Talking with Mark Begley

This week’s interview is with Mark Begley who is the founder of Letter Pressed, a company that produces artist series cards. We all have seen these wonderful stationery in stores where we buy our toys, now find out more about them.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
Let’s
see. Born and raised in Fresno, CA. 36 years old. Ex-teacher. Currently
a stationer (that’s someone who makes stationery), and small business
owner. Married to an amazing woman who is the coolest chick ever, and
who I thank God for everyday. We have a naughty little black cat named
Luna. I have one sister, and one brother-in-law, a niece and nephew who
are the coolest, and my mom and pops. No kids yet. We all live in
Fresno, the Center of the Known Universe.

We’re pretty sure you collect toys;  What do you collect?
I
started out collecting mini-figures, mainly Be@rbricks and Kubricks,
but then I really got into designer toys because of Critterbox’s
amazing pieces. I still kick myself to this day for passing on the Pink
Baseman Dumb Luck when I was in LA for my bachelor party (which was a
toy buying excursion for me). Must’ve seen four or five of them in one
day, but I wasn’t spending $50 on a single toy at the time. Stupid.
Anyway, I love C-box’s stuff, but it comes out so infrequently I try to
find other artist toys to obsess over.
I’ve gotten into Secret Base
lately, but only have two of the Super7 Ghostfighters. I’ve sort of
lost my drive to search out hard-to-find items, so I’m patiently
waiting for the SBxS7 Halloween figures. Oh, and I recently ordered a
Ghost version of Steven the Bat from Bwana Spoons. Not sure why I
passed on the glow version at SDCC. Gee, I guess I’m not much of a
collector!

Due to our extensive research (we read your
website), we know that the inspiration for Letter Pressed came from
your desire to make your own wedding invitations and also your love of
desktop publishing.    How long ago did you start Letter Pressed?  Has
it been what you expected? 

I started thinking about LP a
few months before I got married, which was on May 1, 2004, and got all
my business licenses and paperwork on July 1 of that year. The website
launched sometime in late August. I started doing the artist cards
earlier this year, although I’d emailed a ton of artists during the
summer of 2004. I was helping assemble Circus Punks at the time, and
thought, “Heck, maybe some of these people would design a card for me.”
I really felt like I needed to do something I loved and would keep me
interested. I just can’t work in an office, or even in the school
system anymore. It was a big risk to start a small stationery business,
but my wife supported my decision so I went for it. Thank God these
artist cards have started to do well.

You named your company after the printing
process you use, letter press printing.  Could you briefly describe
this printing process?  Also, why this particular process?

Well,
let me set the record straight and make it clear that I am NOT the
printer of these amazing cards. I am a stationer. I liken it to toy
companies. Very few, if any, actually make the toys, they have
factories make them. But the company gets the artist to design them,
then a sculptor to sculpt them, the factory makes them, they’re
printed, etc. So in the same fashion I get an artist to do a design, we
discuss colors and paper choices, I order everything, then I have to
outsource the actual work, like the die-making and printing. My printer
does a form of letterpress called foil stamping, which I really like.
As opposed to printing with inks, pigment foils that come in huge rolls
are used. The metal plate/die that has the design on it is heated and
then it hits the foil and is pressed into the paper. A very noticeable
impression is left. With foils you get a very rich, saturated color.
Plus the freedom of design is pretty amazing. If it can be printed off
a computer, I can turn it into a plate and make a card out of it. Some
people don’t consider foil stamping true letterpress, but it’s the same
process done on the same huge old presses as inked letterpress. Most
people hear the term and automatically think of metallic foils, like
what gets printed on Bibles, but it’s much more than that.

