented press operator to join our team.

We're looking for a friendly, quick learner with keen eyes. Experience with C&P jobbers, Windmills, polymer platemakers, guillotines and mixing ink a plus. Cartwheels, round-off back handsprings and a sense of humor a super-plus-plus.

Other than running the press, day-to-day responsibilities may include, packaging cards, shipping out orders and general studio organization.

If interested, please email your resume to kat@gilahpress.com. No phone calls, please.

BGL Invitation on Under Consideration's FPO website

2010-05-04T16:25:00.004-04:00

An invitation designed and printed by Gilah Press + Design was posted on Under Consideration's well-known For Print Only website last Friday. The invitation was created for a local law firm's 25th anniversary party. Check out more details and photos here. Thanks for the coverage, guys!

photo from the FPO website

ready set fly: deadline extension

2010-03-29T10:53:00.001-04:00

Procrastinators, rejoice! If you haven’t yet submitted your artwork to the Ready Set print contest, you’re in luck. We’ve extended the deadline to Tuesday, June 1, so make that great idea of yours a reality and send it on over! Refresh your memory and read over the guidelines to make sure everything checks out before submitting. Once you’re ready, go ahead and upload your file to us.

Good luck, and we’ll be looking forward to your work!

metropolismag.com coverage

2010-03-08T10:20:00.002-05:00

can't believe we never posted about this! metropolismag.com did an amazing write up about gilah press + design right before the new year rolled around. yeah, we're that late with this. thank you so much, elizabeth. read it here!

photo taken by elizabeth dickinson

Reay Set Fly deadline extended

2010-02-16T11:52:00.003-05:00

It’s not quite over yet! Keep working hard on your Ready Set Fly designs, because we’ve extended the deadline.

After you’ve read the guidelines, upload your file here or email info@gilahpress.com. Hope to see your finished file in our inbox soon!

felt and wire shop grand opening

2010-02-01T17:37:00.002-05:00

ladies and gentlemen,

we are proud to announce the grand opening of our shop on feltandwireshop.com! now you can purchase as many (or as few!) cards as you'd like, whether you need that one special card for your significant other, or you're stocking up on paper goods for the whole year. be sure to check the shop regularly as we'll be adding new cards and updating our current collections as often as possible.

visit us at http://gilahpress.feltandwireshop.com and shop away!

ready, set, fly has launched!

2010-01-18T10:14:00.003-05:00

READY SET is a limited edition collection of prints that will be designed by you and letterpress printed by us! Of all submissions received, only ten artworks will be selected for inclusion in the finished limited edition boxed set. Entries will be judged for concept, design, illustration and typography.

1. Send us a digital file of your submission (low-res, under 1 MB, JPG/GIF). You can either email it to info@gilahpress.com or use the upload form at gilahpress.com/readyset. Please be sure to include your name, email address, phone number, the title of your piece, a short artist’s statement (100 words max) and the Pantone color codes of your selected spot colors.

2. Once the jury has sorted through the submissions, each of the chosen artists will be contacted for a final AI/EPS file of their artwork. We will letterpress the artwork, produce an edition of 110 and each of the winning artists will receive their own boxed set of prints.

THEME:
fly (open to your interpretation)

GUIDELINES:
• Artwork cannot exceed 9” x 7” (paper size will be 10” x 8”)
• Must be horizontal in orientation
• Only two spot colors may be used

DEADLINE:
February 12, 2010

happy new year!

2009-12-31T14:39:00.003-05:00

happy new year's eve, everyone! thank you to everyone who helped make 2009 such a great year for us. see you in 2010!

