About Us

Sesame Letterpress is a design and letterpress printing studio in Brooklyn, New York. We have been collaborating with clients for over twenty years to carefully design and print custom stationery.

We bring our love of contemporary art, a reverence for classic design and dedication to fine craftsmanship to our work. In a fast paced world, we think it’s important to take the time to slow down and still make things by hand. Stationery helps us connect with people. We know our clients go the extra mile to hand write and mail letters to people they care about. We want to make really beautiful stationery that they will love and be inspired to send!

Letterpress Printing

We letterpress print all of our own stationery using antique Victorian era cast iron presses. Dating back to the 15th Century, letterpress printing is done by inking a plate with a raised surface of type and images and pressing this surface into a sheet of cotton paper, creating a tactile de-bossed impression. Each card is hand-fed into the press, one color at a time and one piece at a time.

OUR LOCAL & ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

We are a small business committed to reducing our footprint on the environment and supporting vendors in our local community.  Our printing process is efficient, using only about a tablespoon of ink for a set of invitations. Our paper is from another Brooklyn based company and is tree free, archival, acid free, recyclable, biodegradable, and elemental chlorine free. Our presses have been running for 130+ years and we hope they’ll outlive us, and never make it to a landfill.

Breck Hostetter

Creative Director, Owner

With a background in fine arts and a decade of experience working in the contemporary art world, Breck Hostetter started letterpress printing in 1999. What started as a hobby quickly became a passion and a full time business. The studio is now run by Breck and a team of three highly skilled printmakers with backgrounds in fine arts and design.

Sesame Letterpress is a women owned and operated business.

Portrait of Breck Hostetter sitting at a desk.