The Crow’s Way: Sustainability Practice in Printing for More Than Just the Environment
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Owner Candace Mangold poses with Bright Tide Designs. Photo by Angela Downs [/caption]
News by Angela Downs
You’ve seen their work all around town and likely never known you were seeing them. From the Food Co-op to gift stores, Key City Theater, consignment shops, and Downtown restaurants, Corvus Crafts is a cornerstone of the Port Townsend community. As they conclude their first year at their new retail location at 898 E Park Ave, Suite 1, they are celebrating sustainability.
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Corvus Crafts hosts an artist take box with materials that artists are welcome to take. Photo by Angela Downs [/caption]
With more space at their new location to pursue better sustainability practices, Corvus Crafts has built relationships with artists who reuse scraps for upcycled totes, resin jewelry, streetwear, handbound journals and more. These creatively reused products are then sold in the front retail face of the shop, and they regularly sell out.
While it doesn't make economic sense for Corvus Crafts to be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified itself, all its paper comes from FSC-certified lumber. All cards sold or printed by the company are on non-bleached, FSC paper and come in commercially compostable vegetable-based sleeves.
The print industry has historically generated significant waste. There is zero retention for event products, with many products like tickets, flyers, and marketing materials lasting only about two to three weeks. Paper shipping has a high damage rate, with a typical 1-2% per ream. At Corvus Crafts, these damaged goods become handbound journals.
Waste reduction happens in the margins of their planning. There is 1-2% budgeted into every project for spoilage, so that in case something goes wrong, the printers will have back-up materials. With every apparel order, they get one extra. This spoilage becomes hats, pot holders, and aprons. Their Jack’s Crows is their own designs for a streetwear clothing line made up of unused extra shirts or hoodies.
Losing money is a reality of any business, and printing can see this in mistakes like typos and patch adherence, which often are related to clients not proofreading and outside contractors. But Corvus Crafts does its best to keep good relations and absorb some of these mishaps. For example, when a decal issue arose on a large order of Carhartt, a high-value retail product, owner and cofounder Candace Mangold brought in a denim artist, Karen Bright of Bright Tide Design in Quilcene, to create a whole new product that they have completely sold through.
Clients pick the fabrics they want to use. Salish Sea Impressions, one of the local artists selling in their retail shop and around other shops in town, uses recycled fabric. Other clients are mostly choosing 100% cotton.
This coming Spring, Corvus Craft is expanding to 3,000 sq ft. With landlords who believe in them, the team can meet confidentiality requirements to become certified for government contracts. Once their process is finalized, their first client will be the PUD, printing for their signage, apparel, and interior office space.
This work isn’t just about completing orders for Mangold. Most of their clients come in with problems they need help solving, and she sees it as her job to ask better questions to understand how to educate them about their options. It's important to her to take time to develop relationships. Clients have been so grateful that they bring gifts of art, fresh crab, banana bread, and coffee. These relationships are what matter most to Mangold.
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Resin jewelry is by Christee Ballard of Christee Ballard Design. Photo by Angela Downs [/caption]
First meeting people in her home at her kitchen table when she and her husband began the business in their garage, Mangold has taken this grassroots history into the design of the front of their new space. They redo their window display every month, and want people to feel comfortable, inspired, and welcome.
Within six months of their start, the couple was profitable, printing architectural books for the Historical Society as their first real job. Within two years, they hired their first employee and worked hard to keep them on for all these years.
As comfortable as they want the clients to feel, Mangold believes their employees deserve this same care. Integrating the best of her work experiences, like $100 Birthday bonuses, $100 bonus for every year with the company (1 year- $100, 2 years- $200, 3 years- $300, ect.), free snacks and drinks, stocked feminine hygiene and bathroom spa kit. Mangold's central goal is to be an employer of choice in Jefferson County.
“I want to make life a little bit easier for everybody involved,” Mangold said. “I'm grateful that they're proud, that they all show up and give me their best. So whatever I can do to make life a little bit more enjoyable.”
With the bigger space, they are ideal for Intellectual and Development Disabilities (IDD) Community Employment. Mangold says it has been a privilege to offer a safe space with a bathroom, kitchen, and the ability to host a job coach for their IDD employees.
Corvus Crafts also offers internships for high schoolers, who often return after their term is complete. Mangold presents to marketing students, and is where they come to print all of their projects. While environmental sustainability is a core value to the company, Mangold says it's a bonus to their work because their intention for sustainability is for their community as a whole.
One way Corvus Crafts lives out its values is by offering free services to any memorial that comes to them.
“We will drop everything to make a memorial happen,” Mangold said, “And that's because the Corvus way is the crows. They take care of their own during times of grief. They're very connected to their community. They never forget a face. We've held to a lot of those same principles, and it makes for loyal clientele going forward, because you're helping them in their most difficult period of time.”
Every day is different for Mangold; she never knows what orders people are going to bring in, and no job is too small.
“As you know,” Mangold said. “[E]verybody in this town wears multiple hats, and so you might be dealing with somebody for this one issue, but then you find out they're on a board for something else, or they're part of this other group and they row, or they jog with a group and they need something, and on and on and on it goes. We're all so deeply connected, because it's such a small town, we have found ourselves at so many different things, so many tables over the years, and it's been so rewarding.”
Editor’s note: Though the Beacon uses Corvus Crafts for our printing, we have a professional relationship with them, and this was not written in exchange for any goods or services.
