Help Container Corps relocate

Hi, my name is Gary Robbins. For the past 13 years, I have owned and operated Container Corps , a small, artist-focused offset printshop and bookbindery in Portland, Oregon. My press is dedicated to publishing artist publications of all types and has worked with artists across the Pacific Northwest and beyond to create countless books, zines, pamphlets, posters, flyers, cards, and everything in between. For the past several years, the press has also been providing printing services at no charge to local nonprofits and social justice activist groups in an initiative called "Free Printing for the Revolution."



To fund these projects and the day-to-day operations of the press, I provide high-quality print and publication production services to individual artists and art institutions. I approach all my for-hire printing work with the sensibilities of an artist. I often experiment with novel production techniques and materials to provide artists with possibilities beyond what would be available in a commercial printshop.

For most of its life, Container Corps was in partnership with Yale Union, a contemporary art exhibition space in Portland. Last year the Yale Union project came to an end, and now the new owners of the building formerly known as Yale Union have surprised me with an eviction with very little time to relocate the shop.

 

This news comes at an exceedingly tenuous time for the press. In the best of times, the press makes enough money to sustain itself, carefully and gradually increase its production capabilities by acquiring new equipment, and provide me with a very simple living (often in that order). This work has always been more of a labor of love and a vocation than a super successful (in the most traditional capitalist sense) business venture. This became especially true during the pandemic when my biggest clients (art schools, museums, galleries, and other larger art institutions) curtailed their activities or shut down completely. As things open up, I am hit with a second pandemic-related disaster: the dreaded supply chain issues. The supply chain is currently so bad in the printing industry that even when I get jobs, I often cannot source the paper, ink, plates, and other supplies I need to fulfill them.

 

The shop has grown during my tenancy in this building and now consists of 2 offset presses, a heavy-duty hydraulic paper cutter, a 120-year-old book sewing machine, a foil stamping press, a collating and booklet-making machine, and lots of assorted folding, gluing, and binding machines. Most of these machines weigh over a ton, with the heaviest weighing almost 2 tons. Because of the scale of this move, I will need to hire a professional equipment rigging company to safely remove, transport, and reinstall these machines in a new space. Unfortunately, over the course of the pandemic, many of the heavy equipment rigging companies in the Portland area have closed or been conglomerated. With decreased competition, the remaining companies have tripled their prices in a short period.

This move is coming at a time when moving is more expensive than ever, and the ability of the press to absorb this financial blow is at an all-time low.

 

So, for the first time, and with lots of trepidation, I'm turning to you, my community, for help. If you've ever come to a Container Corps event, enjoyed one of our publications, or picked up a copy of something we made for one of our many fantastic clients (like Free Spirit, Primary Information, Printed Matter, Veneer, PICA, PNCA, Portland Art Museum, and Yale Union, to name a few), found value in it, and would like to see more stuff like it in the future, please consider chipping in to this fund. If you're one of those clients and would like to help keep me around for possible future projects, now is the time. If having an artist-focused print shop and bindery in Portland is something you would like to help sustain, please contribute. I would be so grateful. All the funds I am seeking will go directly towards covering the substantial moving/rigging costs and securing a new location. Should they be received, any additional funds would help offset some of the financial loss that comes from having to shut down production completely during this transition. I am hopeful that with your help, I will be able to continue what I consider to be my life's work, and Container Corps will be moving on to bigger and better things.

 

Finally, if you know of good studio space for rent, drop me a line. And even better, if you work with an art institution or other venture that you think could benefit from having a full-service print shop and book bindery in-residence, let's talk! The partnership with Yale Union started with a Facebook status update (it was a different era!), so I've learned that anything is possible, and sometimes, all you have to do is ask.