Some things deserve to exist in the physical world.
Subletter Press is a small, independent creative workshop in Portland, Maine, making printed matter, art, unusual objects, useful curiosities, and whatever else we happen to dream up.
It’s also a home for the ideas that don’t always fit neatly into a client brief, a business plan, or any conventional definition of a good idea.
And that’s rather the point.
A little history
Subletter Press grew out of Fabric Portland, an independent creative studio that has spent more than twelve years making art, developing campaigns, and building interesting things in Portland and across southern Maine.
Over the years, our work has included guerrilla art campaigns, signage and visual identities for events and organizations, inventive packaging, unconventional promotional objects, and more than a few projects that were difficult to categorize.
We’ve designed for businesses, organizations, public events, and community initiatives. We’ve worked in digital media and in the physical world, sometimes bringing the two together in ways that are useful, unexpected, or simply entertaining.
But somewhere along the way, we realized that some of the projects we enjoyed most were the ones nobody had asked us to make.
An excuse to make things
There are always ideas floating around the studio.
A strange little game. An irreverent print. A peculiar object that might be useful to somebody. A piece of political or cultural satire. An experiment in fabrication, packaging, illustration, or some entirely unfamiliar medium.
Sometimes these ideas are funny. Sometimes they’re provocative. Occasionally they’re surprisingly practical. Some of them probably should have remained ideas.
We think that’s part of the fun.
Subletter Press gives these experiments a place to live outside the ordinary demands of commissioned work. It’s an opportunity to make things for their own sake, follow a curiosity to its logical—or illogical—conclusion, and occasionally put the results up for sale.
We’re especially interested in projects that are tactile, thoughtful, playful, unconventional, and just a little bit mischievous.
Small editions, new ideas
We organize our work into seasonal editions, each introducing a new project or collection of objects from the studio.
One edition might feature a printed game or a series of art posters. Another might bring a handmade object, a small sculpture, an experimental piece of stationery, or something we haven’t invented yet.
Our products are made or produced in small quantities or on demand, depending on the project. We like the flexibility of making things as they’re needed, revisiting older designs, and allowing each new idea to establish its own personality.
Alongside the objects themselves, we publish occasional stories about their origins, the people and places that inspire them, and the sometimes peculiar process of bringing them into existence.
Over time, we hope Subletter Press becomes a little archive of creative experiments, useful objects, and entertaining diversions.
Made in Portland. Made because we wanted to.
We’re proud to work in Portland, Maine, a city with a long history of independent makers, artists, printers, musicians, and people pursuing interesting ideas without necessarily waiting for permission.
Subletter Press belongs to that tradition, at least in spirit.
We’re not trying to make everything for everyone. We’re making things we think ought to exist, and inviting anyone who finds them interesting to come along for the ride.
Some will be practical. Some will be ridiculous. Some might even be both.
Welcome to Subletter Press.
Independent editions, curious objects, and other things worth making.