(photo taken by the bartender at woodberry kitchen where we have our annual happy hour to celebrate the year)

BINGE was awesome

2009-12-21T16:24:00.001-05:00

this year's BINGE was bigger, better, and even more successful than last year's! we had almost twenty vendors join us, so we decided to split the event between our studio and spur design's studio next door. below are just a few of the vendors that were present at BINGE:

us, of course:

almanac bindery:

erin fitzpatrick (on the left) and tv vida:

motobus:

lauren silberman's papercuts:

spur design:

in addition to all of the great stuff our vendors were offering, whitney took a break from her almanac bindery table and gave a letterpress demonstration to all of our interested guests:

there was no shortage of wine, drinks or snacks for our vendors and guests, either. here's adam manning bar:

and we couldn't resist cutting into a gigantic apple covered in candy to serve to our vendors. this picture does no justice to the size of this thing. isn't it the craziest--yet yummiest--thing you've ever seen?

holiday party 2009

2009-12-09T17:10:00.002-05:00

last friday was the annual gilah press + design holiday party. and, like last year, soup's on did a fantastic job catering the event. the food, drinks, and laughs were aplenty and a fun time was had by all.

after the dinner most of us headed over to kat's house where we kept the party going by nibbling on decadent desserts and indulging in a few more drinks. we even invited a few extra friends over to join in on the fun. several games of bananagrams were played late into the night, and adam, kat's husband, would not stop dominating. he was crazy!

kat got everyone a pantone mug as a party favor, but since a few were left behind we decided to make them at home in our studio. aren't they lookin' beautiful in our dish rack?

yay for the holidays!

thank you!

2009-11-25T11:54:00.003-05:00

happy thanksgiving eve, everyone! with the holidays being just around the corner, gilah has been super busy letterpress printing, diecutting, and getting down and dirty with some delicate handwork...not to mention all of the "normal" graphic design jobs that need to get done on top of all that! none of it would be possible without the help of all of the interns and printers that have recently come through the doors of gilah to help us gals out, so we want to give a great big "THANKS!" to...

ally

birthplace: boston, ma
college: maryland institute college of art
what you could be found doing on a friday night: swing dancing!
if you were a font, you would be: museo

lauren

birthplace: boston, ma
college: maryland institute college of art
what you could be found doing on a friday night: beers with peers
if you were a font, you would be: gotham

chris

birthplace: bel air, md
college: towson university, maryland institute college of art
what you could be found doing on a friday night: watching a movie in an apartment or at a show
if you were a font, you would be: univers

jayce

birthplace: damascus, md
college: stevenson university
what you could be found doing on a friday night: working at grand cru or seeing live music and lovin' life
if you were a font, you would be: garamond. old style for life

ahnhee

birthplace: south korea
college: university of delaware
what you could be found doing on a friday night: cooking dinner and watching a movie
if you were a font, you would be: eurostile

organization is awesome

2009-11-13T17:38:00.002-05:00

our basement got the best of us just a few months ago. the basement holds the bulk of our product and it used to be difficult to go down there and grab exactly what we needed without tripping over boxes and searching through random bags and dark corners. what should have been a five minute trip to the basement would turn into a half-hour hunt for samples and cards. it had gotten way out of hand and it was time to take action!

sadly, i managed to miss the bulk of the basement organization because i was on my honeymoon (mwahaha!), but kat, whit and anyone else they could get their hands on transformed what was once a scary dark dungeon of doom into a space we were no longer afraid to step into. we even show it off to our clients that come visit the studio.

i searched around for some "before" photos but didn't come up with anything, but here are the impressive "after" photos...

this is what you see once you get to the bottom of the stairs: row after beautiful row of box and tin samples, business cards, wedding invitations, whatever. everything is clearly labeled and within reach. it's seriously amazing:

when you turn to your right you'll notice gorgeously organized shelves of paper and envelopes, organized by size and color:

and here are all the envelopes and sleeves we use to package our greeting cards. the cork surface is perfect for putting together card shipments. it's actually pretty fun to work down in the basement now:

in addition to the basement, we decided to create a job board to keep everyone on track with the tasks for the next week, month, etc. it's very helpful knowing that we're all on the same page:

and before all of this, whitney had put together her own job board to keep the print jobs organized:

breathe in. breathe out. ahhh. our minds are much clearer and i think we feel more at peace with the space now. can't beat that.

new presses!

