By Francesca Merwin, staff writer

  

“There are three things we care about: Letterpress, the environment and making a profit. In that order.”

I listened carefully as Cathy Smith, customer account manager, identified some important principles of Boxcar Press. I was a third of the way through the winding tour of the giant that is Boxcar Press, but I didn’t know that. Looks can be deceiving. I’d think this must be it, but then I would be led into an even bigger room with even more people working on even more projects. There is a whole world made up of printing, paper and design – and it exists in the Arts Shops at Delavan on the Near Westside.

The world of Boxcar Press is owned by Harold Kyle and Debbie Urbanski. They started Boxcar at what was then The Delavan Center in 2003 and quickly outgrew their space and moved into a bigger spot within the booming facility. The new space (about 25,000 square feet) has allowed Boxcar to expand its business in incredible ways. But something tells me business was expanding long before then.

“Martha Stewart gave a huge kick to the letterpress business,” says Smith. “Stewart and social media really helped people to realize how unique and detailed letterpress printing is.” The company started two sister companies to handle the newly-found adoration for letterpress: Smock Paper and Bella Figura Letterpress. Smock is intended for in-person orders and prints solely on bamboo paper, while Bella Figura conducts most of its business online and prints solely on “Bella Cotton” paper. Everything else is printed by Boxcar using mostly “Crane’s Lettra” cotton paper. And this is no ordinary paper. “We get our paper from a 500-year-old paper mill in Germany,” Smith explains. “It’s been there since the time of the Gutenberg press.” 

They create t-shirts, greeting cards, wedding invitations (brides are one of the biggest clients), stationary and boxes. From design to printing to corner-rounding and edge-painting, everything is done in house. It’s a big job, but they’ve got a big team. There are more than 90 employees working on about 50 orders a day (it rises to about 85-100 orders during the peak seasons). There are nine to 12 letterpress machines in operation on a day-to-day basis, and employees must observe each “run” that a letterpress makes. In total, it takes about two weeks to complete one order “from design to shipping out,” according to Smith. “We can do it in one week if there’s a big rush.” Once an order has gone through the process (which includes numerous quality checks), then it’s sent off to one of Boxcar Press’ loyal clients. These are customers that live anywhere from New York City to Los Angeles to Minneapolis to Houston.

My head’s spinning at this point. This huge production was happening under my nose this entire time, on the outskirts of downtown Syracuse, and I didn’t even know it! And that’s not all they do: Boxcar Press provides materials to design centers and DIYers – everything you would need to be self-sufficient with letterpress (except for the 90-person team, of course).  They regularly send out their scraps to letterpress centers and schools if they can, and they try to recycle all of their materials, due to their emphasis on sustainability. It’s rumored that even the photo polymer scraps are turned into patio furniture and sold. Biodegradable bags and vegetable-based ink are standard for the company, which prints with 100% wind-power.

“There are three things we care about: Letterpress, the environment and making a profit. In that order,” Smith states. It definitely seems like Boxcar Press is achieving all of its goals beautifully, sustainably and successfully. For more information, visit Boxcar Press’ website. Boxcar Press is located at 509 W. Fayette Street, just steps off the Connective Corridor, which includes a FREE bus service.