The creation of Corvus Crafts was inspired by the passing of a previous printer, but the business Candace and Christopher Mangold started nearly seven years ago has since grown enough to expand into a new facility.

Candace Mangold explained that she and her husband had been customers of both Dan Huntingford, who owned SOS Printing until 2018, and Mike Kenna, to whom Huntingford sold that business after being diagnosed with a serious illness.

“Dan loved this community,” Mangold said of Huntingford, who died in a car crash in 2018. “So we thought, ‘We can learn printing too,’ even though we were starting from scratch.”

Corvus Crafts began in a 400-square-foot former woodworking studio, and spent $1,000 for its first machine. Eventually it expanded from printing materials such as pamphlets into apparel, signage and even vinyl decals.

The Mangolds were no strangers to technology, since Christopher came from a background of programming software applications for banks, so he and Candace consulted with as many existing printers as they could to begin with.

“We visited their shops, and asked them what they loved and hated about their jobs,” Candace Mangold said. “We wound up buying a lot of our equipment from them, with other pieces coming from auctions.”

The lessons the Mangolds took especially seriously from their mentors were the importance of precision and safety. What they’d already brought with them was a sense of community-mindedness, which Candace touted in their business’ environmentally friendly products and practices. They also offer the community a free-of-charge memorial printing service and sponsor various community events.

“We chose Corvus Crafts as our name because crows are inventive and community-minded,” Candace Mangold said. “They create their own tools, they never forget a face, and if one of them dies, the rest of them grieve that loss.”

Since its start, Corvus Crafts has done jobs for the Wooden Boat Festival and the Food Co-op, in addition to branching out into design and online work. It operates from an 1,800-square-foot space in Suite 1 at 898 E. Park Ave. in Port Townsend.

“We do full-color digital printing, and we’ve paid off all our equipment,” said Candace Mangold.

Corvus Crafts is also a “women and minority-owned” business. “We work with a lot of local nonprofits. COVID sure kicked our legs out from under us for a while, though.”

Like many local businesses, the pandemic posed challenges to Corvus Crafts, but once the lockdown was lifted, it was able to add back employees.

“Last summer, we had three high school interns and four employees on site,” Candace Mangold said. “Our goals in this industrial park include making this a welcoming space, complete with a gallery of framed artwork on our walls.”

As Corvus Crafts has expanded from merely taking specific print orders to working more collaboratively with clients on aspects of design, Mangold looks forward to having “more creative conversations” about those printing and promotional marketing jobs, as its business branches out into social media engagement as well.