This week for ‘Behind the Door With…’ I’m interviewing the gorgeous Emily from The Little Press and chatting about her light filled studio space in sunny Perth. A self described dreamer and adventurer, Emily created The Little Press with a love of travel in mind. Emily’s intricate designs feature on her range of letterpress wedding invitations as well as cards, art prints, coasters and homewares. She works with brides across Australia along with her partner Rob, customizing each design with hand drawn illustrations and typography.
After upgrading from her first tabletop press “Leo” to “Big Boy”, a beautiful old Chandler & Price press weighing 650 kilograms, Emily worked in a tiny four metre x four metre space in a shared studio and knew she wanted something bigger. Earlier this year Emily and Rob found and moved into their “Dream Space”, a giant warehouse studio with polished concrete floors and white brick walls in West Perth. “The skylights are what we love most” says Emily, “we don’t even need to put the lights on most days”. This, she tells me, is particularly important for mixing inks for the press as they need to be viewed in natural light to achieve the best colour ratios.
The space is divided up into a gallery and meeting space up front, creative desk spaces and the letterpress studio. Brides can meet Emily in the meeting space and view her work, while also getting a tour and a better understanding of how the letterpress process works. Emily loves that the space gives brides an idea of her style and the relaxed, quiet vibe that means they can share a of cup tea and chat about weddings in peace.
One of the main things Emily wanted to do with the bigger space was to host workshops which have been really popular and now include letterpress, screen printing, Indian block printing, brush lettering and soon even electric guitar (hosted by Rob). Other creative wedding businesses are common as workshop guests and Emily have collaborated with The Floral Army and Kirsty Russell Photography to help decorate and document extra special classes. At the recent brush lettering workshop the girls from Floral Army added the beautiful foliage and hanging planter which really set the mood for this casual yet dreamy workshop. “Now we get to have the cool planter in the space for ever” says Emily.
The front gallery space has been host to The Little Press art exhibitions and next month will house a pop up shop for Emily and Rob’s new homewares line The Gatherers. “We found that we have created a niche market for ethical, boho style designs that lots of our couples and customers love” says Emily “The new homewares line is a nod to that”.
Emily and Rob’s plans for the future of the space include hosting exhibitions for other artists as well as renting out some desk spaces to other creative wedding businesses. “We would love to share the space with some photographers or graphic designers” says Emily. It seems that this warehouse truly is the “dream space” Emily and Rob envisioned.
Images via Kirsty Russell Photography and Rhianna May Photography
Ms Chinoiserie Says: What a beautiful, light filled space; perfect for creating special bespoke stationery and hosting events!
About Amelia Waddell of Make Your Day Wedding Styling: I’m a wedding stylist and proud store owner who loves to chat weddings with everyone and anyone! I love to talk shop with other business owners (particularly over some chocolate cake!) and am the first to try and have a sticky beak behind the scenes of any event. My free time is spent ‘investigating’ new cafes, stores and events. Make Your Day Wedding Styling is my creative outlet and I love nothing more than that ten minutes just before the guests enter the wedding reception, it feels like a special sort of magic!
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