Among Austin printmakers, screenprinting reigns supreme - the sometimes messy process requires relatively little equipment and nicely compliments our rock and roll lifestyle. For every collective of anarchists kids squeegeeing patches in their kitchen, there is an Austin printmaker pursuing a different printing technique. Kat and Brad Murph are a pair of such printers, and in 2006 they founded Vertallee Letterpress, a design and print studio in East Austin. Letterpress is like screenprinting's older, more refined sister - the delicate embossing instantly gives paper a polished aesthetic. Vertallee provides custom design and printing for invitations, business cards, and all manner of ephemerata. Vertallee Letterpress are participating in East Austin Studio Tour - stop by their studio at 701 Tillery St. to see their work and try your hand at printing on their Heidelberg Windmill press. Vertallee's creative director, Kat Murph answered some questions for us about the letterpress process and the future of the printed word.

What first sparked your interest in paper arts and the letterpress?

For Brad it was Chicago rock album art and posters (Shellac, Tortoise, June of 44, etc.) For me it was a love affair with screen printing in college, which then led me to a B.F.A. with a concentration in printmaking. We started letterpress when we were both living in Chicago and found our first press, a tabletop Hohner, on Ebay.

When talking custom designs, the possibilities seem endless. Have any of your own designs surprised you?

There are restrictions when talking letterpress that can be challenging. Certain things like halftones, large solids, photographs for example are not conducive to the letterpress process. So we do have parameters. But when a design turns out to be a good collaboration with the client and the printed pieces elicit guests to respond that they can’t wait to attend an event - that is the best. Brad still likes the moment when an idea goes from a sketch or proofs to the first piece pulled from the press and how genuinely great letterpress looks.

What do you love most about working in this medium?

It's slow and meticulous and takes a good amount of skill to do well.

What do you say to people who believe that paper is becoming irrelevant to the digital age? What can we learn from preserving, and growing with the art forms you’re keeping alive?

Digital is more convenient, but that only makes paper all the more special. Humans are multifaceted and can’t exist in a vacuum of virtual reality. The first thing anyone does when they see a letterpress printed piece is to touch it. It’s automatic. It’s also evident in the “handmade nation” surge, with people going for very tactile things like knitting, needlework, jewelry making, cooking etc.with gusto. There is something innate in the need to make things.

How do paper arts serve to connect us with our history and propel us forward?

It’s a continuation of history to work with paper but also a recycling of the old to use in a new way. We have foregone setting lead type in favor of polymer plates made digitally which open a range of image and type options. Reaching back as you move forward.

Anything you can tell us about your new line of stationary currently in production, or do we have to stay in anticipation a little longer?

We’re actually offering an exciting new line of print-your-own holiday cards at EAST! For 5 bucks anyone can chose from 1 of 4 designs to print her/himself on our Challenge press. We provide paper, envelopes, plates and ink. You provide the strong arms to run the press!

Filed in Arts & Entertainment and tagged art, east2009, eastaustinstudiotour, letterpress, paper, vertallee

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