Printing Is Exciting: A Love Letter to Life in a Print Shop

Some careers are just jobs. But printing? Printing is a beautiful mix of chaos and craft. There’s a rhythm to a print shop. The hum of machines. The smell of ink. The constant dance between deadlines and design. And then—there’s that moment. The one where a finished piece is held in someone’s hands, and suddenly, everything clicks. Nobody captures that better than a seasoned printer with nearly 50 years in the business. John Henry, owner of Mitchell’s Speedway Press in Oswego, NY, recently shared this heartfelt reflection on Facebook: The Life of a Printer (or, What Can Befuddle Me…) By John Henry, Mitchell’s Speedway Press For almost 50 years, I’ve been in the printing business. You’d think by now, nothing would surprise me. And yet, despite printing being literally in our name, despite our tagline spelling it out—Signs. Direct Mail. Design.—people still walk in or call and ask: “Do you do printing?”“Do you make signs?”“Can you design this?” At this point, I no longer question it. It’s not that they don’t know. It’s that they don’t know what to ask. So, we smile, say, “Of course we do,” and then magically transform their ideas into a finished project, delivered on

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