2009-11-06T17:51:00.005-05:00

we recently acquired two new presses on a total whim since they were such a deal. in order to make space for the new presses, all new electrical wiring and a lot of rearranging had to be done. it was nuts around here for a while, but then it was finally time to welcome home our new babies.

here are our old presses in their new location:

and this is the big empty hole the old presses used to live in that will soon be filled with pretty machines:

here's a shot of one of the new presses coming into our space. the guys who helped us were very sweet and worked surprisingly well together, even when faced with the difficult task of moving such heavy machinery. now that's patience:

our old chandler in press is in it's usual spot on the left, but now it has friends:

the first new press we got. see all that rust? eventually someone's gonna hafta clean it up, and it's probably gonna be me (it's actually a nice change from being on the computer all day):

it even has a cute little bell! it makes a very satisfying ding sound:

this is the second press. i like to call it our mystery press. we're not quite sure what it is. we've researched like crazy and even looked for help on professional letterpress forums, but we still have no idea. now we're thinking it's some kind of franken-press, pieced together from other machines to create one crazy scary press. spooky!

the velvet chocolatier

2009-06-09T13:59:00.004-04:00

last week we launched the velvet chocolatier's website. we've been working with ruthie, the proprietor of the company, to make sure everything was in tip-top shape from start to finish. shooting photos of chocolate proved to be no easy task, but after making some mistakes and learning new techniques, we managed to pull it off. here's a shot of whitney and beth taking a photo of one of the tray options:

ruthie's chocolates are absolutely delicious and we never complained when she brought in fresh, new chocolates for us to shoot (we got to eat them after the photos were approved!) so check out how the site turned out and order some chocolate!

national stationery show 2009

2009-06-05T19:26:00.003-04:00

so we're only a few weeks late with our national stationery show recap. that's not too bad, right? okay, okay, sorry about that. let's be civil and get on with it...

here's the nice mess we made before we left for new york. whitney took a lot of time to make sure every single sample was flawless. good job.

and here they are at the javitz center putting together the walls of the booth. for some reason they seem to be ENJOYING themselves. smiles are usually never seen on set-up day. be thankful i was there to capture this rare moment. and that drill right there? pretend you don't see that. tools aren't allowed at the javitz center but we trust you won't tell on us...

kat specifically asked me to take this photo to show you all how perfectly these boxes fit into the cabinets we brought with us. aren't we just so organized? we were very proud of ourselves!

more finalization of the set up. when samples started getting hung on the walls we got super excited. it's really fun seeing everything come together in just a few hours.

check this out. we got this awesome little ladder thing to lean against one of the walls to display our new notebooks! and of course, we had to letterpress the "new" sign on the top. consistency is key.

and this is how the booth looked when it all finally came together. ah, gorgeous.

woohoo! it was a lot of fun seeing old friends and meeting new people as usual.

PCB paper show / open house

2009-04-22T10:07:00.002-04:00

here's my favorite image from the production club of baltimore paper show we were at about a month ago:

oh, hey! we've got an open house coming up!

the details: it's happening thursday, april 20th from 6:30 - 9:30 pm. this time around, you have to RSVP to get in. please send your RSVPs to info at gilahpress dot com by april 24th. (that's only two days away!) see you there.

aiga student tour / PCB 15th annual paper show

2009-03-25T23:23:00.002-04:00

you poor little blog. i'm so sorry that i've neglected you. here, i'll make up for it with some lovely photos i took of an aiga student tour that came through here back in mid-february:

tomorrow is the production club of baltimore's 15th annual paper show. we're gonna be there rockin' our usual booth. it's happening at martins west (6817 dogwood road) and will last from 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm. if you're already a PCB member admission is free; otherwise, you'll have to pay $25 at the door. we've got some nifty new posters to pass out that advertise an upcoming open house we're having at the end of april, so come by our booth, grab a poster and remember to say hi!

c&j graphics / the owls go

2009-02-10T21:04:00.003-05:00

two weeks ago the production club of baltimore invited ron heddinger of c&j graphics to the admiral fell inn to give a talk about various finishing methods.

we were all amazed at what could be accomplished since we're pretty used to our letterpressing ways. we learned about holograms, foil stamping, embossing, uv coating (you can put glitter in it! and it comes in tons of colors!) and lots of other finishing services. we even got to handle some of the dies they use:

after the talk we headed to the ottobar and watched the owls go perform. our intern chris plays drums in the band so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him perform. they were so great that we decided to buy their cd! here they are being awesome:

tomorrow we will be opening our doors for a student studio tour put on by aiga baltimore. time to get everything cleaned up and ready to go!

justin's presentation / whit getting down and dirty

2009-01-19T23:16:00.003-05:00

last tuesday, our old intern, justin, stopped by to give us a mock presentation of his recently-updated portfolio. we ordered in soup from our favorite place on the avenue, soup's on, and also enjoyed some leftover pound cake made by kat's neighbor:

(the guy in the back with glasses is our new intern chris. i still haven't gotten a good picture of him, but when i do i'll be sure to introduce him properly). when we finished chowing down, justin gave a run down of his portfolio pieces while the rest of us picked 'em apart and gave him lots of (hopefully) helpful and constructive feedback:

and totally unrelated: two cute photos of whit cleaning random press parts (first one taken in november 2008, second one taken in january 2009):

beth, our new gilah girl

2008-12-20T14:54:00.001-05:00

please help me to welcome beth, our new part-time gal, to the gilah press + design family.

she actually began with us a few weeks ago but i never had a chance to take her picture until two nights ago when we all went out for drinks and exchanged gifts at woodberry kitchen.

it's good to have you with us, beth!

BINGE: a success

2008-12-20T14:45:00.009-05:00

the BINGE open studio + holiday sale was a success. we had a lot of fun meeting all of the vendors that participated. kat even brought homemade meatballs and put together lots of other snacks to keep our stomachs from rumbling for the duration of the eight hour sale.

below are just a few of the vendors that took part.

gilah press + design table:

presto bingo, children's art division of spur design:

paintings by julia niederman:

erin of fitzbomb and katie of tu vida jewelry:

kimberly watson and her jewelry:

traci and her handmade/vintage stuff:

whitney checking out cory's paintings:

getting into the holiday spirit

2008-12-12T19:41:00.002-05:00

after seeing a similar video on a friend's blog, i was inspired to make one of the gilah girls, plus one (you'll have to watch the video to find out who). bask in the crazy holiday goodness here. enjoy, and happy holidays!

(just a quick reminder that sunday is our BINGE open studio & holiday sale. read here for more information.)

BINGE: open studio & holiday sale

2008-12-01T14:20:00.003-05:00

do a little last minute shopping, see a letterpress printing demo (3 pm) and grab a nosh! all going down in the big pink warehouse at 3506 ash street, baltimore, md 21211.

it's happening on sunday, december 14th from noon until eight. come check it out! in the meantime, take a look at the various vendors that will be selling their wares at the sale.

open house in one week

2008-11-06T21:54:00.002-05:00

hey, everyone! we're having an open house next thursday, november 13th. it's gonna be from 6-9pm at our studio which is located at 3506 ash street. we'll be giving a letterpress demo (well, whitney probably will) while you munch on delicious snacks and drink beer and/or wine. we even have a bluegrass band booked to play throughout the night: smooth kentucky! come by if you can; it's gonna be really fun. hope to see you there!

pulp, ink and hops 2008

2008-10-26T21:38:00.013-04:00

the date snuck up on us so quickly, but the pulp, ink and hops trade show was almost here! it was time to get off our butts and start preparing.

maggie lent a very helpful hand and finished putting together the rest of our notebook giveaways:

and like last year, we wanted to have an open house a few weeks after the show, so i designed this poster to give away to anyone who was interested in checking out the studio and seeing a letterpress demonstration:

even if you didn't get a poster, you should definitely come if you can. it's happening thursday, november 13th from 6-9pm. we even have a band booked to play, so come check it out!

anyway, this is what the plate for the poster looked like when it was inked and ready to be printed onto the chipboard:

cool, huh?

