Green Door Magazine Summer 2012: DESIGN: Echo Letterpress

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Echo Letterpress

It is a familiar story – a New York City couple leaves the corporate world for a simple life in the country. Robert and Christina Fisher both worked in the corporate design world, but felt they were losing sight of why they loved design in the first place. They wanted to get back to basics. Robert, who loved coming up to the Catskills for the fly-fishing decided to buy a 19th Century farmhouse and start a new life.

They had both learned letterpress printing in college. Letterpress printing is the use of moveable type (single letters) that is locked into a bed, inked, and rolled or pressed against paper to transfer the impression. Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type press in 1440, which brought information to the masses. If you frequent antique shops or look through a Pottery Barn catalog, you may find letterpress letters for sale as design accents.

With their design background and a rudimentary passion for letterpress, they felt they could make a living. They moved to the country where there was less overhead pressure. Being a bit naïve and “dangerously optimistic,” they jumped in.

They purchased two printers - one a 1901 model originally run by foot power - from retired printers in Massachusetts and Sullivan County. Recently, Robert pulled a 120-year old printer out of a basement in Liberty, NY that the owner was going to junk for scrap metal. Turns out it’s missing some parts, but Robert, who has a serious addiction to collecting old printing equipment, keeps it for cutting paper.

Christina says their decision to move was about timing. Ten years ago they could not have started a letterpress business. “People are so much more comfortable buying things online,” says Christina. You’d think that luxury and custom items would need to be purchased on-site, but Christina says, “The fact is that we can sell something (online) that technically you should touch and feel before you buy it; people buy it sight unseen.”

Robert says eighty percent of their business is done outside of Sullivan County. It is a strategic online business model that works in a rural area. But, local business has picked up with their custom design work. Their top sellers are wedding invitations, stationery, baby announcements and business cards. They also have a retail shop next to their printing press where they sell a wide-variety of their custom designed products.

Traditionally, letterpress people are master printers and not necessarily designers, but Robert and Christina design all their products and rarely use outside designers. “We’re designers first, printers second,” says Robert.

Ironically, the same way the web has made it easier to start a business it is also the reason they left their web jobs in the first place. “There is something so intangible about building websites,” says Christina. Robert felt his creative process stifled. “My frustration was always (that) you pour your heart and soul into something, designing every single little widget and detail and then the tech team comes along… (Now) we are in control of that process,” says Robert.

They both describe the printing process as fickle and fussy. With a 1901 letterpress you have to make sure the paper is lined up, the ink is just right and the pressure is perfect. But, much like life, the finished product is never perfect. “There are always imperfections, but it’s the nature of the process,” says Robert. And the process informs their design sensibilities. They design for the medium, which is a philosophy that is counter to our one-click culture.

Robert’s advice to immovable types who are yearning for something more in life, “Follow you heart - it’s not always easy to make that jump, but you always feel good after you do it.”

FOR MORE INFO:
Echo Letterpress
4849 Main Street Jeffersonville, NY 12748
Phone: 845-482-4900
www.echoletterpress.com

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Published In:
Summer 2012 - Vol 2 No 2

Written By:
Akira Ohiso

Photography:
Michael Bloom

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