THE COWLE ST STUDIO
We signed the lease to this inner city warehouse studio full of ambition and carefree optimism - it was a huge leap forward. Before it, we had small studio spaces within art based settings, and our main passion was for long winded travels to far away lands. Cowle st held the space for an enormous amount of growth for the The Little Press, through an even more enormous amount of hard work.
So many good times and so much creativity. So many late nights - blood sweat and tears. Many tears.
Full of natural light and close enough to the city that I could walk our orders over to the post office in Northbridge. A post office run was always timed to fit a lunch stop at a small local bakery or cafe. A chat with the post office staff, a wave to a familiar courier driver at the road crossing. I often muse over the way a small purchase from our website has a ripple effect over a small community.
This is what I value greatly about running a small business - the community of people that all make up a part of it - and the ability for me to use my purchasing decisions in suppliers to support other small businesses. Where I spend my money on coffee (and the refusal to use a single use cup) adds up to a big impact over the year - as does the tens of thousands of dollars spent on paper, and the way that impacts the environment through the content within the sheets.
The web of connections in the production stage is even more entwined. Letterpress is a really old craft, and with that, there is the beauty of having a network of people who each focus on their part of the process. Years ago, the secretary, the platemaker, the proofer, the machine operator, the typesetter, the apprentice, the finisher, the accountant, the package and delivery person might have all been under the same roof - and much of these jobs have been condensed onto one person in the digital age, and particularly with entrepreneurs. Though running a small business I juggle a huge array of hats, I am not a jack of all trades, because we all know that old saying (a jack of all trades is a master of none) - and my respect for the craft of letterpress printing, and our insanely high quality control is too important. So though I started off making my own letterpress printing plates, I now leave that to the experts who have been perfecting their craft over decades, and I do this is where I can to keep that connection and artisan quality in our production.
There are so many people not visible in these photos - and THE most important person in all the steps, is our customers! Your purchasing choice to support local, shop small, to support this studio is the spark that ignites all of these cogs! So thank you for your interest in our studio, for your order, and if you haven’t worked with us yet, we would love to help create some magic for you!
Very grateful for the talents of local Perth photographer Sabrina Edel who shot these photos and the studio so beautifully. I love the way her photos capture the light and the tones whilst holding the space for it all to feel relaxed.
much love, Emily
