Fresh Press has recently been published in the special edition of Groundworks’ “Vibrant Ecologies of Research” publication.

This special edition is described as:

“What are the elements necessary to create a vibrant ecology of research where art and design inquiry may flourish alongside, within, and out of social and physical science research that is so deeply embedded within the fiber of research-oriented universities? In this special collection of Ground Works, the project work and commentaries explore vibrant ecologies of research, deepening our understanding of the institutional, social, and epistemological systems that effectively weave arts-based inquiry into the scholarly fabric of research.”

You can read the article here.

Associate Professor of Graphic Design Eric Benson and UIUC 2021 MFA alumna E. Ainsley received a grant supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the University of Illinois.

Their project titled "Papermaking Community Workshops: Storytelling, Transformation, and Therapy" will offer papermaking workshops focused on rebirth and transformation for the LGBTQ+ communities, W.I.N. recovery (Women in Need), and the general Champaign-Urbana community. More information will appear in 2023 on the Fresh Press website and their Instagram account.

Packaging front

Packaging back

Our logo reflects the ideas of growth, artisan/handmade, & sustainability. It is rarely printed and instead hand-stamped on our print collateral.

Fresh Press co-founder Eric Benson and U of I Library Senior Conservator for Special Collections Quinn Ferris. Photo by Jenna Kurtzweil/iSEE

A dynamic partnership in the works at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign aims to prove that paper doesn’t — and perhaps shouldn’t — grow on trees.

The participants? Fresh Press — a hand papermaking studio at the School of Art + Design — and the U of I Library’s Conservation Unit. Using Fresh Press’ trademark agriculturally sourced materials, the organizations will collaborate to craft a new kind of paper that meets conservation standards and can be used to rebind and repair the Library’s at-risk relics.

Despite existing in separate spheres, the organizations have quickly fallen into step with one another, united by the drive to create meaningful and environmentally conscious material. Fresh Press brings the paper, conservators provide the artifacts, and the result is a multilevel experiment in sustainability, conservation and the fusion of fine art and science.

Eric Benson, co-founder of Fresh Press, defines its mission:

“We want to explore papermaking from a more environmentally friendly perspective, and in the process create more sustainable paper products.”

Read more here>

Illinois Professor Mark Taylor holding a brick of CornCrete.

“There’s an abundance of agricultural fiber produced as a byproduct of crop cultivation,“ he said. “The combine harvesters come by and take out the corn, and everything else gets sent out the back as waste. In some cases, this material is gathered in windrows and taken for animal bedding, but I think there’s also an opportunity to take some of this material and put it to higher value uses.”

Working out of the Fresh Press Studio, Taylor collaborates with Art + Design Professor Eric Benson to explore and experiment with “how agricultural fibers can be used in three dimensions.” These uses occupy a spectrum of scales, from microscopic fiber analyses — to develop strong and long-lasting paper — up to the architectural scale on which Taylor is currently focused: the construction of monolithic walls.

Read more>

This past November/December, we made Speckletone cotton paper for holiday cards created by Lacey Shoman at lefield notes!