The thing about print that’s always grabbed me, that’s always inspired me to keep pushing forward, is the tangible result of piecing together ideas. It’s the creation of a physical artifact that connects you to a moment in time. There’s a reason we delight in ephemera of the past, even if we don’t see the immediate importance of its modern counterpart.
I was drawn to the DIY culture of the 90s because it gave folks ways to find their voice outside of established, often inaccessible channels. I spent time with kids making their own zines, films, records, protest banners, movements, you name it. It was a great, messy time of figuring it out the hard way, in an environment where ‘social media’ meant meeting up at the local coffee shop.
When I first put Starshaped on Instagram 10 years ago (at the behest of a great intern), it was a lot of fun. The print community found each other quickly and relationships were formed. Projects were shared. Collaborations developed. Opportunities explored. In recent years I’ve seen this drift away in favor of non-content, the commodification of every little thing as well as the rise of nouveau snake oil salesmen. I, too, have drifted away from giving a s**t about what happens in this sphere. With the recent, full unmasking of Meta’s goals, I knew it was time to make moves.
Some of the first Instagram posts for the studio. Oh the filters!
Owning the means of production prior to the advent of social media has given me at least a rudimentary understanding of how to reach people outside of this sphere. There was a time when all correspondence with the studio was via print, in person or through marketing on hyper-focused blogs. While the shop is in the great position to not have to market aggressively these days, it’s important to me that the work is shared because it’s part of the history of print and design. Materials have passed to my hands from generations past and I hope to pay this forward.
Knowing that I don’t want to actively partake in systems that ultimately harm myself and those I love, I’m hoping to move content to the medium I DO control. Extra! Extra! is a new series of postcards mailed throughout the year (working on frequency now) to anyone interested in receiving them. They’ll highlight type in the studio and point to blog posts right here that share the kinds of bits & bobs that would normally appear on social media. I understand this has less reach than Instagram (though that’s debatable with an algorithm that doesn’t care about actual followers vs. the idea of followers), but it gives me total control. And it’s free for everyone.
A screenshot of the front of the first card, about to head into production. These are designed to showcase type and ornament in the collection, reversed for easy reading and display-ready.
The postcards will be offset printed by my pals at NS Printers, a wonderful, woman-owned union shop in Waukegan, Illinois. This method has two benefits: it’s cheaper and faster than letterpress-printing all of the cards and allows me to share images of the type with easy QR codes that point viewers to the site with more details.
Each will include items such as:
Interesting type facts… including images of unique fonts in the shop
Historical tools of the trade
Shop life
First dibs on new prints
Retired/Limited Edition prints pulled from the flat files
Printers, vendors and non-profits we love
Sales and Last Call prints & cards
If you’d like to receive postcards in the mail, please sign up below. I’m happy to have you and look forward to sharing the studio in the ways I know best! If you’re a member of the Print Club, you’ll receive postcards with your monthly mailings. Thanks for keeping the studio vital for 25 years.