Pinball Publishing is a web of complementary projects that engage the printed word. With their Tenth & Grant line of artisan paper goods created in collaboration with artists (Carson Ellis, Lisa DeJohn…), custom printing and silkscreening, their Bangback record label, and a small literary press, the six-year-old SE Portland business run by Laura and Austin Whipple is a creative wellspring. Laura took time out from her new baby and Pinball (her other baby) to answer the questions of the ultra Q.
Qualities you most admire in design:
Simplicity, beauty, surprise
Qualities you most despise in design:
Unnecessary complexities that ignore production realities, wastefulness, bad typography
Reading:
Graham Greene - The Heart of the Matter Lora Heller - “I’m Feeling - Teaching your Baby to Sign”
Listening to:
Nick Jaina - The 7 Stations
Dream project:
I’d love to edit, design, and publish a series of smart, pocket size design books - on broad topics like color, typography, image, and form.
Favorite virtue:
Kindness
Favorite vice:
Red wine in the winter, good beer in the summer
Tragic flaw:
Self-Doubt
Secret superhero power:
I’m now a full time mama and a full time entrepreneur - it takes a little superhero finesse just to make it through breakfast most days.
That which keeps your afterburners firing:
Austin & Phoebe (my husband and daughter) Sunday dinners with dear friends
What you’d like to be when you grow up:
A polyglot
Portland’s best kept secret:
Mt Scott Community Center’s twirl slide
Portland heroes (sung or un-):
My midwife Ellie Legare, and all the creative souls in this city who keep at it despite the obstacles.
Interesting on the horizon (PDX):
An inner Southeast Max line.
WHAT TO DO NOW?