Blog
ATOMIC COWBOY 2006 May 08 2010
2006 event held at Atomic Cowboy on Manchester.
Printing at the Atomic Cowboy
Step 1, Step 2
Our back wall display
More of our back wall display
Matty printing
Please feel free to tip your printstaff
Some block and posters
Waiting to print
CINCO DE MAYO THIS SATURDAY! May 06 2010
Come party down with Firecracker Press & the other inhabitants of Cherokee Street as we put on our annual Cinco de Mayo celebration! There will be art, music, food, margaritas & a parade. If you aren't familiar with our little piece of St. Louis, it's a great chance to explore. If you've been to a previous year's festivities, then you know it will be fun. We will be printing and rocking out from 11:00 am to 9:30 pm, so come early or late, there will be tons to do.
See you Saturday!
BIRTHDAY CARDS May 01 2010
Know someone celebrating another year on this planet? Help them celebrate in true Firecracker style with one of our brightly colored birthday cards. Get meta and give them as a gift, slap a stamp on one to send the right message, or stash them someplace handy for the next time an overlooked birthday surprises you!
CEREAL BOX BUSINESS CARDS April 24 2010
Looking for an affordable, interesting business card or calling card? Love recycling? Feast your eyes on our new cereal box business cards!
One side features a design from a recycled cereal or packaged food box. The other features YOUR info. Give us 3-4 lines, such as:
Your name
Street address
and phone or web
and we'll hand set some type and one of our lovely vintage borders.
These 100% recycled business cards are 100 for $115, 250 for $185 or 500 for $245. For a limited time,bring in your own cereal boxes and get 10% off! That's right, you can get business cards for less than the price of postage, and with all the beauty of letterpress. Call or email us to place your order today!
NEW JOURNALS April 24 2010
Needless to say we buy a lot of paper at The Firecracker Press. So when one of our paper suppliers, Paper & More, added a new paper store in South County, St. Louis we were thrilled to have a retailer so close. They must've noticed our enthusiasm for the place because they asked us to develop a line of journals to put on their shelves.
These 4" x 6", letterpressed books are made with refillable blank pages, come with a pocket built-in for whatever you need to carry, and are the perfect size for your bag or pocket. They are available in four different colors and you can purchase them at Paper & More - 3802 South Lindbergh Boulevard, St Louis - (314) 729-0220.
"ART OUTSIDE" April 17 2010
2009 Schlafly Art Outside festival
Our booth at the 2009 Schlafly Art Outside festival
We can fit quite a bot in a portable booth
Another view
The booth at night
More night people
MORE PRAISE! April 10 2010
We've been working with Adam Woodruff and Associates since 2005 creating business stationery, annually, for his gardening business. Late last year they approached us for a comprehensive redesign and to consult about how to market their company for the future. We developed a business card, letterhead, envelope, notecard, and a new logo that would help gain attention from potential clients while helping to retain current customers.
We love the way this stationery system turned out and we recently found out that many others do too. The work we did for Adam Woodruff and Associates just won an award of merit at the annual AIGA St. Louis design competition. For those who are asking, "what the heck does AIGA mean" it's the American Institute of Graphic Arts. They pick and honor the region's best design work each year and they've picked The Firecracker Press for five of these coveted awards.
MORE GOOD! April 08 2010
The Firecracker Press (and now Typecast Publishing) have been producing a magazine for poetry and graphic design for the past few years... The Lumberyard. It comes out twice a year and has been called, "the most physically beautiful journal I've seen this year" by The New York Times, and won Best in Show at the 2009 Louisville Graphic Design Association competition. We're happy to add another award to that list. AIGA St. Louis has given issues 4 and 5 an award of merit for its 2010 design show. For those who are asking, "what the heck does AIGA mean" it's the American Institute of Graphic Arts. They pick and honor the region's best design work each year and we're flattered to have been chosen for this year's line-up.
BTW if you're in Denver this week visit our booth at the American Writers and Poets conference!
QUALITY TIME! April 08 2010
In the Summer of 2009, The Firecracker Press was approached to produce a mailer for Quality Time of New Orleans, a company that makes clocks from vintage signs. Being a sucker for signage we jumped at the chance and we naturally used those delicious old lettering styles for inspiration.