Why letterpress? Because there’s nothing else like it, it can’t be
copied on the computer or by any other means. My site was recently
featured on a Latvian blog, which strangely enough Nathan Jurevicius’
dad translated for me, and some of the comments were that my text
designs could be recreated easily at home. This is true, but the
printing process can NOT be. The real big draw though is the impression
itself. When you hold letterpress printed materials there’s a depth to
them, it’s tactile and not just visual. But the visual part is great
too, when held in different light you get great shadows, etc. It’s one
of those things that certain people geek out over. I am one of those
people. I stare at each card or custom job endlessly.

Letter Pressed’s Artist Series cards feature
amazing art from many “lowbrow” artists many of which are actively
involved in the designer toy scene.   Which came first your love for
the art or the toys?  Can you say a little bit about the motivation
behind the Artist Series cards?  Is this a case of mixing your business
with one of your other passions?

In a lot of cases the toys
brought me to the art. I’d heard of Ron Regé, Jr. before, but it was
his Ouch! Twins figures that sparked my interest in doing a card with
him. I knew of Baseman and Biskup before they ever made toys, but TADO
and Nathan, MCA and Ledbetter were all brought to my attention through
the designer toy scene. (Baseman and Biskup have not done LP cards, but
I have approached them.) One of my oldest friends had suggested I get
some artists to do cards, and these were the people I thought of.
The
motivation was simple: selfishness. I approached my old small press
magazine much the same way. I wanted to print cards I was interested in
and would like to own. If other people were interested and would buy
them, that was just gravy. It is most definitely a mix of business and
passion, and has become the most successful aspect of the business thus
far.


The reception to the Artist Series cards has been pretty impressive with several sell-outs.  Have you been surprised at the seemingly immediate success?

Well, we all know nothing truly happens overnight. J The Ron Regé, Jr. cards didn’t sell out at first, and neither did the TADO cards. Both sold enough to pay for production costs plus a bit of profit, but when I took those cards to SDCC not one pack sold. It wasn’t till shortly thereafter, with retailers like Kidrobot, Wootini and Designer Toy Box buying packs, did things kind of explode. The last three cards (MCA, Ledbetter, Nathan) have sold out before I could even put them on the site (or before they were printed in Nathan’s case). This is quite amazing to me. Oh, and TADO and Regé have sold out too since then. I think this may be the way things go from now on, and I’ve had to up the production runs from 500 to 750 to 1,000 for future cards. Three more shops will be stocking cards, and at least 50 people are on The List. And all this is still word-of-mouth, usually from me posting stuff on messageboards. So again, it’s quite amazing to me that I can sell 750 of any one card. Most of my customers are KR messageboard members, so a lot of the success of the cards is due to them.


How do you decide which artists to feature in the Artist Series?  Are they your personal favorites?  Do customers suggest artists to you?

I first approached artists I knew of and liked. Baseman, Biskup, Kozik, Regé, etc. I heard from some who said yeah, but you know they’re so busy it ends up not happening. But once people started saying yes, and the cards were getting produced, other artists contacted me. I got a hold of Regé and TADO. MCA and Ledbetter contacted me (although MCA didn’t ask about doing a card when he emailed me), I contacted Nathan, etc. People have made suggestions as well. A fellow collector and LP customer (Pinkus/pinkish_hue on the boards) suggested an artist named Jeremiah Ketner. I took a look at his site http://smallandround..com and immediately saw that his art would be perfect for a card. A friend (JORDAN23) had suggested Ledbetter like a week before his manager contacted me, which was pretty cool. Joe’s card is probably the one that pushed these things to another level.
Most of the artists suggested I’ve already thought of and contacted, but it’s still cool to get the suggestions. And I really love it when an artist contacts me. Sometimes the timing is bad, but I’ve never turned anyone completely away. Things have gotten a little busy, so a few folks have been told to check back early next year. I’d really like to start doing a couple cards a month. I definitely have to like the art of someone who wants to do a card. Unless someone commissioned me, then I couldn’t care less!


You’ve recently introduced new “features” to the series including printed envelopes and 2-color printing.  What’s next?

