{"id":560622,"date":"2026-04-02T18:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/560622\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:06:12","slug":"hundreds-gather-for-beautiful-angle-poster-drop-in-tacoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/560622\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds gather for Beautiful Angle poster drop in Tacoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deep in a North Tacoma basement, the smell of paint is heavy. The walls are adorned with colorful posters, and a large 1952 printing press makes a mechanical swish and clicking sound as paper is run through and inked with poetry and yellow daffodils.<\/p>\n

Every month, two men print more than 100 posters in this studio, then race around Tacoma, stapling them to electric poles and handing them out to dozens of eager fans. Tuesday was no exception.<\/p>\n

The News Tribune\u2019s late opinion editor, Matt Driscoll, long held a soft spot<\/a> for Lance Kagey and Tom Llewellyn, who run the guerilla letterpress poster project, Beautiful Angle<\/a>. Two posters were auctioned to help offset Driscoll\u2019s memorial service costs in September 2024.<\/p>\n

This week Kagey and Llewellyn invited The News Tribune back to their studio, and this News Tribune reporter accompanied the duo as they drove around Proctor, 6th Avenue and Hilltop Tuesday night to put out their latest poster.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a yellow daffodil with accompanying text, \u201cHey there princess.\/A little shy, aren\u2019t you?\/Waving from the front yard\/or riding along Pac Ave\/with the other ladies.\/We know you look good.\/You\u2019re feeling yourself.\/We\u2019re all feeling it.\/Day\u2019s a little brighter,\/weight\u2019s a little lighter,\/every time you toss your head.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If you missed Tuesday\u2019s drop (only about half of those waiting on the sidewalk were lucky enough to get one), as of Wednesday afternoon there were eight left in stock<\/a> on Beautiful Angle\u2019s website, for $167 each (the price offsets the cost of production, they said). Some rare posters are sold for as much as $1,500 each.<\/p>\n

Kagey and Llewellyn have been running Beautiful Angle for 24 years, and their posters are designed to be found at random, like Monkeyshines<\/a>. Kagey, a 40-year graphic artist, usually designs the layout and Llewellyn writes the accompanying words. They\u2019ll collaborate with local artists like Stan Shaw<\/a>, Art Chantry, Jeremy Gregory, Curt Ashby and Deaf Boy Tacoma<\/a>. You\u2019ll catch them doing a big steamroller print at the annual Tacoma Wayzgoose printmaking festival<\/a> on the first weekend of May.<\/p>\n

The pair uses a proof press originally used by a bakery in Ohio they found on eBay and shipped to Tacoma in the early 2000s. After painstakingly laying individual letters, punctuation and graphic designs into the machine, they turn its cylinders slick with ink, pressing the image onto the paper. Over the years they\u2019ve saved engravings, once used by local print newspapers and advertisers, from dumpsters and antique stores, turning old images into new art.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes it a precious project, to both of us and the people who like it, is that it\u2019s 100% analog,\u201d Kagey said. \u201cThere\u2019s no AI. It\u2019s a hand-carved image and old wood and lead type, hand-cranked through a press. It\u2019s very mechanical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lance Lance Kagey, one half of Beautiful Angle, a Tacoma-based guerrila letterpress poster projected, hands out posters to waiting fans outside The Red Hot, on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Tacoma. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com <\/p>\n

Many of the poster designs nod to Tacoma\u2019s gritty, industrial history.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the Port of Tacoma belching steam. There\u2019s just this industrial portion of your gene pool here,\u201d Llewellyn said. \u201cThere\u2019s [glass and] fire involved, and there\u2019s gears and cast iron and paper. We use a lot of industrial imagery and language because it feels like Tacoma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s daffodil poster references the annual Daffodil Festival and Parade<\/a>, which takes place in Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner and Orting on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Kagey said Tacoma has probably the largest letterpress or book arts community \u201cin not only the Northwest, but probably even the West Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s apparent in the people who lined up around the block, darted across the street and cheered when they saw Kagey\u2019s big blue truck pull up near the Tacoma Glass Gallery, The Red Hot and Tacoma Tofu on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Llewellyn said the project has brought many strangers together to bond over art. One year they helped a man propose to his wife with a poster, a nod to when they would chase Beautiful Angle drops while dating. Others have shown them Beautiful Angle tattoos and many grab drinks and food with them afterward. Nearly 5,300 people follow them on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe run out [of posters] almost every time, and we get a certain joy out of telling people, \u2018Sorry, we just ran out,\u2019\u201d Kagey said with a laugh. \u201cI think a little disappointment makes it more fun the next time, right? A lot of times you\u2019ll see somebody who\u2019s like, \u2018I got a bunch of these. Here, you can have mine.\u2019 So you see a lot of those acts of kindness. More often than not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerri Feider and Nils Wickman had been waiting for 15 minutes outside The Red Hot on 6th Avenue for a poster. Feider said she\u2019s followed Beautiful Angle for years and considered the generosity of artists like Kagey and Llewellyn a \u201cspot of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of my favorite things about Tacoma,\u201d Feider said.<\/p>\n

\"Fans Fans hold up and pose with their copies of posters made by Beautiful Angle, a Tacoma-based guerrila letterpress poster projected founded by Lance Kagey and Tom Llewellyn, outside The Red Hot, on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Tacoma. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com <\/p>\n

Linda McElroy grew up in Puyallup and has lived in Tacoma for about 50 years. McElroy said she was blessed to receive Tuesday\u2019s poster because it reminds her of great memories of the Daffodil Parade.<\/p>\n

Outside Tacoma Tofu, artist John James Nelson \u2014 known for putting \u2018TACOMA\u2019 on pilings at Titlow Beach<\/a> \u2014 said his girlfriend didn\u2019t get a poster at The Red Hot, so they followed Kagey\u2019s car to the next location. Nelson said the annual tradition of hunting for \u201cgreat art\u201d is \u201creally good for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just brings the community together, brings everybody together because of art and ideas. Beautiful Angle likes to focus on \u2026 what\u2019s going on at the moment. It\u2019s a big deal to keep people in the now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uniquely is a series from The News Tribune<\/a> that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in Western Washington so special.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 2, 2026 at 5:00 AM.<\/p>\n

Follow More of Our Reporting on Uniquely<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Becca Most<\/a><\/p>\n

The News Tribune<\/p>\n

Becca Most is a reporter covering the Pierce County Council and other issues affecting Tacoma residents. Originally from the Midwest, Becca previously wrote about city and social issues in Central Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Her work has been recognized by Gannett and the USA Today Network, as well as the Minnesota Newspaper Association where she won first place in arts, government\/public affairs and investigative reporting in 2023.\u00a0
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deep in a North Tacoma basement, the smell of paint is heavy. The walls are adorned with colorful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-560622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}