What’s in a name? Just about everything.
Images: Untitled (Zone Fighter W/Bear And Bird) by Steve Seeley, Delicious by Martha Rich, and Foxgirl by Oksana Badrak
People ask us about our name all the time. Thumbtack Press*. What’s a Thumbtack Press? You press a thumbtack, sure, but a Thumbtack Press is more of a noun, like a printing press almost.
Thumbnail sketches are something else entirely, so we’ll ignore them, and likewise with thumbing one’s nose, thumbs up and thumbs down, or being under someone’s thumb.
But remember with us for a second that moment when you first put art on your wall**. Remember that piece of cardboard or memory board or your innocent bedroom plaster wall waiting to be abused. Remember that moment when you first cut out a magazine clipping or a love note? Remember tacking it to your wall?
We still – all of us – put art up. And it’s not just “right click + set as background.” It’s tactile. It’s physical. We hang art.
For us, the thumbtack is a reminder of those moments. Trying to cut out the face of some celebrity crush so neatly, or constantly adjusting a piece so that it looks centered from across the room.
At lunch with our friend Peter Mars, he said Thumbtack Press is a noun – it’s me, it’s you, it’s us – but it’s also a verb. Press. Press up art into your home. Into your life.
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* – The name “Thumbtack Press” is really only as old as the word “thumbtack,” coined in 1884, which just so happens to be the year Eleanor Roosevelt was born, in case you care. It comes from the combination of two old German words: “tack,” a 13th century word meaning clasp, and “thumb,” which comes from words for fatty or swollen thickness. “Press,” on the other hand, has at least three roots: an old French word for “crowd,” the Latin “pressåre” (like, “to press”), and, of course, full court press in basketball.
** – Ok, you could put it on your ceiling, too.
