Harold Kyle ’98 discovered letterpress printing in “From Gutenberg to Gates,” a course art professor Fred Hagstrom cotaught with German professor Roger Paas that utilized the beautifully printed books in Gould Library’s Special Collections.
The oldest form of mechanical printing, letterpress involves inking raised type and making an impression on paper. The Gutenberg to Gates class took a field trip to the Campbell-Logan Binder, a hand bookbindery in Fridley, Minnesota. Two weeks later, Kyle was working there.
He bought his first press in 1998 and founded Boxcar Press in Minneapolis with Debbie Urbanski ’98, whom he met in a German class during their sophomore year. In 2001 Kyle and Urbanski (now married) moved to New York so Urbanski could complete a master of fine arts degree at Syracuse University. They found that Boxcar Press benefited from its proximity to New York City.
When Martha Stewart Weddings magazine featured Boxcar Press, the uptick in business led the couple to start Bella Figura, a division that specializes in wedding invitations. “After Martha Stewart Weddings, we felt like we could do the impossible,” says Kyle.
And they did. In an industry dominated by small shops, Boxcar is the largest letterpress operation in the country. More than 95 percent of its business is in high-end invitations and announcements. But it also serves as a wholesaler, selling printing plates, paper, and digital supplies to more than 10,000 letterpress printers around the world.
Kyle and Urbanski credit Carleton for their business success. “Even as an art student, I learned how to do math, use a spreadsheet, and write well,” Kyle says. “But I knew that in order to stay competitive, I needed to learn more.”
In 2015 he received a Lofgren Fellowship from Carleton and enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management to complete an MBA. “It was one of the best decisions I’ve made,” he says. “I thought of myself as an art major who had a business. The program made me realize I knew more about business than I’d been aware.”
While much of Boxcar’s growth has been online, Kyle and Urbanski opened a retail space on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 2016. “People love our printing when they see it and feel it,” says Kyle. “Online venues don’t capture that quality.” The response to the store has been so positive that Boxcar is opening a second store in Brooklyn this spring.
