by Rebecca Lesser

I first heard about The Sprawl’s new pop-up printing press (on wheels!) through publisher Jeremy Klaszus’ Instagram account. It’s actually social media, or lack thereof, that prompted The Sprawl to start experimenting with letterpress in the first place. But more on that below.

This led me to think about what other magazines were creating outside of each issue and story. There are the many fabulous events and community initiatives hosted by our magazines, of course—I’m thinking here of Avenue’s Made in Alberta Awards, Creative Scrapbooker’s Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival, and Culinaire’s Calgary Treasure Hunt World Taste Tour, to name just a few. 

That’s when I remembered that Uppercase magazine has a fabric collection! Publisher and editor Janine Vangool combined her roots in graphic design with her love of letters, and her audience’s interests, to create a vibrant and colourful line of fabrics. As she writes on her website: “I’ve always had a fondness for surface pattern design. In fact, the spine patterns for the magazine have inspired some collections with Windham Fabrics!”

Janine’s fabric collection—entitled Breaking News and released in January 2020—was inspired “by headlines, advertising, television news graphics, protest signs, voting ballots and creative manifestos.” And then there was the pandemic, and “these messages became ever more poignant.” The fabric is a form of expression, intended to “[turn] media into positive messages and encouraging words of positive action and self care.” A direct response to the current moment, and a need to bring these words into a new sphere. 

Similarly, when Meta blocked news from Facebook and Instagram in Canada in 2023, The Sprawl needed an innovative way to reach audiences old and new. Jeremy joked that they “should get a printing press, because that would be the future of journalism: setting type and passing the news around by hand, just like the old days.” It was a response to the current frustrations and limitations of modern technology, a way to reach into different spaces. “The conventional wisdom is that if you are publishing nowadays, you need to focus all your energy online. But what if there is a different and more creative way?” 

And so the first iteration of The Sprawl’s letterpress was born, with the old-fashioned press hauled to local festivals, schools, and libraries. Now, two years later, the letterpress has been mounted to a cargo e-trike and taken out onto the streets. 

The Sprawl has always been about connecting with Calgarians, a way “to spark curiosity and help Calgarians see their city in a new light.” With the letterpress on wheels, The Sprawl is connecting with historic sites throughout Calgary. They’re offering new perspectives on current places by printing local archival photos while visiting the very place that’s pictured. It’s another way to connect with people who love their city.

Uppercase’s fabric collection is one of the many innovative ways they’re connecting with a community of readers that expresses themselves “through art, sewing, crafting, [and] making.” There’s also The Pattern Journal, a surface design newsletter with tips and resources. You can view the live video from the second annual Pattern Love Day (February 2025), where Janine shares creative pattern-making prompts. And several volumes of the Encyclopedia of Inspiration book series are dedicated to her fabric-loving community: Notions, Yarn-Thread-String, Quilted, Stitch-Illo and Feed Sacks (with more sure to come for this ongoing series).

It’s clear that the urge to print, to create in any form, runs deep for both The Sprawl and Uppercase, as they explore innovative ways to connect with their communities.