Monthly Archive for March, 2009

Look Mom, No Script Fonts – A Wedding Invite

If script fonts on wedding invitations generally make your stomach turn, this invite layout should provide some typographic Alka-Seltzer. That’s what happens when a great interactive designer gets married. Designed by the groom himself, Jamey Erickson principal over at Sevnthsin in Minneapolis created his invites with a simple and bold typographic layout. Check out some Sevnthsin interactive work here. (They did this great website recently for P.O.S.)

The column layout using justified type accents information and creates heirarchy in a way unique to wedding invitations. The invite set was letterpress printed in our studio with black and silver ink on a single press sheet to keep costs reasonable. (just the little dotted lines of hearts are in silver) The whole invitation set uses Crane Lettra 110lb Pearl White cotton paper stock with matching envelopes. The program card was printed separately closer to the wedding date. It is a very long and narrow card format with printing on each side to handle all the program information. All in all, simple type, done up proper.

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Published on March 30, 2009 in Letterpress and Wedding. 16 Comments Tags: affordable, cards, column, fonts, invite, invites, Jamey Erickson, justified, Letterpress, letterpress services, minneapolis, script, Sevnth Sin, Sevnthsin, silver, type, typography, Wedding.

Thought And Motion Letterpress Poster

This design poetry is from Jeff Johnson and the esteemed crew at Spunk Design Machine in Minneapolis, done for the Univeristy of Minnesota. They have a keen sense of design experimentation and always seem to keep things playful. For this poster, there are only three ink colors printed but the beauty of overprinting those colors really creates some dimension in the artwork. The art work is a mix of vector and raster. You can see the detail shots of the halftone images, they are pretty course line screens. The final poster is pinhole perforated into a three parts giving the whole piece a sweet little bit of texture.

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Published on March 26, 2009 in Letterpress. 6 Comments Tags: dance, halftone, image, Letterpress, letterpress services, line screen, poster, raster, spunk design, spunk design machine, university of minnesota, vector.

A Tasty Food Stylin’ Business Card

As the name would imply, a stylist has to have style. This morsel was designed by Westwerk Design and was just featured in the Minnesota AIGA award show. And check out Lara’s site for some really succulent looking food photography.

The letterpress printing is tasty too. The card was printed four colors on the front and a single color on the back. However, we washed up the press four times and did all four single colors on the back as well That gives a nice variety to the presentation of the card on table display on photo shoot sets and studio events.

A heavy ink flood is not the greatest application of letterpress – there is no impression to the information side of this card. We even held on to the tiny 5 point type reversing from a solid. And yes, that many color changes certainly adds up cost. But hey – this job hand eight wash ups!

There is a practical reason to do this kind of solid on a letterpress if you are happy with the more mottled (salty looking) and varied way a letterpress lays this much ink. The reason is stock thickness. Offset printing, which is the best process for printing solids, is usually limited by the thickness of paper for smaller press sheets. To run a thick stock (these are 165lb Neenah) on an offset press gets expensive because you usually need to hire a larger size offset press to handle the stock thickness and have a big press sheet. That just doesn’t make sense for a short run business card project. And most smaller offset presses which could less cost just can not take the stock thickness rattling through the press – if they can get paper to feed through at all. Putting the card stock on a letterpress makes paper feeding possible for a short run job. Offset printing – eat me.

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Published on March 25, 2009 in Letterpress. 3 Comments Tags: 165lb, AIGA, award, business card, color, Design, flat, flood, food stylist, ink, Lara Miklasevics, Letterpress, letterpress services, minnesota, neenah, offset, paper, printing, thick, westwerk.

Trajectory: Shapely Cards With A Punch

The folks over at Cue don’t mess around. They designed this seriously good card with a cartouche-like outer shape. We printed a single color letterpress on each side and die cut the cards with a small punch in the center.

When you are printing a business card with letterpress on each side, usually one side is chosen as the “hero side” and gets a bit more impression. When die cutting the hero side also faces up. The side on which the knife enters the paper is more rounded – more noticeable on thick stocks. This card is 100% cotton Crane Cover 179lb Pearl White.

(Completely unrelated: when my angry and nerdy designer side comes out with an insult, I’m likely to call somebody a cartouche-bag.)

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Published on March 24, 2009 in Letterpress. 1 Comment Tags: 179lb, business card, cotton, cover, crane, cue, design cue, die cut, die cutting, Letterpress, letterpress services, minneapolis, pearl white, punch, stock, trajectory.

ARTCRANK – A Poster Party For Bike People

If you are in Minneapolis, be sure to hit this one on April 4th. The ARTCRANK poster show blends a love for bikes and poster art. It is now in it’s third year. Here is a preview of a new print of the “cranky peddler” we just inked for Jason Strong. The light blue poster was in last years show, the brown poster is new and hot off the press for this years show – a perfect set. Make sure to be at the event to snag one, we only editioned 100.

