No Plan Press’ Takoma Park print series stemmed from the desire of the studio’s founder, Jesse Kirsch, to continue printing and designing during this crisis. The 3-part print series includes Roscoe the Rooster, Azalea City, and Takoma Park Together, all inspired by the city Jesse calls home. All proceeds from the sales of the prints are going to two grant programs to help those affected by the pandemic in the city.
Jesse officially launched No Plan Press in September of 2019 as a side hustle and passion project. Working as an Art Director at a DC agency during the day, he had the urge to create original art and cards and get creative again using his hands. His studio is home to a 130-year-old Chandler and Price 10×15 platen press, which he used to create the Takoma Park series with custom designed polymer plates. The press is operated with a foot-treadle, and each print was pulled by hand, one at a time, making it unique.
The prints were all inspired by emblems of the city; Roscoe the Rooster represents the community’s beloved and free-spirited rooster that wandered the streets of Takoma in the 1990s, Azalea City represents one of the city’s earliest residents, Benjamin Y. Morrison, who was the first director of the National Arboretum and whose azaleas can still be found across the community, thus Takoma Park’s reputation as ‘Azalea City’, and finally Takoma Park Together, which features the word ‘together’ written in Amharic, English, French, Korean, and Spanish, reflecting the diverse community that occupies the city.
“I’ve been wanting to design some prints for the community and selling them for my own personal profit didn’t feel right, I wanted to give back, especially now… that’s when I had the idea to create some original, limited edition hyper-local prints to sell that I would then give 100% of profits to help support the small, independently-owned businesses in town.”
Jesse began the printmaking process by creating sketches in his notebook, which he then digitally translated in Adobe Illustrator in order to execute the design. “I like to work with bold typography, bright colour, geometric shapes and textures that can take full advantage of the letterpress process” describes the printmaker. Once the design was finalised, he then sent them off to be created in to plates. He also had some input from the Economic Development Manager, on what would work well for the campaign. ‘Takoma Park Together’ was a campaign that was just launching with a local chalk artist, who was creating inspiring and safety driven images on the sidewalks around town.
Inspired by the success of Jesse’s print campaign, the rooster image is now also being used for a t-shirt fundraiser to directly help out employees who were laid off, and a florist was inspired to create custom arrangements with a portion of proceeds going to the grant. Jesse is now offering plant and print bundles, with the aim to reach a goal of $10k, and hopes to widen his campaign to the nation’s capital, Washington, DC, as well as collaborating with other printmakers to take the project nationwide.
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