About

Smock is a print shop based in Syracuse, New York, a post-industrial town whose sprawling warehouses and pretty grit have charmed us silly. Our shop — its 25 antique presses, 50 tons of equipment, and 80 employees — resides west of downtown in the Delavan Center, a rambling building with labyrinthine hallways and wildly crooked floors. This place used to be a factory for John Deere, and before that the Syracuse Chilled Plow Company. Today, the Delavan houses many of the city’s painters, photographers, sculptors, and ceramists. This is our home.

Who are we?

We are faithful lovers of historic craft. We have letterpress ink in our veins. We believe in things, and are trying to make the world better right now. This affects everything we do. We also believe in the creation of beautiful things. and we want, like you, to feel good about where our beautiful things come from.

Our paper.

We offer printing on a luxury smooth cotton paper. We wanted a truly sustainable paper that was gorgeous too. Today, we work with a historic paper mill a short drive down the road in New England to produce our exclusive smooth cotton stock.

Smock’s owners.

Smock's Owners

Debbie Urbanski and Harold Kyle have known each other for a long time. Their first collaboration involved Debbie’s poetry, Harold’s lead type, and a lovely old Vandercook press. They went on to found Boxcar Press (Smock’s parent company), building it into one of the largest letterpress shops in the country. They spend their free time roaming the woods of Central New York with their children Jasper and Stella.