Megan Reddi | Have Press, Will Travel!

posted by Marcroy February 4, 2016

Megan Reddi is currently in her final year at Coventry School of Art and Design and she has created a suitcase printing press as part of her Final Major Project. “Although the aim is for it to become a paid venture once I graduate, at the minute, I’m calling it ‘Have press, will travel!” The press is built in a 1940s trunk with little wheels attached to one end so she can pull it around. The print bed itself is made of hardwood ply with a piece of acrylic on top so that it is easily cleanable and it is removable so that you can access the built in storage space underneath (for squeegees, ink etc). In the lid she has built storage for paper and separations.

The press started out as a personal project because I live in a little flat without enough space for an actual print bed. I was thinking about how useful it’d be to have a little press in a suitcase that I could just fold away when I wasn’t using it – then I remembered that you can get suitcases on wheels and realised that if I could make a press in a wheel-y suitcase, I could travel with it and get the general public involved with screen printing!

She aims to go busking across the UK, creating designs relevant to each location which can then be printed as tote bags or paper prints. People can then pick a design, see the process of producing the print (and even have a go at pulling a print themselves) and then walk away with the finished thing.