I’ve been admiring letterpress printing (and working with letterpress printers) for years, and after finally getting some hands-on experience through Field Notes’ collaboration with Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, I fell in love with the process and community and wanted to become a part of it.
In early 2021 my friend Matt and I bought a garage-load of letterpress printing equipment from a retired printer in rural Illinois. As we accumulated more equipment (and more experience) we each established our own companies, Matt’s is C’mon Home and I incorporated my print work with my other freelance design and photography work under the name Midwest Ephemera.
With my full-time job at Field Notes, Midwest Ephemera remains a “side hustle.,” but it’s immensely rewarding and fulfilling. I design and print flyers, business cards, invitations, and posters for friends, clients, and the Amalgamated Printers Association. My experience with other forms of vintage arcana has come in handy with the operation, maintenance and repair of the letterpress equipment (some of it more than 100 years old!), and both of my kids and my wife Tracie occasionally get involved, so it’s become a real “family business.”
You can see a list of our favorite projects here.
You can read more about our equipment here, and learn more about letterpress printing here.
My love of music and jukeboxes drives a lot of our work. Researching the production of jukebox title strips has led me down some seriously deep rabbit holes, to the degree that I now own and operate a Ludlow Typograph, a hot-metal typesetting system used for such strips back in the day. I’ve also developed and trademarked the Spinvite™, but that’s a whole ’nother story.
