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| Debbie
and Harold, Bella Figura founders |
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Fine
printing has always been a labor of love for Debbie Urbanski and Harold
Kyle, whose first collaboration brought together Debbie’s poetry,
Harold’s letterpress printing and bindery skills, and a typeface
called Bodoni. Since then, we’ve learned that love can make us
do pretty crazy things sometimes. Our love for letterpress led us to
house our first cabinet of lead type in our one-bedroom apartment. Our
love for antique presses led us thousands of miles across the Midwest
and the Northeast to save letterpresses from the scrap yard. Can there
ever be too much love?
We now own over 50 tons of equipment –
presses, board shears, paper cutters – that we love. We have a
portfolio of commissioned broadsides, books, cool posters, and gorgeous
custom wedding invitations that we love. Harold and Debbie’s love
for each other led them to get hitched in June 2003 on a glorious day
in Chicago (with the arrival of the first Bella baby in November, 2006!). And nine years after our first printing job together, our
love for beautifully printed things led us to launch Bella Figura
and help letterpress more love into the world.
Bella
Figura is an artisan letterpress shop based in Syracuse, NY, about 20 miles from the rolling hills
and the wineries of the Finger Lakes region. We love living in this
part of the country, where rush hour means a nearly e mpty highway, where
maples burst into fabulous reds each autumn, where winter means skiing
over white-moon snow and summer means eating too many handfuls of Concord grapes. Our print shop now features twenty fablous employees. Our work has been featured in Modern Bride, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Bride's magazines, and our portfolio includes work done for Barnes and Noble; Little, Brown and Company Publishers; Republic of Tea; Hickory Chair; NBC; and Sony BMG (we printed their Grammy after-party invitations!).
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| Jasper, our first Bella baby |
In addition to all this, we're proud of our company's strong commitment and love for the environment.
We
really love our job--working with clients who
enjoy fine papers and great design as much as we do. Here at Bella Figura,
we’ve assembled the perfect staff, printing presses, and papers all for you. We’ve chosen our favorite designers from across the
country and asked them to design unique invitation sets that contain
mountains of personality. We’ve handpicked a fabulous calligrapher
whose penmanship will make you swoon.
Our
background is in the fine press world – we want to treat your
invitation like a work of art. And though we’re not Italian, a
reliable source tells us the Italian phrase “bella figura”
means “a beautiful impression.” We’re confident that
our invitations will leave a beautiful impression on your guests and
help set the scene for one heck of a party to come.
Thanks
for stopping by Bella Figura. |
