TRIP PRINT PRESS

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We print distinct work in the most analogue of ways. Our goal is to compose and print work that is noticeably different in style and process. We strive to be creative within the process of printing as well as the printed image. This shop is a fully functioning artist printing office using equipment that was condemned obsolete a generation ago, surrendered for less practical & more wasteful processes.

We mix and match spot colours. Spinning our colour wheel in the quest for colour harmony, adding pin pricks of black or white to achieve the desired temperature. You won't find a PMS book in this shop.

We print on the best and the worst papers. Fresh new stock from Domtar or salvaged papers from a warehouse somewhere lost in time. Here, newsprint is elevated to the upper echelons of the paper hierarchy - the more acid and lignin the better.

We build forms from steel, wood and lead, a process that blackens the fingertips. Slugs are cut on the composing room saw and fitted precisely or precariously into the form. Type is cast, picked from job cases, proofed, printed on presses considered antiques, distributed and re-melted. Generations worth of caked ink are carefully chipped out of counters in wood & metal type with a bodkin.

Here everything letterpress is covered in a layer of dust, so thick at times it becomes dirt or tightly woven bunnies - often confused as pieces of scrap textiles from the sock factory that once occupied our building. If not dust, there is a spattering of solidified type metal, ink blotches or fingerprints in multiple hues, layers of gear grease or a seasoned film of machine oil.

Here the smell of solvents is like that of potpourri. The crucible emits the enchanting odour of freshly baking bread. When you receive a job from us, hold a sheet up to your face and breathe deep. This is what we do.