Quoin began in 1998 with a single Vandercook proof press bought at auction and a room above a hardware store.
Our founder, Ada Roux, had spent a decade in commercial print and grown tired of watching good design flattened by fast, forgettable output. She wanted cards you'd feel in the dark — the bite of ink into cotton, the clean cliff of a painted edge.
Twenty-seven years later we still run that first Vandercook alongside two Heidelberg platens. Nothing here is automated end to end. We mix ink to a Pantone chip by eye, feed sheets one at a time, and box every run by hand. If it takes an extra day to get the impression right, it takes an extra day.
We're small on purpose. That's how the work stays worth keeping.
The people at the press.
A four-person shop. You'll talk to the person who prints your cards.
Ada Roux
Runs the Vandercook and mixes every ink. Believes a card should be legible with your eyes closed.
Theo Marsh
Turns your brand into plates and dies. Obsessive about kerning and the exact depth of a deboss.
Nadia Okafor
Cuts, paints and boxes. The steady hand behind every clean corner and hand-painted edge.
What we hold to.
Three rules that decide everything we say yes and no to.
Feel first
If it doesn't reward touch, it's just paper. Depth of impression is never negotiable.
Real materials
Cotton, metal type, mixed ink. No coatings, no shortcuts, no digital pretending to be press.
Small & personal
We cap our runs so every job gets full attention from plate to box.
See the presses run.
Portland locals are welcome to visit the pressroom and watch a run. Everyone else — let's start with a free proof.
Get in touch →