In a print shop just beyond the bustle of Bardstown Road, I’m spending time with Patrick Masterson, a Louisville native, expatriate, and now returned prodigal son. Masterson is back home after 16 years away from the banks of the Ohio. He’s now opened Patrick Masterson Letterpress Printing in a shared storefront on the corner of Bonnycastle Avenue and Norris Place. The ink-stained entrepreneur and I are surrounded by examples of the letterpress work he’s done over the years and the tools of his trade – machines that look as heavy as they are useful.
Inside Masterson’s shop, the smell of ink is lofty in the air, along with a whiff of greasy gears and the faint fug of sweat. You’ll have that when you’re turning a letterpress by hand each day. I caught up with Masterson during a lull in his schedule, which would soon have him literally cranking out the next project on his agenda. While he initially set out to make books, his work now includes everything from business cards and posters to announcements, company letterhead, and invitations.
“It runs the gamut,” said Masterson with a soft smile. “If it’s on paper, I do it.”
Instead of movable type, a painstaking process that is no longer logistically sound (all apologies to Johannes Gutenberg), Masterson uses a modern analog for his letterpressing needs. Plastic plates (which he makes himself) are set “type high” – at the same level movable type would lay – on a block no bigger in width than a typical coffee table. Watching the process, you immediately realize the efficiency that is sacrificed. However, upon seeing the finished product, you quickly find any Information Age reaction against its pace easily erased. The method by which he moves a design from computer to plate to paper is amazing to watch and shows the talent and precision he’s honed in his years in the classroom and the print shop.
The story of Masterson’s letterpress print house began with an interest in book making and silk-screening while he was still a student in New York City. He set up a small workshop in his Brooklyn apartment and silk-screened his books’ covers under the guidance of some friends who were already familiar with the process. It was a humble beginning that sprang from his capacity and love for writing.
“It was a means to an end for publishing writing that I liked – the kind of writing that didn’t have a ton of publishing opportunities,” said Masterson.
After obtaining an undergraduate degree at Bard College and a Master of Fine Arts in poetry at Columbia University, Masterson interned at Granary Books and eventually secured a paying position with the publisher. While at Granary, he discovered that most of the publisher’s revenue was generated from printing fine press books – collaborations between artists and writers – or, as he described it, “books that would wind up in museum libraries and special collections libraries.” All of the text was printed by letterpress, opening the door for his next opportunity in the field that would end up occupying the next decade of his life.
Anne Noonan’s Soho Letterpress printed the text for some of Granary’s books. Masterson used that relationship to secure a weekend job at Soho Letterpress. He was eventually laid off from Granary on a Friday and, in a stroke of luck proving that timing, indeed, is everything, started work at Soho Letterpress full-time the following Monday. It was there he discovered that the processes he used in his apartment and the more elaborate designs and small-runs at Granary Books could be successfully realized on a much larger scale.
“The first job I ever did was printing 40,000 of the same envelope over a 6-week period,” said Masterson. “I would just come in and crank a press for 8 to 9 hours at a time.”
Masterson and his burgeoning arm muscles slowly became more accustomed to the work, earning him greater responsibility. In his time at Soho Letterpress, he moved from the guy on the crank to being trusted with setting the plates himself, an exacting task that ensures the finished project is as beautiful as the process allows.
“Fundamentally, working there is what made me a good printer,” said Masterson. “I went through a traditional apprenticeship there. You have a lot of cumulative knowledge at a press like that. You saw every kind of work and it was an amazing opportunity to learn.”
But Masterson also felt a need to augment his training and explore new avenues, leading him to the Book Arts Program at The University of Alabama in 2009.
“My exposure was insular in a way, just kind of in the context of this shop,” said Masterson. “So that’s why I went through the Book Arts Program.”
The program’s required coursework, which included a year of book binding and a semester of paper making, brought together aspects of Masterson’s on-the-job training. He gained a deeper understanding of his materials – an understanding that would continue to pay dividends in the coming years.
“It helped me contextualize what I did know and what I had learned,” said Masterson.
He also got to set type the old-fashioned way for a couple of years.
“[That is] an essential aspect of what this process is,” said Masterson. “It really comes down to your understanding of ink and paper. People that are really good at this know that very well.”
Masterson’s coursework also opened doors in nearby Birmingham, Ala., where he began work at a local design firm called Slaughter Group. The firm owned their own print shop. He was able to witness close contact between the conception of an idea and its execution, which is now integral to his shop’s day-to-day operation. After two more years of print experience there and a growing collection of printmaking materials, Masterson decided to open a letterpress print shop of his own. He used the connections he made in the city’s design community to develop a strong list of clients, establish his business, and see it succeed.
Masterson moved back to Louisville in April of 2011 and Patrick Masterson Letterpress Printing set up shop not long after. He’s glad to once again be among the friends and family he knows best and is grateful for what his initial contacts in Birmingham brought to the table.
“Most of my work still comes from a lot of those original connections that I made in Birmingham,” said Masterson. “It’s branched out from there.”
Masterson’s client list confirms this statement’s import. Orders now come in from a variety of locales and some of his latest include work for an advertising agency in Indianapolis, a calligrapher outside Atlanta, a consigner in Birmingham, and even more projects closer to home, from Knoxville, Tennessee, to right here in Louisville.
As our conversation meets its end, it’s clear that while Masterson’s business has roots in the classroom, it was nurtured by interaction. And that’s a large reason he is so good at what he does today. His expertise and interest, like the presses that fill his workspace, come from a variety of experiences and locations. His path from Louisville to New York to Birmingham and back home to Louisville allowed him to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills to set up his own letterpress shop, but also to obtain the tools and equipment to take that talent and manifest it on paper.
Masterson points a long finger around the room and rattles off the former homes of his presses and other pieces of equipment with the alacrity of a musician showing off his instrument collection. Like instruments handed down, they have a history and a varied past. Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee – even the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He smiles at the assemblage and, while he’s talking about presses and hardware, could just as easily be describing the path that led him here. His is a contentment of equal parts machinery and mastery, both of which he dutifully picked up along the way back to Louisville.
-Mark Schultz
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