Old School Stationers
Brian Reed, of Old School Stationers, believes he was lucky enough to learn traditional graphics and dark
room camera techniques from a man who worked in the printing industry for 40 years, never went to school,
and started his business at the age of 14. “He had more knowledge in his little finger than any of my art
school teachers ever had,” says Brian. “We used to joke that we should have lived 100 years ago.”
Brian believed he’d moved on to "bigger and better things," when he went to work in a
cubicle at Microsoft. He quickly realized he didn't fit in. It was at that moment that
he “hatched” the idea of Old School Stationers and decided to actually step back one
hundred years and rely on his hands and those old techniques that he learned from his teacher.
"...step back 100 years & rely on his
hands and those old techniques"
That choice required that he become equipped with a few thousand pounds of cast iron manual machinery known as: the letter press. “I love it and as it turns out, so do lot's of other people!” exclaims Brian when he talks about the world he left behind and the one he forged out of old history. His inspiration comes from varied everyday sources: old advertisements and graphic elements from 60 to 100 years ago; the hand made look and wonderful composition of one and two and three color imagery; colors and lighting used in film; crows digging in a dumpster; weeds, magazines, fabric, old album covers, vintage clothes, food labels and old art supply books from the 20’s all serve his vision.
Color!
His newest line is inspired by the birth of his little girl. He now spends his days running the business alongside his wife and their daughter, as he putters in his studio like a nutty professor, tinkering and printing, and pretty much breaking every rule he has ever been taught.
