Growing up, Alischa Herrmann loved stationery.
She’d rush to her local newsagents, not to buy lollies, but to look at the pens, erasers, stickers and notepads.
“There wasn’t much to see but I’d want all of it!” Alischa tells Best Picks.
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“I ended up training as and becoming a graphic designer. I wanted to make beautiful things.”
Her opportunity came up by accident in 2007 when her pilot husband, Hayden, needed to move to Brisbane and Alischa had to find a new job.
“I’d been working somewhere very big and commercial but I wanted something where I could be involved in the whole process of designing, creating and printing.”
Her research threw up letterpress printing which was almost a lost art.
The process uses raised, inked surfaces to press on to paper leaving an imprinted texture.
It involves a huge level of skill but yields beautiful results.
“I ended up buying a letter press printer from a retiring book binder,” Alischa says.
“It was 800 kilos and we had to hire a ute and a fork lift to move it and then it sat in my parents shed for months because I was petrified about learning to operate something that could chop your fingers off. It can be very dangerous.”
That’s where Bob, an old letter press printer came in. The seventy-something year old, who has now passed away, heard about Alischa’s mission to learn his trade.
“He had an inkling that when he was gone so would his craft and so he took me on as an informal apprentice,” Alischa says.
“It took years and I still had no idea what I wanted to make but I started with beautiful wedding invitations that I sold at markets and the feedback was really good.”
It was the humble beginnings of Alischa’s now global business, Bespoke Letterpress.
As her ideas flowed and customer base grew Bespoke Letterpress opened its first store in Sydney’s Strand Arcade in 2015.
She sold wrapping paper and ribbons, diaries and planners as well as greetings cards and invitations.
“It started as a pop up but it went so well we popped it back up and then in 2016 we opened a store in Bowral where we were living.”
By now Alischa was also juggling motherhood and today she has four children Albert, 10, Elise, 7, Rupert, 4, and Louis, 2.
“I’ve always wanted to do something I love and with Bespoke Letterpress I found it. People love our products and I love dreaming up new ideas and seeing them come to life,” Alischa says.
Another store in Canberra followed in 2022 and then two more in Sydney — Chatswood Chase and Westfield Warringah Mall.
With a huge online presence, Alischa’s dream business, using a printing technique that was almost obsolete, now employs 40 staff and makes Alischa money as well as making her happy.
“Our most popular products depend on the time of year. The planner collection and calendars get bigger every season and our Christmas collection, including wrap, ribbons and cards, is always highly anticipated,” she says.
“My favourite is probably the gift wrap. I’m always wrapping presents for kids birthday parties and it makes them so beautiful. it’s also recyclable unlike most wrapping paper.”
Her customers agree that the Bespoke Letterpress products are top class.
“I absolutely love all the products I’ve bought from Bespoke Letterpress,” says one review.
“The wrapping paper is divine and all those who receive gifts wrapped in this paper are more taken with the wrapping than what’s wrapped in it! An obsession.”
“Bespoke and impressive quality product, as always,” says another.
“I love all the stationery I purchased from Bespoke Letterpress. Greeting cards, pens, guest books, wrapping paper, absolutely everything. They’re not just stationery. They’re artworks.”
While Alischa doesn’t get much time to letter press print these days she has passed on the craft to several of her staff. Her 10-year old, Albert, is also keen to walk in her footsteps and continue the family business.
“He’s convinced he wants to work with all the lovely things and not be a pilot like his dad,” Alischa says.
“Over the next few years we really want to grow and develop more products. There’s not a huge amount of Australian-owned beautiful stationery out there so we are happy to fill that gap.”
For more information about Bespoke Letterpress and to shop the range now, head here.