We're glad the judges at AIGA St. Louis are suckers for this stuff too... they just gave The Firecracker Press an award of merit for the work we did with Quality Time. For those who are asking, "what the heck does AIGA mean" it's the American Institute of Graphic Arts and they pick and honor the region's best design work each year. Sweet!
CHAMPS! April 07 2010
We're proud to announce that the design and print work we did for Schlafly Beer just won an award of merit at the annual AIGA St. Louis design competition. For those who are asking, "what the heck does AIGA mean" it's the American Institute of Graphic Arts. They pick and honor the region's best design work each year and we're flattered to have been chosen for this year's line-up.
Back in October 2009, we designed a full line of retail products for Schlafly Beer including a calendar, a set of four postcards, two sets of coasters, and a crap-ton of buttons. We know you're wondering where you can purchase these fine products and we'd love to tell you they can be found online but... they're sold exclusively in St. Louis at both Schlafly locations, The Tap Room (downtown), and The Bottleworks (Maplewood).
SUCCESS! April 07 2010
We've been doing posters for Saint Louis University's Billiken Club for four years. We're calling this year's poster series "Alien New Wave" and if you follow them chronologically they tell a story of a far-away planet in the midst of royal power struggles and difficult fashion decisions.
We think day-glo colors never looked so good and... we're proud to announce this year's poster series just won an award of merit at the annual AIGA St. Louis design competition. For those who are asking, "what the heck does AIGA mean?" the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Every year they pick and honor the region's best design work and we're happy to announce this is the third consecutive year that our Billiken Club work has been chosen.
OFF WHITE WEDDING SHOW March 27 2010
Come see us next Saturday at the Off White Wedding Show! We'll be joining other independent & local vendors at the first St. Louis alternative wedding show. Stop by to see some of our examples and to learn how we can work with you to personalize everything from save-the-date cards to invitations.
Details:
The Luminary Center for the Arts
4900 Reber Place
St. Louis MO 63139
11am-4pm
$5 in advance and $8 at the door
Please visit the Off White Wedding Show website for more info.
VALENTINE'S SALE February 04 2010
Make plans to come out to the Firecracker Press this Saturday {02/06/10} for the Valentine's Sale Spectacular! New Valentine Products! A FREE performance for all ages by StL's Bottom's Up Blues Gang! A limited edition print of the BUBG Show Poster! & MORE!!!
Doors OPEN at 11am. Show starts at 1pm. Shop closes at 3pm.
See you Saturday!!!
THE FIRECRACKER PRESS ON-AIR January 30 2010
Tune in to the St. Louis NPR affiliate, 90.7FM KWMU to hear us say, "you're listening the St. Louis public radio." You'll hear our 0:30 second spot featured in-between other announcements and underwriting on a daily basis. Listen closely and hear the clickety clack of the printing presses running in the background.You can also hear us on KDHX 88.1FM on Monday, February 8th at 9:00PM when we'll be featured on Literature for the Halibut with Stefene Russell. We'll be talking about the new issue of Lumberyard Magazine (No. 5 if you're counting) and discussing ways that graphic design, poetry, and fine printing are creating new ways to bring the printed word to the masses. It should fill your nerd quota for the day!
LUMBERYARD & READYMADE January 07 2010
L4 was featured on Readymade's Editor's Blog. ReadyMade is named after the term that Marcel Duchamp coined in 1915 for a series of sculptures that playfully rethought the relationship between people and mass-produced objects, everyday items and art. ReadyMade is about people who make things and the culture of making.EYE CANDY January 06 2010
Share Some Candy is currently featuring our design for the St. Louis Coasters designed and printed for Schlafly! Check it out: here...
DESIGNED & PRINTED FOR SCHLAFLY January 05 2010
Beer Poster Calendar 2010
2010 Beer Poster Calendar
Vintage inspired Schlafly postcards
Schlafly coasters: How to Enjoy a Schlafly Beer
You can purchase any of these items you see below exclusively at the Schlafly Tap Room or Schlafly Bottleworks! Or call and they'll let you order over the phone & ship it directly to YOU!
