Handle with Care

Letterpress printing is thankfully not a competition, but if it was, Jennifer Farrell of Starshaped Press might be the all-time champion. She’s become our good friend, yet we (and our letterpress printing friends) talk about her work in hushed, reverent tones. Her prints are made from thousands of carefully-arranged individual characters, ornaments, and rules — as much sculpture as printing. You may remember her “Essential Community” pack in our “United States of Letterpress” edition, a great example of how she builds architectural forms from tiny dingbats. She also beautifully illustrated our recent “Fall Flowers” edition, echoing the floral patterns of early twentieth-century bookbinding.

We asked Jen to design our 2026 subscription box, and, once again, she came back to us quickly, with a finished, perfect design that floored us and met all the technical specs for the — let’s be honest — less-than-precise process of flexographic printing on corrugated cardboard. It’s a pattern of ornamental borders and ornaments similar to what you’d find in a late nineteenth-century type catalog, but as original and personal as all of Starshaped’s work.

The first shipment of any new or renewed subscription during 2026 comes in this box. You’ll love it.  Start a subscription today and we’ll pack one up for you!