About Tweedle Press

Tweedle Press uses sustainable materials to create stylish, unique paper goods: a full-service design, custom paper, and letterpress print shop. After over 10 years in the design and print industries, Nina decided to pursue letterpress printing and design full time in 2008. Today Tweedle Press is still a small family business, run from our shop in Rogers Park and focused on personal service. If you're looking for unique and stylish prints, Nina's designs and vintage letterpress equipment create rich paper textures ideal for invitations, announcements, stationery, and business cards.

Tweedle Press' commitment to the environment goes beyond using recycled paper and vegetable based ink; we have developed strict eco standards for the shop and a wide selection of beautiful paper, ink, and embellishment options. One of the most unique offerings is the ability for clients to give their junk mail and other scrap papers to us, which we have hand recycled into custom tinted papers for their print projects. Although we are based in Chicago, we design and print projects for people all over the world.

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Nina is a graphic and web designer, letterpress printer, paper maker, and lover of nature and local/organic food, with a dash of rock and roll. Also, she wants to be a cowboy.

Nina is headmistress of custom design, letterpress printing, website maintenance, eco research, and the owner of Tweedle Press.

Click here to email Nina.

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Ian, Nina's husband, is a Brooklyn-bred musician who works in I.T., but he also loves to be outside and cooks a mean roast chicken dinner.

Ian works on marketing and business development for Tweedle Press, and helps with project assembly and quoting. Ian is also Minister of the Office of Fun, which his perfectionist wife needs to be reminded of frequently.

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As Tweedle Press' new shop assistant, Ellebe is busy doing everything from printing orders to roller scrubbing, and is learning about pricing and answering customer questions. We plan to have her handle most of the quote inquiries and light print projects while Nina is out on maternity leave this spring.

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Edward is one of our newest additions, and a welcome one at that! He's the Cadillac of cylinder presses: a Vandercook Universal III from the late 1960s. We bought him from a man who used to work as an astrophysicist for NASA, and he took great care of him.

We use Edward for everything from wedding invitations and business cards to stationery and posters (he's got a 17" x 22" print area!), and at 2500 pounds he is a sight to behold.

Edward prefers to receive hand written cards, or you can visit him.

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Leonard is our 8 x 12 Chandler & Price motorized letterpress printing press - 80+ years old and 1200 pounds of cast iron.

Since the acquisition of Edward, Leonard is transitioning to being used only for for blind prints (no ink), die cutting, and printing on rigid stocks and boards. He can be cranky and stubborn (especially when it's cold!), but he gets the job done and has been our trusted companion since 2008.

Leonard does not receive emails, but you can come visit him.

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Frank also came from the print shop in Woodstock, and is our totally badass Challenge 16" paper cutter from (we think) about 1890.

Frank can tackle stacks of paper up to about 3" thick, and slices with frighteningly smooth accuracy thanks to a thorough tune up and sharpening. Plus, he's painted a sea foam green color and could totally cut your arm off.

Frank totally cuts the arms off emails, but you can come visit him.

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Isabel is our 100 year old table top Chandler & Price letterpress printing press. She's got a print area of 6.5 x 10, beautiful cast iron work, and weighs in around 200 pounds (that's a Whole Lotta Rosie!).

We don't use Isabel for much these days - sometimes we proof smaller pieces but she just doesn't have the same power to create deep impression that Leonard does. If we used more type, perhaps we'd fire her up more often for a flat print. We're hoping she'll get a bit more love when we set her up to play during our new shop's future open houses.

Isabel doesn't use email, but you can come visit her.