Looking for advise on starting a letterpress studio
Hello,
I’m American based in New Zealand and interested in starting a small letterpress/graphic design studio here. I’m a veteran designer, however, completely new to operating a letterpress. I was hoping someone would be kind enough to offer a novice some general advise on getting started in this amazing craft.
Here are a few questions/thoughts I have:
- Firstly, where does one buy a small letterpress in NZ / Australia from? Would I need to look in the US? Who would ship?
- I’m interested in producing short-run pieces such as invites, postcards, business cards, etc and interested in knowing which press would be recommended.
- In the future, I would like to be able to produce larger format pieces, such as posters and other things with a higher run output and would like a recommendation on what press to use for that on a budget (under 3K)
- do I need industrial space to house the these?
- please post links to any other NZ letterpress resources!
- Can you recommend a beginner course offered in NZ/AU?
Thanks very much!
Depends a bit on where you are in New Zealand - there are letterpress printing people in most of the main centres and elsewhere - and the Association of Handcraft Printers mostly in Auckland, and the Yahoo group Letterpress Down Under - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/letterpressdu/
There are also a number of printing groups connected with technology museums etc - eg Motat, Ferrymead, Okains Bay etc etc… In terms of equipment, type etc, it comes up on TradeMe reasonably regularly - a search for “Letterpress” will bring most of the current listings up.
Hey, Thanks very much for the information. Much appreciated!
Cheers