this year's pulp, ink and hops show took place at geppi's entertainment museum near the inner harbor in downtown baltimore. since we were one of the first vendors there we nabbed a prime parking spot that made loading and unloading easy as cake! we brought up all of our stuff and started piecing together the booth. it started out like this...

and eventually turned into this:

aren't the vintage comic books behind the booth a great touch? the museum houses tons of american pop culture items. if you're ever in baltimore, make it a must-visit non-art museum.

after a fabulous show where we made lots of new friends and caught up with old ones, i managed to get someone to take a photo of us at our booth. we're wearing fangs in the first one (though mine just made my mouth look all weird. i didn't do it right...):

yay, trade shows! so good talking with everyone, as usual. hope to see you at the open house!

middle eastern themed potluck

2008-08-24T15:10:00.005-04:00

a few weeks ago we decided to have a potluck lunch since whitney just got back from pilgrimage to israel with her husband jacob:

they set up a slideshow for us to watch while we ate middle eastern themed foods in kat's studio:

i brought this really good rice and chickpeas dish, whitney made yummy falafels, our intern sheena made an amazing salad and kat made pomegranate drinks and the best baklava i've ever had (well, the only baklava i've ever had...but it was awesome).

whitney's photographs were just the icing on the cake; they were beautiful. the food was delicious and it made me realize that i could probably be vegetarian if i really wanted to (don't know how i'd get over my love for chicken, though).

d*s biz ladies meet-up: recap

2008-08-01T23:38:00.007-04:00

the d*s biz ladies meet-up was fantastic! each of the speakers gave tons of helpful tips and advice about having a small art/design-related business. grace was kind enough to put a bunch of notes in PDF form on her website, so check those out.

at the event there were plently of snacks and sweets to eat:

grace stood on a chair to get everyone's attention:

here's kat about to give her second talk. each of the speakers gave their talk four times since there were four groups that switched around the room every 25 minutes:

and here i am with grace. i felt like a total fan girl nerd but she was a total sweetheart about it:

after the event we decided to eat out at rocket to venus where we knew our new intern sheena was working. she kindly took a picture of all of us at the table (at this point we had called our boys to come over to the restaurant to meet us):

and then cory took a picture of kat, sheena, and myself (we're just missing whitney--she was sick!):

it was a great night.

d*s biz ladies meet-up

2008-07-30T10:21:00.003-04:00

tomorrow (thursday), grace of design*sponge will be at the american visionary art museum for the d*s biz ladies meet-up. she will give advice specifically aimed towards ladies starting up a small business or for those already running their own businesses. marketing, press releases, retail information, legal issues and more will all be covered. kat, the big boss here at gilah press + design, will tell her story of starting up a business she was passionate about that eventually became successful. the girls of double dutch boutique will also be speaking at the event.

again, the meet-up will take place at the american visionary art museum (3rd floor, jim rouse visionary center) on thursday, july 31st from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm. remember, it's free! if you decide to come please bring a small potluck-style snack or drink to share. see you there!

(rosie the riveter image from d*s)

justin's last day / sheena, the new intern

2008-07-18T09:05:00.004-04:00

monday was our intern justin's last day at the studio. we took him out to lunch and then left a little early to enjoy some snacks and drinks at kat's house.

here's justin opening gifts and reading a card:

our delicious spread of cheese and crackers:

me and whitney enjoying some rosé inside the kitchen:

kat and justin hanging out on the front porch:

on wednesday we introduced our new intern, sheena, to the studio. we reviewed her fantastic portfolio, went out to lunch at miss shirley's to get to know her a little better, and then got her working for the rest of the day. great to have you with us, sheena!

we're on design*sponge

2008-06-30T10:56:00.001-04:00

the gilah press + design studio is featured on design*sponge today! thank you to anne and grace for asking us to be included on design*sponge as one of your "sneak peeks." read the whole article here! wee!

national stationery show 2008

2008-06-05T19:41:00.011-04:00

three weeks ago was such a whirlwind. gilah press + design had been preparing for our third time at the national stationery show for months and it was finally time to put all of our hard work on display!

we spent hours putting together dozens of press kits. they took up more room than we thought:

these little notepads were given away at the show. they were a hit:

about two hundred catalogs were put together by hand with help from our intern maggie:

whitney's husband jacob even pitched in and built us a pair of beautiful dollies:

and then it was off to new york...

