Hot Metal Heats Up

Yes, I admit it. I am a letterpress printer. You heard right. In today's high-tech printing world, without letterpress, the land of print would be flat. Letterpress gives print a tactile and visual quality that is unmatched by today's modern equipment.

How did I get started? My dad, Harold Berliner, was a printer and gave me my first job printing when I was just 14 on a hand-fed Chandler & Price printing press running in his shop. I was soon placed in front of a Heidelberg Windmill and told to “just run it like this, and come and find us if you get into trouble.” Eventually, my dad started buying Monotype casting machines. So I learned type on a Monotype keyboard and was soon producing limited-edition books on a Heidelberg cylinder press.

Dad had a varied career path. He owned a Catholic greeting card business in the heart of Nevada City, CA. He was also, at one point, the district attorney of Nevada County, where he co-authored the Miranda Rights statement. He later supplied plastic Miranda Warning cards imprinted with police department names. Couldn't stop the printer in him!

When it came time to pick a career, I wasn't sure how I was going to apply my eclectic skill set. I did not want to go to college; I liked working with my hands and seeing what I created. I opted for print.

I landed a job in the pressroom of the Graphic Center in Sacramento, destined to become one of the largest commercial printers in Northern California. The firm does everything from 4-color process to foiling. I spent the next 12 years of my life in an offset/letterpress environment that filled me with pride. There I watched the shop expand from 20 to over 200 employees, embracing new technology along the way. Yet I was the only female to work in the pressroom.

But the siren song of owning my own print shop eventually called. Returning to my home town in the Sierra Nevada foothills, I opened Full Circle Press in 1991. My clients are design firms, ad agencies, print brokers and other printers who seek unique opportunities in the letterpress format. Together we produce stylish, edgy work on modern and vintage equipment. These jobs consist of wedding invitations, event announcements, stationery systems.

I've also developed a line of wedding invitations and note cards with A Day In May Design. These jobs consist of wedding invitations, special event announcements, stationery systems and jobs for the cylinder press. Our invitation line has been featured in many bridal magazines including Martha Stewart Weddings.

The term “letterpress” is sometimes used in the industry to signify archaic technology. I disagree. Graphic designers I've worked with throughout the years still track me down to produce and consult on letterpress projects. It is still a process that yields beautiful print. And that's why I returned to it. Like the name of my company, I've come full circle.

Of course, the technology has changed. We now use polymer plates to obtain the deep impression that gives definition to a project. See for yourself at our online gallery, www.full-circle-press.com.

In my career in printing I've witnessed tremendous change and crossed many technology bridges. It may be a different industry from when I started, but there is still nothing like the hum of a Windmill turning impressions ever so smoothly.