As a company based in historic Litomyšl, to what extent do you feel connected to the history of your town, where one of the first printing houses in Bohemia was founded back in 1503?
As a modern twenty-first century printing company, we feel the weight of Litomyšl’s printing tradition very strongly. Litomyšl is a town with an extraordinary cultural, historical, and literary heritage. The fact that one of the very first printing presses in the Czech lands was established right here serves as both an immense source of inspiration and a deep commitment for us. It’s incredible to think that books from our Litomyšl facility now travel all across Europe – only today, they are created using technologies our predecessors couldn’t have even dreamed of back then.
Ever since the print shop was founded in 1989, your philosophy has been „Quality – Craftsmanship – Responsibility – and Joy”…
I believe these four words sum up not only the philosophy of our family business, but also my own personal approach to the projects I work on as a sales representative.
To me, quality means paying attention to every single detail: from the paper selection and printing technology down to the color of the thread binding the book block and the final packaging of the order.
Craftsmanship represents the experience of the people behind the production. Even though we have state-of-the-art technology at our disposal, it wouldn’t mean much without human knowledge, love for the trade, and an intuitive touch. There’s a good reason for the saying „golden Czech hands.”
I feel a sense of responsibility toward our customers, authors, publishers, and readers alike. Every book represents months or even years of work by many people, and I truly value the trust they place in us when they choose to bring their book to life here.
And joy? That comes the moment I hold the finished book in my hands for the first time and see that we’ve helped bring another beautiful volume into the world, one that will be around forever.
What challenges have you had to face throughout your existence?
Book production has transformed dramatically over the last few decades. Technologies are constantly evolving, and customer expectations as well as market demands are shifting.
I consider the greatest challenge to be maintaining high quality at a time when deadlines are getting shorter and projects are becoming increasingly demanding. Today’s books often combine specialty materials, unusual bindings, custom finishing, or highly complex image reproduction.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic, the H.R.G. printing company in Litomyšl opened the Printing Museum in 2018. The printing company as it appears today, along with its sales representative Klára Cartmell and, once again, Jan Gloser. Yet it’s precisely these kinds of projects that push us forward and give purpose to our work.
You print packaging for various products, but also exceptional books. How much of a challenge is this broad scope for you?
It’s a huge challenge, but at the same time, it’s one of H.R.G.’s greatest strengths. We aren’t limited to a single area, which opens doors for us almost anywhere there’s a need to print something on paper. Naturally, the production processes themselves are completely different, but for both, the quality has to be one hundred percent.
Personally, I enjoy book projects more. You throw away a face cream box or an old catalogue, but a book stays around forever.
That’s one of the reasons why, when it comes to photography and art publications, it’s crucial to think through every detail. Proper colour reproduction, paper choice, screening, press calibration, and the binding method all play a major role. A book doesn’t just have to look good; it also has to function well when being read and browsed through.
In 2018, you opened the Museum of Printing on the H.R.G. premises. Which of its exhibits should visitors definitely not miss?
If there’s anything you absolutely shouldn’t skip in the exhibition, it’s the historic printing presses with their unique backstories. You’ll find an Intertype typesetting machine that originally came from the Printing House of the Czechoslovak Legions in Prague. During the German occupation, it was walled up right inside the building on Wenceslas Square to escape confiscation by the German army. After the war, it was put back into service and operated all the way up to the 1980s.
A knee-lever letterpress from the second half of the nineteenth century also deserves special attention. A true rarity is the lithographic press from Bohumil Haas’s printing works in Prague’s St. Anne’s Church, custom-made specifically for the location, with no other existing examples anywhere else. The collection is rounded out by unique prints produced by Litomyšl printing houses from the eighteenth century through the First Republic era.
And finally: Can you reveal what hides behind the H.R.G. Litomyšl brand name?
The acronym H.R.G. conceals a rather personal story. The name comes from the English ‘Horse Radish Graphic.’ The word for horseradish in Czech is ‘křen,’ which happened to be the nickname of our company founder, Petr Lorenc, ever since childhood. When the company was being established, he decided – with a touch of tongue-in cheek humor – to translate his nickname into English and add the word Graphic, referencing the world of polygraphy, printing, and graphic production.
In fact, it was the H.R.G. Litomyšl printing works that we entrusted with the printing of our publications Buch über Bücher and Magic Mag from Prague, which are due to be published in October this year.
Photos: František Renza
