Welcome to the Team, Allison

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!

New/Old Machinery Calls Gilah Home

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

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

chloe, the third shift printress

gilah press + design wants YOU!

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.

thank you!

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

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!

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!

aiga student tour / PCB 15th annual paper show

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!

justin's presentation / whit getting down and dirty

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):

BINGE: a success

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: