Help us invest in a vintage foil blocking press

Aim

Help us invest in a refurbished 1970s foil blocking machine and keep traditional print thriving!

I’m Dan, the co-founder of Jot Press, a foil blocking and embossing studio based in Liverpool. We use traditional print methods and antique presses to produce bespoke print for customers all over the world (our oldest press was made in 1892!)

Over the last ten years, we’ve had the great pleasure of working with these old presses every day to translate designs into beautiful tactile pieces of print. It’s a labour of love, but one that is physically taking its toll, so it’s time for us to invest in some automated presses. 

How we got to this point / a bit about my background

Ten years ago, my partner Becks (now my wife) and I started Jot Press from a table in our London flat. Starting a print business was never what either of us set out to do. We had no experience or reason to go into this area, but we’ll try and explain as briefly as we can how we got here. 

As a teenager, I had ambitions to become a firefighter which fell apart when I suddenly fell ill at the age of 18 with a suspected heart condition, collapsing regularly, going in and out of hospital and having countless tests. 

It was around that time Beck and I got together while we were both studying on an art foundation course. (My second attempt after missing so much due to hospital stays the first-time round). 

A few years later we both moved to London for work, but I couldn’t maintain my demanding 9-5 job and commuting with my health as it was then. We knew we needed to create a job where I could work flexibly around my health condition (something that seems laughable now as we work harder than ever!) so we started a business designing and printing our own greetings cards. We figured this was a low-cost business start-up that used our art and design background and the products couldn’t go ‘off’.

With the unabashed optimism you have in your early twenties, we invested in our first tabletop printing press from Metallic Elephant which perched precariously on an Ikea table in our flat. Ten years later we are still going! 

Over the last ten years, we’ve moved to Liverpool, adapted our business to focus more on bespoke print, moved studio many times to expand production, oh and taught ourselves to print! Through working other jobs and many sacrifices along the way, we have bootstrapped the business where we now operate five print presses, guillotine, paper drill, gluer and other print finishing equipment.

BUT! We still print everything manually. 

We’re at a point where we have honed our craft, demand is up but our bodies are broken! 

We absolutely love our existing presses and there is no desire to stop using them. They are perfect for smaller print runs, but we are now regularly printing single jobs in the thousands which slows production, is physically tiring and we can’t in good conscience hire anyone else to help us with this type of work on a regular basis. 

That’s why we need your help

We’re aiming to raise £10,000 to cover the costs of buying a refurbished 1970s Heidelberg press. It's a heavy, cast-iron machine initially designed and built for letterpress. These types of presses are now out of production but we are looking to acquire a refurbished one adapted for foil blocking to continue producing the tactile print we are known for. 

Unlike a manual press which requires us to hand-feed every single sheet, and pull a lever or tread on a pedal for each press, the Heidelberg feeds, blocks and delivers each sheet mechanically. While we will carry on using our current presses for most of our work at smaller quantities, an automated press increases the size we can print on, and for the larger jobs it will speed up production and remove a lot of physical strain. 

If we raise £10,000, we have factored in the following costs:

• VAT: up to £1667.
• Platform and processing costs: up to £1,130 (if we qualify for the Creative UK scheme we would have 0% platform fees but processing costs would still apply).

This remaining funds would be for:

• The press itself.
• Specialist movers to transport the press. 
• Installing three-phase power into our studio. 
• Staff training.

With your support, we can keep printing for another ten years and help keep traditional craft print methods alive in Liverpool. 

Why crowdfund?

We’ve got this far in our business without taking out interest-heavy loans and, instead of giving more money to a bank, we thought why not offer up some rewards that we think people will love and have been asking for (such as workshops!) We haven’t opened up our studio before so this will be a first for us! For the print fans, there's lots to choose from. We normally focus on bespoke pieces of print, so offering these rewards is a chance to get your hands on some tactile print. 

Even if we don't reach our target, we'll still be fulfilling the rewards. 

What’s the timeline?

We will start fulfilling rewards throughout July, August and September. We’ve put dates next to the workshops and open days. If you’ve booked onto an open day or workshop you’ll hear from us separately to share more information.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Every bit of support means the world to us.

Prize Draw Terms & Conditions: 

Free entry route
No purchase necessary. To enter for free, send your name and contact details with PRIZE DRAW to Jot Press, 5 Brick Street, L1 0BL. Paid entry: select the £5 reward on the Crowdfunder page. Free entries will be given the same number of entries as the £5 reward online entry. Free and paid entries have an equal chance of winning.

Draw details
The draw will take place on Monday 26 June 2026, at least 14 days after launch. The winner will be selected at random from all entries and contacted within one day of the draw.

Promoter
This prize draw is run by Jot Press (the “promoter”).

Eligibility
The draw is open to anyone aged 18+. Delivery worldwide is included in the prize.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 24th June 2026 at 11:57am