---

putting up the booth was relatively painless since we had the help of our intern justin and kat's husband adam this time around (usually it's just us three girls, or just two of us):

we put up all of our cards and made sure they were positioned perfectly:

in the end our booth turned out great!

after the show we wandered around times square...

...and met up with a great pair of letterpress people from australia that we met at the show earlier.

their company, chapel press, puts out some really beautiful letterpress work. it was so cool to share funny stories about our company with them and vice versa. all the little quirks and things about the letterpress business can be really fun to discuss when the other person actually understands what you're talking about!

all in all it was a fabulous show. we had a blast running into our regular buyers while also making some great new contacts. we're looking forward to next year!

gilah press on roadside scholar

2008-05-01T19:26:00.001-04:00

this morning we were mentioned on the wonderful roadside scholar blog run by gigi leonard. she did a great interview with kat and showed off a lot of our favorite pieces. thanks so much, gigi. now go check out the write-up!

updated website / open studio

2008-04-15T10:52:00.002-04:00

i can't believe i didn't mention this sooner! our website recently underwent a somewhat major overhaul/update. we've put up all new letterpress and design work, new locations where you can find our work, and--my favorite part--personal biographies! go check it out.

due to our success at the pcb paper show on march 27th, we decided to hold another open studio last wednesday night for all the new people we met. we had a great time getting to know all-new potential clients and students alike and had a grand ol' time eating, drinking and speaking with everyone. unfortunately i've got no pictures of the event since my batteries died, but here's a video of whitney giving a demo on our smaller chandler and price press at an open house that took place a few months ago.

packaging party / open studio

2008-03-25T01:29:00.004-04:00

gilah press has a new rule: we must package our cards before they go into inventory and down into the basement. to help us catch up and speed things along, lots of gilah press friends came to the studio last wednesday to help us with the dirty work.

it was a great night with new and old friends alike, good wine, pizza, beer, and lots of laughter.

gilah press is having an open studio on wednesday, april 9. it will start a little after 6 pm. you should come! check out our website for the address and additional contact details.

hope everyone had a great easter!

happy st. pattie's day

2008-03-19T01:42:00.004-04:00

we're a couple days late, but happy st. patrick's day! though st. pattie's day was technically on saturday, kat decided we needed to celebrate with a couple of black and tans anyway. here's to our very minimal irish heritages!

from left to right: tammy (friend of ours), whitney (right behind her), the mustache ride, kat, and justin (our monday intern).

salvation army luncheon

2008-03-19T01:38:00.004-04:00

a few weeks ago (march 5) we attended the compassion in action salvation army luncheon at the sheraton in downtown baltimore. we designed and letterpressed the sponsorship package that was sent out before the thank-you luncheon. it was fun getting all dressed up and heading downtown to enjoy ourselves. we even spotted our logo on some of their posters:

here's whitney, kat, and charisse (friend of ours) sharing a moment at the table:

near the end of the luncheon, a really amazing speaker named dr. freeman hrabowski went on stage and gave a very moving speech. i was fighting back tears! great ending to a fun girl's afternoon out.

bridal event at grey rock mansion

2008-03-04T22:09:00.008-05:00

we took part in baltimore magazine's bridal event at the grey rock mansion on sunday. here's what our booth looked like as we were closing up shop. what you can't see is kat who just happened to be hiding behind the counter as i took this photo.

and looking out from our booth into the tent.

hello, internet

2008-03-04T21:18:00.003-05:00

gilah press + design now has a blog, and you're currently reading it! check back regularly for updates on studio happenings, new letterpress work, and upcoming events.

we are a letterpress and graphic design studio located in baltimore, maryland. the studio consists of three gals named kat, whitney, and nathalie. oh--can't forget our studio cat, pica. all of our letterpress work is printed in-house on chandler & price platen presses. for more information, check out gilahpress.com.