In the digital age, can printmaking make a comeback? According to Central Print’s Marie Oberkirsch, it’s a much more satisfying experience for the designer and the reader: “You can use a tablet, but to crack open a book and smell the glue and feel the pages, it’s a richer experience,” she says.
Central Print is a nonprofit organization that offers classes, workshops, and programs to preserve and promote printmaking. Oberkirsch founded the organization in 2014 in partnership with Eric Woods, owner of The Firecracker Press.
The shop is located in Old North, a historic neighborhood in St. Louis, and the location is significant in their mission to promote the art of letterpress printmaking. “You look down the street at the Arch and the foundry where these presses first would have been utilized in our city,” she says.
Reinstating printmaking equipment is also part of the mission at Central Print. The organization offers equipment including wood, metal, and tabletop proof presses.
Oberkirsch said the studio works with many graphic designers who get something unique out of the sensory experience that they wouldn’t get when working on a tablet.
Central Print sees “lots of graphic designers who see the same things they learn in Photoshop, like kerning and leading, but here it’s actual pieces of lead,” she says. “To mix ink colors is the click of a button, but here you have to get out your magenta and your yellow to get just the right shade you want.”
Partnering with organizations like the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Missouri History Museum, Central Print makes the experience accessible to the public outside of the shop as well.
Join Nine PBS Producer Brooke Butler in exploring the classic art of letterpress printmaking at Central Print studio in Old North.
Stream on the PBS App or online below.
