The History of Powis Parker

The history of Powis Parker – “There has to be a better way..”

1983, the year M.A.S.H aired its last episode and the Washington Redskins beat the Miami Dolphins in Superbowl XVII, there was a young man with a mission to make bookbinding better. Kevin Powis Parker incorporated his company Powis Parker with the intention to share his passion of handcrafted bookbinding and introduce the first ever desktop thermal binding machine, the Fastback.

Teenage Parker

It all started in 1979; Kevin was a teen with a mission and a bright idea to glue loose printed pages into a booklet. Kevin grew up in Berkeley with his parents, both artists. Growing up in an environment of artistic values and a basement surrounded by glue pots and tools of the trade sparked Kevin’s incubated interest in bookbinding. Many of the Parker family’s artistic friends wanted their books to be bound and Kevin would do this for them from scratch.

Artist turned Entrepreneur Parker  - UC Berkeley years

Kevin’s high school teacher and mentor, Jim Kelley, owned an office supply business that sold bookbinding equipment. Unfortunately, this equipment was sub-standard. It used very poor adhesive strips which resulted in loose pages in the bind! There had to be a better way. Jim recognized Kevin’s artistic values and suggested he develop a new, better adhesive for bookbinding. Kevin followed the path of famous success stories like Apple founder Steve Jobs and modern day Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg by taking an early exit out of college to focus on his idea and passion for invention. In 1982 Parker developed a new adhesive strip to work with the Cheshire machine sold by Jim Kelley and eventually, with the help of his astronomy buddies from UC Berkeley, Kevin developed a new machine which could feed his own invented strips.

Today

More than two decades later, Kevin runs a global business producing multi-color and multi-size patented binding strips in his home town of Berkeley, California.  Today, the Powis Fastback© system is used by every branch of the US Federal Government, many Fortune 500 companies, and even the White House copy room.. During the 2003-2004 years Powis entered the PhotoBook binding industry. Photo labs and large photo companies like Fujifilm and Kodak use the Powis photobook hardcover binding methods to beautifully bind their products.

Most people spend a lifetime searching for their passion and a practical application for it, but Kevin quickly turned his passion and artistic values as a teen into a successful bookbinding business! Stay tuned for yet another chapter in the Powis Parker story.

Published By: Amir Shobeiri

October 26, 2010