This article was taken from the April issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Adapt tradition
New processes and fresh ideas all look in the same direction, forward; innovation is over the next hill and talent is often seen as the provenance of the young. So it's refreshing to find yourself in a conversation with England's most sought-after printmaker, Paul "Scrub" Hewit, talking about the value of patience in business -- a lesson that he learned from his grandfather.
Hewit's Heidelberg presses sit nestled in the heart of the Sussex countryside, in a 16th-century Grade One listed barn in the village of Poynings. Building on his forefathers' foundations, he is the fourth generation of his family to be a printer.
For the last decade, Hewitt, 40, has pushed the boundaries of print by continually engaging with new demands in graphic design, drawing on a legacy of over 200 years of practice in a firm called, fittingly, Generation Press. The stability that this knowledge brings allows him, conversely, more freedom to fail; greater opportunity to find incremental innovation within a field of peers. "Don't stick to what you know," Hewit says. "Evolve it."
In his time the company has developed its own inks, engaged in guerilla sampling and embraced environmentally sustainable paper, working for clients including Gucci, Paul Smith and the Ministry of Sound. The amount of paper produced by Generation Press in the last 12 months would stretch 900km, but every single job is polished as if it were Hewitt's own family silver -- which, of course, it is.
Simon Waterfall is the founder of Fray.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
