Cranky Pressman is a commercial letterpress printer located in the depressed town of Salem, OH. 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. Die-cutting, embossing, short and long print runs are accommodated.
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. All house papers were chosen for maximum creative opportunity and recycled content. They range from basic chipboard to fancy 100% cotton rag. Vegetable-based inks are used for printing (if we must be friendly it might as well be to the environment).
We are in the process of completely remodeling the area of this website where you will be able to order letterpress printing online. When finished it will give customers a way to purchase some of their basic letterpress printing needs, such as business cards and invitations, without having to email us or endure our grumbling voices on the phone. This is the plan anyway, but we are sure people will still want to get on the horn to disturb us. We are okay with this and look forward to hearing from you.
Designing for letterpress requires a different creative approach. We’ve cobbled together parts of this website to help people better understand this old-time medium. Any fresh-faced designers or those who need to brush up on how to work with letterpress should visit the Letterpress Trade School.
Also, keep an eye on our blog below if you so desire. Besides keeping you up to date on what us old folks are up to, we will drone on about letterpress techniques, materials, production art and design as well as other tedious subjects.
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 full-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 1-330-337-3341 to discuss your job. You’re sure to catch us sweating over someone’s work.
Get straight to work
No time for messing around? Give us a call at 330-337-3341 or fill in the form below with your project details and we will get straight back to you.