HOLIDAY HOURS December 18 2009
For all of your Holiday shopping needs and Firecracker Press cravings, we will have the following hours over the Christmas Holiday:OPEN:
Saturday 12/19 11am-5pm
Monday 12/21 10am-6pm
Tuesday 12/22 10am-6pm
Wednesday 12/23 10am-2pm
CLOSED:
Thursday 12/24, Friday 12/25, Saturday 12/26
We will reopen on Monday 12/28 at 10am!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
VIDEOS December 16 2009
Interview with Melody Meiners, January 2009
Cherokee 2010 from St. Louis Small Business Monthly on Vimeo.
Interview with Bill Streeter, March 2007
Interview with PBS 'Living St. Louis', 2007
Interview with Small Business TV, 2007
HOLIDAY SALE @ THE CONTEMPORARY STL! December 09 2009
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE AND ART & CRAFT SALE
Thursday, December 10
6:00 - 9:00 pm, FREE admission
Enjoy holiday cocktails and light bites and view the exhibition, For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn\xE2\x80\x99t there, as you mingle with friends and take a little time to relax during the busy holiday season.
You will also be able to get some shopping in! Browse through local art and craft booths, as well as MUSE gift shop specials! All guests will receive 25% their entire purchase at MUSE.
Artists participating in the art & craft sale include: Beqi Clothing, Sherry Bingaman, Jessi Cerutti, Lisa Colby, Cranky Yellow, the Firecracker Press, Jane Linders, Chris Lucas, Amber Marshall, Marie Oberkirsch, Suzanne Schmid, Daniel Shown - Kung Fu Chicken, Sarah Vaughn and Amanda Verbeck - Pele Prints. There will be clothing, jewelry, glass, prints, and more, all hand created, making for a unique gift!
We hope to share part of this holiday season with you!
Generous support provided by Black Bear Bakery.
THE LUMBERYARD MAGAZINE TAKES BEST IN SHOW December 07 2009
Firecracker got a call on Friday night to tell us we'd been given a Platinum Design Award for our work on The Lumberyard Magazine from the Louisville Graphic Design Association (LDGA). The call came from our sister, Jennifer, who lives in Louisville and is the co-creator of the magazine, and she was friggin excited. We'd been informed a few weeks ago that we'd won something but couldn't be told exactly what and, to be true, figured we'd gotten an honorable mention. We had nooooooooo idea that we'd be given this city's top, graphic design honor, and end up taking BEST IN SHOW!
We'd like to extend a special thanks to the LGDA and to the judges of the show, Parker Channon of San Fransisco, Jack Gernscheimer of Philadelphia, and Noah Scanlin of Richmond, VA for choosing The Lumberyard Magazine.
We currently have four issues in print.
Number five will be out in January 2010.
Visit the LGDA here...
WHO IS FIRECRACKER PRESS? December 03 2009
The Firecracker Press started from humble beginings in early 2002 and has grown to a healthy, full service letterpress studio with a dedicated team of designers and craftspeople. We eat, sleep, drink and breathe letterpress and run our shop of antique equipment 6 days a week.
Eric Woods, Owner
Eric got his start as a designer in Kansas City and New York, and moved to St. Louis to take a job in an advertising firm. He's worked for book publishers, newspapers, and studios large and small. He is the owner and founder of The Firecracker Press and can be found there most of the time.
Matty Kleinberg, Shop Manager
Matty is our shop manager. He loves woodcuts. and ink. and type. and paper scraps. And living in St. Louis with his wonderful wife.
Matty has been a part of Firecracker Press since 2007 and feels very lucky to be so.
INSIDE FIRECRACKER December 03 2009
We're OPEN for you!
Shop Entrance
Book press and our much coveted couch
Interior Retail Shot
Movable Type
Eric carving a wood block
Matty running the Vandercook SP20
Bears like prints too
THE NEW YORK TIMES REVIEWS LUMBERYARD November 27 2009
We're thankful, this holiday weekend, to announce that the New York Times chose to review the fourth issue of our poetry/design magazine, The Lumberyard. They're saying good things!Read the review here...
