Catching up - Part 3

Finally, I have time to write about the good stuff.

Hammerpress
is the dream I thought it would be.

Hammerpress consists of five people. Brady Vest is the founder/boss and does most of the printing. He and Matt are the only full time employees. Matt works on a lot of the computer designs with Jen, who is increasing her hours to help the work load. Wendy is a older lady who does all the shop keeping and organization that is needed for their store. Finally Bobby is another printer who comes in a works on Fridays and Saturdays. I haven't met him since he was off this Friday.

The shop is going through a change. The bread and butter of Hammerpress is wedding invitations. A custom designed, handset wedding invite costs around 3500 dollars. The pricing is new as well. From what people have been saying, not many people understand what it is that Brady does, well people looking for wedding invitations that is. Brady said what he does is more like painting than printing. When people ask for one of his creations they are asking for a piece of fine art and apparently that doesn't sit well with most. Along with the new higher price, there is a waver customers sign off on saying they are okay with signing off on a drawing, since by the time Brady has a proof it is too late for major changes.

The newer option is a computer designed invite which is then printed using a metal plate ordered from Michigan. Most of the design elements used in the computer designs are from existing type that has been scanned in, thus still retaining an element of the hand-done. Though, this too takes time. Jen estimated a custom invite take four to five days to finish. Since invites is not all Hammerpress does, they are attempting to streamline the process by creating twelve layouts customers can choose from, then customize with their names and wedding colors. Those will be out in June.

Hammerpress does a great deal of design work for businesses too. Anything from posters and menus to cd covers and business cards. Some is handset, some is computer made, it all depends on the price bracket. Brady does almost all of the handset design work and almost no design work on the computer.

Posters are to Hammerpress somewhat as stocks are to a persons paycheck. They don't make much at the time of printing but payoff over a longer period. Brady mentioned that there are four or so to be done in the time span that I'll be here and that I'll get to work on those when they come up.

Stationary is the last part of Hammerpress and a large part of their business. I'll get into more of that as I describe what I do around the shop.

Wednesday, May 27th
Upon arrival I was taken on a tour of the shop. The front room is a store where prints, cards, and some things that Brady thinks to be interesting reside. Brady is a self proclaimed pack rat and so the decor is a little garage sale chic. Although anyone who knows my taste should know that is not a bad thing. The office is to the left of the door and that is where all design work takes place.

The back half of the shop is where all the printing happens. Hammerpress has nine presses, three of which are Ruths (Vandercook Universal I). It also has a jaw dropping amount of type. Brady has accumulated so much type he has to store some of it in his backroom because he doesn't have room in the studio. I think I might have drooled when I was looking through their drawers. For those of you who looked at Abra's type catalogue, you know that page where all the circus and western fonts were? Yeah, that's Brady's type cabinet. He even has a few alphabets of wooden fonts that must be a good five or six inches in length. There are just about as many crazy ornaments and vintage image blocks as there is type. Brady gets his type from a variety of locations, auctions, eBay, Craigslist, and some of it is new from the foundry in San Francisco. His type is his pride and joy and rightfully so.

Brady returned from a large stationary trade show in New York a day or two before I arrived. Through shows like that and representatives is how he sells his product to other stores. Once, through the New York show, Urban Outfitters hired him for a job of printing 25,000 alphabet cards.

Anyway, Wednesday was spend folding cards and preparing orders that came out of the show. Wendy helped me and showed me the ins and outs of packaging. She also offered up some ideas about where I should go around town.

***!* for anyone who wants Hammerpress ephemera, you should contact me. Make-readies and old merchandise are all at my disposal. There is a whole backroom full of stuff that Brady intends on just throwing out if anyone isn't interested in it. Old wedding invites are up for grabs too. I know that sounds funny, but they are some of the coolest stuff there. *!***

That night I intended to make dinner for my roommates, but I fell asleep and the gas went out until June 1st. So no cooking for me.

Thursday, May 28th
This day I spent printing. I printed 300 plus wedding invitations for a friend of Brady and about the same for some cd packaging. I've already learned a few things:
- most of Hammerpress' work is on cardstock. It's cheap and takes printing well. Some design work is on different types of paper, but a fair amount is on simple cheap cardstock.
- designing at an angle on the press bed is not as hard as it looks, just time consuming. One also needs a wooden corner to build off of, but I think something like that could easily be made for PNCA.
- every press has a character of it's own, no matter where you go.

In the evening Joe and I went over to Halliday and her roommate Danielle's where Halliday made a delicious stirfry for us. We had some wine and sat around enjoying the evening until Joe and I left for a succession of houses where I met a bunch of people.

The night capped off at this house where we "porched it". Somehow it felt like a flashback to a 1920's speakeasy- if I could flashback to the 1920's. That feeling probably had to do with the girls who lived there. They were flappers a bit in look and much in spirit.

I learned about the zine culture of Kansas City, which is very little. I was invited to submit to two coming out this month and I think I will. I need to work on mine, I'm not sure what the topic will be on. Oh - in all of this I went to a place called the Arts INKubator Press and will be taking part in their co-op for the summer. That's where I'll be screen printing.

Friday, May 29th
More rep packaging today. A great deal of rep packaging actually. Jen was helping me put things together and said that this is a once a year occurrence that means big business. Eventually Hammerpress intends to do all of their sales to stores through representatives.

About mid morning bus loads of people came through Crossroads from a convention happening at the Art Institute Kansas City (AIKC), so I didn't get much done but sales were great. I stayed late and hung out talking for a bit. Jen and I are going to go thrift storing on Monday, which will be great since for once in my life I didn't pack enough.

The Led Zeppelin themed party consisted of a bunch of people with one thespian hostess dressed up in a velvet jump suit and some music videos playing in the background. Around ten we went to Davey's Bar to see some bands. The show was rocking, at least the first two bands that played, by the time the third was on, it was one am and I was getting tired, so the last two didn't strike my fancy in the same way.

After, we grabbed some Mexican food and then I was dropped off to go to sleep.

now here I am. There is a cat name Flora demanding my attention and shedding great piles of hair, all over my bed, in revenge for not getting it. I need to go get ready. Later I am having a grand tour from Halliday and I think I'm going to go stare at some trains.

My first week was fantastic. Hammerpress is inspiring, laid back, and welcoming. The Pistol is a ready made social network that I am welcome and included in. My weeks here are already getting booked with a potluck, fashion show, first Friday, and a trip to St. Louis on the horizon. Good things are happening.


p.s. one of my oldest friends (dating back to elementary school) lives and hour and a half away. Going to go see him sometime too.