BY BETH BEASLEY
PHOTOS BY MATT ROSE
When it comes to greeting cards, by and large, it’s a Hallmark world: predictable, often sentimental and generally politically correct. But imagine, if you will, an artfully printed note on heavy stock, featuring the image of an "Ozzie and Harriet"-era housewife in full kitchen regalia, crowned with a glowing halo, her shoulders sprouting tiny wings. Beneath her, in heavy, medieval-style lettering, the identifier: Saint Mommy.
How about a vintage illustration of a microscope with the caption "Haven’t seen you in a while" or a card emblazoned with a skunk and the apology "Sorry I stunk"? All are the products of Blue Barnhouse, a small letterpress printer in West Asheville that combines the rich, tactile quality of hand printing with elegant-hip, retro style and droll, sometimes saucy, humor.
Don’t get the wrong impression; most of what rolls off the press is boutique, rather than brassy. Under the direction of owner and founder Brandon Mise, Blue Barnhouse produces a wide variety of fine printed goods, ranging from elegant, custom-designed wedding invitations to stationary, posters, books, gift cards, packaging and cocktail coasters.
But more traditional offerings aside, Blue Barnhouse is fast becoming known for its irreverent line of greeting cards. "It just kind of erupted," says Mise. "We’ve had requests from businesses across the country. The content is enjoyable — people have fun with the humor," he adds. "There’s a good energy around it for us."
The press now sells its wares through more than 100 stores nationally and from their storefront studio on Haywood Road. Inside, one wall is lined with samples of greeting cards and overhead, custom posters hang by clothespins from a laundry line, giving the passing community a full view of the press’ operations.
"It’s really great when people on the street, especially those with kids, look in off the sidewalk or come in," he says. "They might learn there are other methods of printing around and that letterpress is not poor man’s printing."
On the contrary, it is something of a luxury. Unlike offset printing, the industry standard, letterpress imprints raised type and images directly from an inked plate onto the paper, resulting in a distinctive, deep, crisp impression. The paper itself is fed in sheets rather than rolls, and each color requires a separate plate, ink and run through the press, making the process extremely labor intensive.
Mise and his handful of employees and interns regularly use two antique platen presses and a 1960 model Vandercook flatbed. "The printing process is fascinating to me," says employee Matthew Farrell, "The fact that you can take an old-style machine and adapt it to create something using modern technology."
Farrell refers to Blue Barnhouse’s decision to work exclusively with photopolymer plates rather than with painstakingly handset individual letterpress type. The relatively modern technique enables printing from digital designs that are transferred to a negative whose image — including text — is then burned onto the light-sensitive plates.
"We use a healthy mix of our own hand drawn art and art that has fallen within the public domain," says Mise. "Though sometimes we redraw that art depending on how easy it would be to print on the press."
While graphic components are a major factor in Blue Barnhouse’s appeal, a love for literature and the printed word were the spark that caused the now six-year-old venture to ignite into the thriving business it is today.
The journey began when Mise — then a graduate student in creative writing at San Francisco State University — produced Em, a literary journal that is still going strong. Working on this hand-bound journal, he became involved with the book arts scene at the San Francisco Center for the Book, where he was exposed to the time-honored craft of letterpress printing. He was hooked.
"I didn’t choose this job, it chose me," he says. "Printing is very intuitive to me."
Mise made the move to Western North Carolina in the hope of running a letterpress in an old barn — an idea that hasn’t materialized just yet. Still, Asheville has proved to be an ideal location for Blue Barnhouse, albeit more urban than originally conceived.
"Asheville has everything that San Francisco has, but you’re not overwhelmed by choices," he says, referring to the number of small presses that have mushroomed in San Francisco since the craft revival of letterpress printing in the 1990s.
The working environment at Blue Barnhouse is decidedly laid-back, as well as fully collaborative — from the design of their fine graphic and custom work to the devising of hilarious captions to the nitty-gritty of working the sometimes-ornery vintage printing presses.
The building also houses BookWorks, a print-and-book arts education and exhibition center. Director and owner Laurie Corral bought the building with Mise a couple years ago, forming a kind of letterpress mecca in West Asheville. "She’s teaching what we’re practicing commercially," notes Mise. "It’s definitely a symbiotic relationship."
"It’s really nice that we’re related businesses serving two different purposes," says Corral. "I think the community sees us as a resource — for an art that was lost for a while but is now being reborn."