I hope that prints are next. I’ve talked to a few artists about including mini-prints with their toys, and I’m pretty sure a couple of these will happen. Actually, an upcoming project I’m pretty jazzed about is a mini-print for Chris Lee’s Mellow figure. It’ll be a small (4.25”x5.5”) print that will be included in the box with the figure. Nathan wants to do a large format print for a show in Japan next January. I’d also love to work with some of the toy stores in creating their own special cards. A few have asked about it, and I think that would be a lot of fun. I’m really into the idea of cross-promotions, toy tie-ins, magazine tie-ins, etc. So toy designers, storeowners, and magazine folks should contact me if they have any interest in these types of things! As far as more two-colored cards, etc. it really depends on the artist. Most cards will still be one color, with plain envelopes. But for some artists we could go for the two or three-color printing.


There are some great designer toy related projects based in the Central Valley – including Letter Pressed and the Circus Punks. What’s in the water or the air in Fresno that fosters such creativity?


I think it’s like a lot of  “small” towns (if you consider nearly a half a million people small!). There’s not much else to do, so people form bands or paint or whatever. We live in a strange spot, right between LA and SF, but this is an old Ag town, so there’s none of that metropolitan feel. I love Fresno for what it is, not for what it isn’t or what it could be. But I don’t know if it’s really anything more than coincidence that CP and LP are based here. I started my biz before I even knew Punks were made here! But helping assemble them did kind of make me realize I could contact these artists about doing cards, and they may even be into it. So I guess what I’m so eloquently saying is that I have no idea what it is about Fresno, but it’s super cool to have these two businesses here. Now we just need to find a project to collaborate on! Or maybe we already have? And I don’t want anyone to forget that Tim Biskup spent much of his teens and twenties in Fresno, Luke Chueh is from Fresno, and Mars-1 is from Clovis. 559 Represent!
Your site mentions micro brewing several times.  You chalk this up as an example of a like-minded focus on finely crafted products made in small batches as opposed to the mega-corporation approach.  Ok, we buy that 😉  So, what’s your favorite beer(s)?
Oooh man, my all time favorite beer is Chimay. A Belgian beer made by Trappist monks. It’s sublime. I love Sierra Nevada, Negra Modelo, McMenamin’s beers (they have a ton of pubs and other cool places up in Portland, Or), Anchor Steam is good, Guinness is a an old standby, Pabst Blue Ribbon (best cheap beer ever)… There’s actually too many list. I like beer, but I really like the philosophy behind micro-brews and it just seemed like a good analogy. Maybe I was drunk when I wrote all that.


What’s next from Letter Pressed? Any hints as to who the next AS artist is?  Any interest in doing larger format art prints?

Very next is Bwana Spoons. And the unofficial line-up for future cards is Luke Chueh, Jeremiah Ketner, Thomas Han, and Brian Taylor. There are quite a few people lined up for 2006, and I really hope that Tim Biskup does a card. I definitely have an interest in larger prints, and other things. Heck, I can do business cards for artists (I do a lot of custom work for people), postcards or prints for shows, etc. etc. etc. I’d really love to see more people think of letterpress before giclee or offset printing. Yeah, you can usually only do one color for the price, but the effect is unparalleled. Brian Flynn of Super7 has expressed an interest in doing prints for special events at their store. I’d love to do stuff like that.

6 Replies to “Talking with Mark Begley”

  1. i concur! that was an excellent interview. it gave great insight into how LP got started and the motivation and inspiration behind it. oh, and it was nice seeing a photo of the man himself! thanks for the credit, mark! *___*
    – pinkus

  2. I Have my Ledbetter card framed above my desk… i love it.. Sorry i missed out on the Scary Girl set. (That’ll teach me to check my email more often..)
    Keep up the sterling work Mr Mark…

  3. Fantastic interview. Loved getting a reminder of how it all started (Mark is my brother after all!!) My husband and I have quite a collection of Mark’s cards and love giving them to people who will really appreciate that they are getting something unique. Keep it up, Bro!

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