Unlike the visual designs found elsewhere on the site, the sustainability aspect of Praxis Typography is not so immediately viewable. It is not a print, composition or photograph, but rather an ideal demonstrated in the business structure. It is a foundation for the company. It is also, like the entire Praxis project, a work in progress.
To talk about sustainability and sustainable practices is not just a discussion about the looming climate crisis. When the Praxis project was first outlined, I viewed sustainability narrowly (and wrongly) as only an ecological issue. In the two years since then, following a pandemic and global demonstrations/battles for racial & gender equality, it has become clear that building a sustainable letterpress business is about much more than printing on recycled paper.
"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." Audre Lorde
Defining a business worthy of the title "sustainable" is also a conversation about societal equality and cooperation. Sustainability can not happen in isolation and the work created here strives to take an active role in wider community.
[Fundraising designs] is part of this community participation. As many of the prints address ideas of social injustice, it is not enough to create prints about the problems, then make money off the back of them. Instead 12—30% of each sale goes directly to a charity that deals with the issues presented in each print. You can read more about this initiative here.
This is Praxis Typography; a letterpress & typographic studio, rooted in activism & sustainable practices. This is just one step of many.
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