The Best Place There Is

There are places I go that seem just right, like the gods took an MRI of my brain, sorted it all out, and spit out a custom-tailored place.

Impronta, in central Guadalajara, Mexico, is the best the gods have ever done: it’s a print shop–publishing house–coffee shop–bookstore.

There is a tree growing through the middle of it.

There are dogs.

Linotype machines and letterpresses.

A rooftop fire pit.

A gallery.

Friendly people.

Great coffee.

Where do I sign up?

The Tree

We sat in front of it, on a metal park bench, eating brownies and drinking coffee. The tree rises through the building, and out above the roof.

The Print Shop

Impronta makes books. Makes them. They set hot metal type, print the pages and the covers, sew the bindings.

The means of production are at their fingertips.

The Riso Room

Impronta also uses more recent printing technology: on the second floor there is a Risograph room, complete with a flask of that lovely Risograph pink.

The Gallery

One floor up from Riso is a gallery and multipurpose room. Today it appeared that an exhibition of Linotype ephemera was going up or coming down.

Lisa’s comment: “This is the room I’d like for our studio.”

The Rooftop

The rooftop is delightful.

The Coffee Shop

We started our visit in the coffee shop. It’s long been my pipe dream to combine coffee and print shops: this was it, in living colour.

Excellent cortado; perfect service.

The Bookstore

At the front of the building is the most delightful bookstore, selling a mix of house-made books and those from others.

There is something so special about picking up a book made from scratch in the same building.

I could not leave empty-handed, so choose a copy of Alti Plano Subtropical by Kimberly Kruge.

The book is stunning.

The Best Place There Is

David Lynch wrote this in Catching the Big Fish:

Some mornings, in a perfect world, you might wake up, have a coffee, finish meditation, and say,“Okay, today I’m going into the shop to work on a lamp.” This idea comes to you, you can see it, but to accomplish it you need what I call a “setup.”

For example, you may need a working shop or a working painting studio. You may need a working music studio. Or a computer room where you can write something. It’s crucial to have a setup, so that, at any given moment, when you get an idea, you have the place and the tools to make it happen.

If you don’t have a setup, there are many times when you get the inspiration, the idea, but you have no tools, no place to put it together. And the idea just sits there and festers. Over time, it will go away. You didn’t fulfill it—and that’s just a heartache.

That’s what went through my mind today, walking through Impronta: it is a lovingly-resourced setup for making printed things. The setup includes not only the machines and tools, but the creative and literal food to fuel it all.

I left inspired not only to hone my setup, but inspired to dive into creation following their spirit.

What a place.