Do you know about Printer's Ball? It's a once a year celebration in Chicago of literary culture and the arts that surround it, including writing, performance and printing. We were invited to come and print in the parking lot at the Hubbard Street Lofts this year to give folks something fun to do as they wander into the building to check out the fabulous line up of presenters and installations. It was pretty hot and sweaty, but we were up for it! With two presses now, we set up our Chicago flags which I knew would be a popular subject matter.

We also got to hang out with a number of our friends! Outside with us was Rebecca from Rar Rar Press, who just finished printing this postcard with a quote from her granddad.

Inside, we found Uncle Brad, a good friend and incredible letterpress printer. Jo is a big fan and has already started her collection of his work.

Here are a number of happy printers that came by the bike to print.

This kid was the coolest. He took off his shirt to print the flag right on it. Super punk rock. And it looked amazing.

Here are Maria and Dan, wonderful Starshaped clients that we had the fortune to work with this Spring on wedding invitations (barely a month in and they're still happy to be married!).

This cutie was our most excited printer of the day. She really loved making her flag.

We printed nonstop for about 2 hours until we were out of paper. Much longer than we anticipated, but people were excited! And we got inside just in time for one of the summer flash storms that Chicago is prone to having. The crafty Printer's Ball staff just walked their tent toward the building and back out again when the sun broke. Overall, a great night for printing on the bike!