no rhyme or reason

Seems that in order for this letterpress thing to become 'real', it would need a name. For a minute I thought that a name should naturally come after the work/product is made. That way I'd be able to tell what kind of character my work takes on. But no real work has been done because I've been preoccupied with the mechanics, the details, the tools, the set up. Coming up with a name is a bit of a boost for me. It's as if, it's official now.

I've mulled over names for a few months and had a list at the ready whenever I was struck with something I thought I fancied. I started out by looking at what other letterpressers were calling themselves. And most of what I found were cute names. Some had to do with ephemera, food, animals, colours and numbers. Not much in the way of messy fonts were used nor did funky names come up to the surface. I almost went that direction because no one else was doing it. And so, Project Mayhem and Pure Treachery made the list. But I couldn't honestly stick with either of them, because I knew my work would feel minimal and have clean lines. I could reason that the process of letterpress can get you dirty with ink and the clean up chaotic but it just didn't feel right. Plus I couldn't see the words Pure Treachery on the otherside of a Sorry For Your Loss card.

Here's the shortlist (but it's a long one) of the names that didn't make it: Sunday Morning Press, Sincerely Yours Press, Magic Beans Press, Plain Jane Press, Little Lola Press, Lowercase Lola, Alphabet Press, Mayfly Press, White Space Press, Storybook Press, The Letterpress That Could, Pyjama Press, Eye Spy Press, Miscellaneous Press, Just Because Press, Tea + Turtle Press, Avo Cado Press, Page 9 Press, Lost & Found Press, Bulletproof Press, Tickled Pink Press, Elegant Elephant, Pinch Me Press, Paper Bag Press, In Any Event Press, Pretty Please Press, Tidbit Press, Bangers + Mash Press, Lovely Duality Press, Diaphanous Press, Square Pair Press, Envelope Press, Rara Avis Press, Lemon Chocolate Press, Rusty Chocolate Press, Finders Keepers Press, Tiny Factory Press, Young Vintage Press, Itty Bitty Press, Satin Sushi Press, Tea + Trumpets, Red Letter Day Press, Bungalow Press, Dirty Pretty Press, On The Wire Press, Taking Flight Press, Tabletop Tokens, Paper Tokens, Pillowy Press, Undone, Sated, Enchant, Pure Treachery, The Quick Brown Fox, Project Mayhem, Sated Sunday, Random Tandem, Vivid, Happy Reckless, Breakfast at Tanya’s, Cursive Press, Narrative Press.

The final name came to me as I was sitting with the computer and I said, "Snap!". And the next words that came out of my mouth were, "...and tumble". It was the most odd and the most natural thing. I liked the way it sounded and started to draft up a word mark. I liked the way it looked even more.

The name and the look is casual, non-committal if you will. The tagline below, "letterpress curiosity" is in a font aptly named after me because it's my own handwriting. All in all, Snap&Tumble easily rolls of the tongue, it feels friendly and looks pretty darn cute.