Meet Kurt Seidle | Designer & Printmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kurt Seidle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kurt, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Knits & Prints started as an outlet for my wife, Elizabeth, and me to explore ideas that didn’t fit within the context of our jobs as brand designers and strategists with Grant Design Collaborative. I realized that for each project I worked on, I always had dozens of ideas and sketches that didn’t make the cut and were left to wither away in a sketchbook or random stack somewhere. That’s just a part of the design process, but I felt that there were ideas that could work within a different setting or were worthy of further exploration. They were just too good to let go of; they had potential energy that couldn’t be denied.

Running parallel to this was a love of screenprinting that began during my design studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. The printmaking process has connections to graphic design but offers a whole other world of possibilities that I found to be irresistible. The manual process of replication is immediate and allows for improvisation, working in the moment, happy accidents, and the layering of disparate parts. On the other hand, you can be as rigid and systematic in the process as you want, should you wish to go that route. I tend to fluctuate between these two modes of creation. Saturated pop colors and metallic inks are favorites of mine and can easily be achieved via screenprinting. And you can print on a variety of substrates and textures. In the end, I appreciate that the process affords so much flexibility.

I built a small screenprinting studio in our backyard workshop and started running some of these sketches through the process to see what would happen. Some of my prints stay pretty true to the original composition, others are more improvisational, integrating different bits of artwork over weeks, months, or even years. One thing I find fascinating about image making is that some works are pretty much complete from conception while others take time to develop – and each time you revisit a piece, you see things a little bit differently.

In short, all of our projects are initiated because there’s a desire to see what a particular idea might look like IRL. It’s really as simple as that.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I design and hand-print screenprinted works on paper. I wasn’t seeing the type of work I wanted to make represented, by and large, within the context of the contemporary printmaking scene. The work I typically saw was painterly, layered, and generally very process-heavy. That, or the subject matter was driven by narrative. While I can appreciate all of that, I have a different vision for the work I want to make.

My interests stem from hard-edge abstraction, geometry, signage, and art movements like Constructivism, Dada, De Stijl, Bauhaus, Pop, Minimalism, and Precisionism. Clean, beautiful simplicity is generally what I’m after. That, and large fields of unmodulated pop colors.

Yet my initial forays into the printmaking world were not so well received. I was denied entry into numerous group shows. But I just kept on going. I believed in my work and my vision and sought out different audiences and venues. Ultimately, over time, I’ve found fans and patrons who enjoy my work. And as I try to expand my reach and nurture my following, I find more and more people interested in what I’m up to.

You just have to find your people. It takes time, but if you believe in yourself and put in the work, you’ll find them.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The High Museum of Art, the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, and the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) are all musts. MINT Gallery, The End Project Space, and Atlanta Printmakers Studio are all great. In the autumn, be sure to check out Cherokee Heights Arts Festival and Chalktoberfest in Marietta – both are wonderful.

Live music – and music, generally – is a crucial part of my existence and Atlanta has plenty of great venues to check out bands. The Masquerade, Terminal West, Variety Playhouse, The EARL, 529, and The Eastern are all excellent.

For records and books, I would absolutely hit up Sweet Melissa Records and Books in Marietta. Criminal Records in Atlanta is also a favorite.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
To my family for their unwavering support of my creative endeavors from the very beginning; my friends and fans who appreciate my work; and my wife Elizabeth for her belief in my vision.

Website: https://knitsandprints.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/knits_prints

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuHjouunu3I