Here is a really exciting Kickstarter project: a virtual letterpress environment for your iPad. Mind you, it’s not available yet, although founders TouchPress (out of Champaign, IL) have managed to secure the funding and apparently have a working prototype in action.

We’re big fans of letterpress printing here in Wisconsin, home of the great Hamilton Wood Type Museum. So our first thought was, “why wasn’t this a partnership with the Hamilton? Why go out and try to buy all that type when there’s a huge treasure trove of it just a couple hundred miles north of Champaign?”

So we contacted Jim Moran at the Hamilton, whose cryptic response was, “We were approached about this project but couldn’t work out the details, unfortunately.”

A mystery! But despite the veil of secrecy surrounding the missed Illinois/Wisconsin partnership opportunity… I’m totally downloading this when it comes out. My iPad needs a serious dose of that 1930s vibe.

*Note that the company developing LetterMpress is Bonadies Creative Inc., not Touch Press, though both are located in Champaign, IL.

Post by Stacey Williams-Ng