About

Stephanie Carpenter is a letterpress printer, educator, and graphic designer living in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Since 2011 she has been the Assistant Director of Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin where she helps maintain the world’s largest collection of 1.5 million pieces of wood type. At the museum she leads programs including New Impressions an international, juried exhibition; coordinates the annual Wayzgoose conference; and teaches workshops. As a representative of Hamilton she has been involved with TypeCon 2012 Milwaukee; HOW Design 2016 Atlanta and 2013 San Francisco; and the Type Directors Club in New York City for Century: 100 Years of Type in Design.

Stephanie enjoys the tactile nature of letterpress printing and the direct connection to history. She creates posters, installations, and artists' books using vintage wood and metal type and hand-carved blocks on 100-year-old-presses. Her art explores modularity and the use of language, each piece selected and set by hand to create the final print. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally in Australia, Brazil, India, Italy and Japan.

Along with the technical aspect of the craft, Stephanie loves the community of letterpress printers and rich connections. She is an active member of the Amalgamated Printers Association, AIGA, and the Ladies of Letterpress. She has presented at Design Week Fort Wayne, Hamilton’s Wayzgoose conference, and on panels at the Interrobang conference and events connected to Pressing On: The Letterpress Film, a documentary in which she is featured.

She was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana and received her BA in Communication Arts and Graphic Design at the University of Saint Francis and her MFA in Graphic Design from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Do you want to chat about what I do? Just send me an e-mail.