Cranky Pressman is a commercial letterpress located in the depressed town of Salem, Ohio. The sole reason we still operate this primitive sweatshop is to serve our growing list of persnickety customers throughout the country. We produce custom letterpress printing for graphic designers, illustrators, art directors and all manner of creative professionals with their black turtlenecks, pipes and lofty ideas. We don’t tout design work ourselves but instead break our backs to make you look good.
What we do offer is old-fashioned know-how, full letterpress production and binding capabilities, all at damn reasonable prices. The bulk of our workload includes materials such as business cards, letterheads, stationery, envelopes, folders, booklets, postcards, folded cards, invitations, tickets, coasters, hang-tags, labels, packaging, posters and all form of letterpress ephemera. Larger more labor intensive jobs such as hard bound books and multi-piece promotional packages can also be executed as can specialties such as die-cutting and embossing. Short and long print runs are accommodated.
Designing for letterpress requires a different creative approach. Cranky Pressman is cobbling together this online environment to help people better understand this old-time medium. Along with the information here on our main pages, we will continue to drone on about letterpress techniques, materials, history, art, design and other subjects which you'll find in our sporadic postings and musty archives.
Look at Cranky Pressman’s flickr site for examples of our work. Also take a gander at our house paper selections. Intended to help keep prices down, our papers range from basic chipboard to 100% cotton rag and may just suit your particular taste. And to show we’re not just a bunch of grumbling old geezers read how we try to do our part to help the environment and other good causes.
Letterpress is not the easiest form of print production, but those familiar with the tactile look and feel it brings to a graphic piece understand why we go to all the bother. In case you are unfamiliar with letterpress, it is not suited for every type of project. Anyone who’s looking for slick four-color printing should drop us a line and we will gladly tell you where to go. If however you know what you want, that being letterpress, send us an e-mail or ring 1-800-433-1288 to discuss your needs. You are sure to catch us sweating over someone’s order.
