We recently connected with Jesse Kirsch and have shared our conversation below.

Jesse, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

When the pandemic hit, I found myself working out of my home studio every day for my current full time design job and working remotely. I had just started to get some momentum with my letterpress business the 6 months prior in 2019; selling cards and prints locally at a few consignment and wholesale accounts in and around Washington, DC.

After a couple weeks of wondering how to continue creating prints and fulfilling that creative itch, I came up with the idea to create a hyper-local letterpress print campaign for my town of Takoma Park, MD. This included a custom illustration of our towns’ mascot, Roscoe the rooster, a rogue rooster who wandered the streets in the 1990s. I worked with the local government and BID to get the word out and donated 100% of the proceeds to two small-business micro-grants. In the end, I raised over $10k and all of it went to businesses in town that needed the help while their doors were shut.

From there a local coffee shop asked to use my Roscoe design on a shirt to raise funds for their furloughed employees and I began to see my designs popping up around the town. This led to being asked to do the branding for a new sustainable butcher shop opening up in town, creating shirts, bags, stickers and mugs for Main Street Takoma, and it the work just grew from there. I had wanted to go back to working for myself for years but had taken full-time work while my two sons were young.

This was my way in to becoming Takoma Park’s local graphic designer and letterpress printer. Over the past few years I have also done the branding for Lost Sock Roasters, Indigro Plant Design, Zinnia Restaurant, the Takoma Park Street Festival, and much more. The fulfillment that comes with living and working in this town is amazing. I truly feel like a part of the community and absolutely love working with all of the amazing local businesses in town. They are my neighbors, friends, clients, and partners.

My wife Dianne, also a graphic designer, has joined me in the business as well this past year. With so much more in the works, I feel like I’ve finally found the job that I have been searching for.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I went I have always had an interest in art and design ever since i was a kid and ended up going to the School of Visual Arts in NYC where I received my BFA in graphic design back in 2008. My focus was visual identity (branding and logos), as well as packaging design and posters.

I now run a full-service neighborhood graphic design and letterpress studio along with my wife called No Plan in Takoma Park, MD just over the border from Washington DC. We specialize in working with small businesses (restaurants, cafes, retail, hospitality, events, non-profits, etc) on their branding needs. We love helping new and old businesses alike to bring their business to life with an authentic brand that the community can stand behind. This includes everything from the logo, color palette, typography, signage, advertising & marketing, social media, website, merch, animation and motion graphics.

The name No Plan came from finally embracing our process. We had spent years trying to come up with a name… we knew where we wanted to go, but didn’t have the plan to get there. We let the process drive us. It’s about having an idea and being able to get to your destination and being ok if that destination changes along the way. There is no plan, and that’s ok!

We also create original letterpress prints and cards both for clients and our own No Plan brand on our century-old printing presses. We can conceptualize, design, and print greeting cards, business cards, notecards, posters. It’s a great addition to our branding services as well as supplying the area with high-quality job printing.

I have recently been getting into some more conceptual fine-art work with some experimental letterpress prints and murals. I love a good collaboration and my criteria for new work is, is it fun? will it be creatively fulfilling? is it a challenge? is it new? I’m open to almost anything if it checks these boxes.

Nothing better than seeing the impact our work has had in town and getting to know all the other amazing creators. We also volunteer our design services a couple times a year to organizations and events, we really are open to anything!

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met Dianne 16 years ago when a mutual friend introduced us at an off-off-broadway show called “Gutenberg the Musical!” I had asked her out on a date with the premise of hoping to discuss the pronunciation of “Helvetica Neue” (dorky font joke). We both were into graphic design and hit it off. We have been married 11 years and the proud parents of two boys. Now that the boys are both full-time in school, we have become business partners supporting each-other on all different aspects of the business. Even my older son, Oren, helps fold and package cards and prints… it really has become a family business!

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

We deliver on our work. We create professional, thoughtful, high-quality design and printing on time and on budget. We keep in touch and communicate with our clients every step of the way. When we have a vested interest and passion in the success of your client’s work, we become a partner, friend, and advocate for them. Their success is our success and I want to see them flourish. I literally see my clients weekly walking around town, at the coffee shop, at the farmers market so its a great way to stay in touch and check in with how they are doing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.noplan.studio
• Instagram: @noplanstudio
• Other: online shop: www.noplan.press

Image Credits
Featured Photo: Shawn Bruce
Photo of me at market: Aphra Atkins