next up we have personal favorite of mine - hammerpress. i first love them because they’re based out of kansas city (where i spent 8 quality formative years of my life), and, more importantly, for their vibrant letterpress work with bold typography that’s all about having fun. today founder brady vest shares a look inside this wonderful letterpress studio that definitely reflects their work and style. if you don’t have a chance to make it to kansas city anytime soon to visit their shop (don’t forget the kansas city design guide!), you can also find their work online. click here for loads more images. [thanks brady and crew!] -anne
[Above: A view of the shop from across Southwest Boulevard. the building is… very old. i don’t know how old. our friend and neighbor, jeff owens, owns the building and it was used by him originally for set building, which he used to do. i believe it was originally used as a machine shop that build really heavy military equipment years and years ago. the are we are in is the primary arts district of kansas city - the “crossroads”. it’s made up mostly of large warehouse buildings and in the last five years or so has become subject to “developement”, which as we know is a double edged sword. we’ve been in this area for the last ten years and were lucky enough to find this great space on a prime corner of the area.]
this is just a good overall view of the front of the studio. we’re lucky to have a good sized storefront area in the shop with good light. (client meeting area to left).
The “mission command” of our listening station.
all of the signs in the shop are hand cut and spraypainted stencils. we try to do everything we can by hand in the shop, from the signage on the fronf of the building which is handpainted to the price tags which are handtyped. we go for slow!
A detail of the fine craftsmanship of our Business Card Bar. Designed & Constructed by the Utilitarian Workshop.
Just a squirrel trying to get a nut (in a non-descript corner of the shop).
“Sweetie” notecard displayed on one of our antique typewriters.
this is a wall in our client meeting area, which is mostly used for meeting with wedding clients. this wall is covered with vintage photographs we’ve been collecting. most of them are old wedding photographs although some are just vaguely romantic in some way. it kind of has the look of old paint flaking off the wall.
