Press A Card II

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with Press A Card for an informal interview. Khun Nirut, owner, designer, and printer of Press A Card gave me the tour.

Trained as a Graphic Designer at Pratt, Nirut has worked for various design firms, including CNN. Alongside his work at Press A Card, Nirut teaches visual communication at Rangsit University in Bangkok. His wife, Khun Aum, is the managing director.

Press A Card is located off of Sukhumvit Soi 71. The building has two letterpress shops side by side; one belongs to his aunt's family, the second to his family. The family businesses continue to print receipt paper, invoices, and business cards; which is the largest market for letterpress printing in Thailand.

The Thai built press that started the shop is seated on the right. The press seated on the left is a Chinese model.

Nirut's family shop as seen from the 2nd floor

Left over jobs in movable type. Nirut jokes that each shelf is a computer folder containing various jobs for a business.

Like many people who grew up in family printshops, Nirut learned about movable type from redistributing spacing material before moving on to letter forms. After studying and working in the States, Nirut now turns to the press operators in his family's shops to learn how to use the machinery. Some of these men have been employed here for 20 years or more. 

Along with Thai type, there is also some Chinese type.

An employee of his aunt's business readies the Heidelberg.

The original cases from Charoen Aksorn Type foundry.

Two Thai founderies were RAS and Charoen Aksorn Type Foundry. Both of these foundries have since closed.

Most of the plates that are currently used zinc plates. There are several family run shops in Bangkok and around Thailand that produce these plates.

Current Locations : Bangkok Studio

I am working hard on my Press redesign, a variety of greeting cards, as well as several fine art projects. I cannot believe 5 months have come and gone in Bangkok already! I thought I would share with you an overview of my studio here. It has been working out quite nicely, actually. I am constantly amazed at how productive I can be once things are in their right place.

Tomorrow's task is to score and fold the Buddha cards and prepare for the next round of prints. Get ready!

Also, if you will notice outside the window, on the balcony, is Nick blissfully napping on our 9'x9' slice of something nice!

Press A Card

Today I took a little trip over to see the Press A Card letterpress shop. I met Khun Nirut, designer and founder of Press A Card. He has graciously agreed to have an interview with me in the near future, so stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, here's a few Thai Letterpress teasers .

There are still quite a few letterpress shops around Thailand, however, they are mostly producing invoice pages and things of that nature. The Thai foundry producing Thai letters has permanently closed its doors, so a lot of the work Press A Card makes uses custom made plates. They do, however, have some Thai faces in lead.