D&D Letterpress

We're a letterpress and design studio who live and breathe letterpress, producing specialty pieces for lovers of beautiful stationery.

Love, letters and Lettra is where it all began for D& d Letterpress. Sharing a passion for design and all things touched by hand, we (Doug and Danika) met at Sydney’s College of Fine Arts where our love for graphics and typography was born. Having a strong interest in craft practices we both felt there was always something missing in digital media and print, which unknowingly at the time, spawned our fascination with old school printing methods. What started as a few beautiful old letters of wood type from a trip to Europe has blossomed into a fulltime obsession for all things letterpress and the evolution of printing.

Soon after our worldly adventures we somehow found ourselves bidding on a one tonne 1920’s foot powered Chandler & Price printing press. Before we knew it there was a crane in our driveway unloading the cast iron monster. Of course one wasn’t enough and we soon found ourselves hauling a double axle trailer up to Brisbane to bring back a 1950’s Heidelberg we’d acquired. Both of these babies were in need of tender loving care and we spent many a day giving them the love they needed to bring them back to life. There is something reassuring that with love, care and oil these beautiful pieces of machinery will outlast us.

We have found satisfaction in working with something so tangible, using our hands and brains throughout the entire printing process. This inevitably creates an object that links the creator, creation and end user. It breathes life and soul into an otherwise static and two-dimensional medium that is digital printing. One crucial element that sets letterpress apart from other methods of printing is the way the form is ‘pressed’ into thick lush paper, creating a tactile experience with the mountains and valleys of the letterforms permanently recorded into the printed surface. Sixty years this desire for a deep impression was frowned upon but now days letterpress printers strive as it’s the best way of proving its not a digital print.

Our obsession with letterpress continues to consume every spare minute we have. If we’re not designing for a project, we’re sifting through printing blogs, helping friends with their letterpress projects or spending way too much time crawling through ebay listings for anything that might be useful for our studio.

With invaluable mentoring and a lot of blood, sweat and tears we hope to see D& d Letterpress grow and we look forward to working with anybody and everybody on a huge variety of projects, so drop us a line! !