The brown 17 x 22 poster is printed on French PopTone Hot Fudge stock. We printed dense black ink for the background, then overprinted the metallic silver. Note the size of the plate (9 x 12) in relation to the 17 x 22 sheet size. Since letterpress plate cost can add up quickly, keeping the plate size smaller keeps the production costs down. (Two plates for a full 17 x 22 image size would add up to around $400.) And we love the detail we get from photopolymer plates too. The line work in the polymer plate material holds up very well. We recommend lines not go below .35pt in size.

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Published on March 22, 2009 in Letterpress. 0 Comments Tags: ARTCRANK, brown paper, cranky, edition, ink, jason strong, Letterpress, letterpress services, metallic, minneapolis, photopolymer, plates, poster.

Love Correspondence: Letterpress Engagement Book

What does a really classy guy do when it is time to pop the big question? Buy a ring to be sure. But here is another little something – a small book of various emails between the couple, collected, bound and side sewn as a letterpress book. We designed this little gem as a request from the groom-to-be. He compiled all the email notes between the two of them from the past four years and sent them to us. We’ll keep the couple and their notes anonymous, but here are the production details:

The gutt of the book is digitally printed in black text. The pages have a single hit of blind letterpress on the french folded edge. The pages are side sewn together and tuck into a custom hard bound book cover with black book cloth. We printed a custom liner on the cover interior with silver ink on black paper. The cover of the book and the title page are also letterpress printed in silver ink. The paper is 100 percent cotton Crane Lettra 80 lb text.

We’ve confirmed that she said yes.

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Published on March 20, 2009 in Design and Letterpress. 7 Comments Tags: 80lb, black, book, book cloth, crane, Design, design services, edition, engagement, fold, folded, french, hard cover, Letterpress, letterpress services, lettra, metallic, paper, sewing, side sewn, stitched, text.

Rhymesayers Cards – Metallic Color and Heavy Ink

These guys are certainly one of the hottest Minneapolis record labels. Rhymesayers Entertainment sent us this business card design for a raw and painted letterpress look.

Production turned out sweet, but it has some letterpress challenges.

Colored Metallic Ink on Black Stock

This card is printed on a custom duplexed paper – French Construction Black glued to French Speckletone. On the black side we printed a red metallic ink. Metallic ink colors on in letterpress or offset printing are opaque BUT as color pigment such as red is added the ink becomes more transparent. The look is more subtle than a foil stamp.

Large Ink Area with Small Type Reversing Out

In modern letterpress application, clients want to see impression. As a general rule, reversing small type out of a larger graphic is not the best use of letterpress. The type is not getting “impressed” – the graphic around the type is. So, if you are looking for letterpress impression with your text, don’t reverse out of a field of color. Note how the small information text and the logo on the black side of the card have more visible impression than the logo inside the spatter mark.

An additional challenge with a large area of ink coverage becomes holding onto small detail within the graphic and running the ink heavy enough for good dense coverage. On this card, the raw and heavy ink was desirable, the look is a like a heavy paint on chipboard. You can see how the heavy ink begins to “squeeze” a bit on both the logo and the information type. Sometime to get crisp type we can run a large graphic separate from small text even though they may be the same ink color. This allows us to run a heavier film of ink for the graphic and get solid coverage, then run a lighter film of ink for the text and get crisp type. However, that does mean an additional set up and press run.

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Published on March 19, 2009 in Letterpress. 6 Comments Tags: black, black paper, business card, duplex, impression, ink, Letterpress, letterpress services, metallic, minneapolis, over inking, record label, reverse, reversing, rhymesayers, small text, spray paint.

Murphy & Co – Offset & Letterpress Business Card

This well crafted card was designed at VO2 Media in Minneapolis for Murphy & Co. Design, designers of exceptional residences. But don’t let the simple look of this business card fool you. It’s design subtlety has layers of complexity in production. Here’s how:

The impression is not very deep and the paper is not overly thick. It is Neenah Classic Crest Avon Brilliant White 130C. The design on the front side has a subtle vignette effect around the edges which is printed offset (flat). If you look at the close up detail carefully you can see a soft line screen very light gray in color over the tone of the paper. The information on the card is printed in three letterpress colors – light gray, dark gray and a deep red. We matched the deep red letterpress ink to the offset printed ink on the back of the card.

The design on the back of the card requires offset printing plus an overall varnish to help seal the flood of ink. (When a flood of ink is printed on uncoated paper, darker colors and especially reds can have a tendency to rub of the surface of the paper. Sealing the sheet with a varnish or aqueous coating helps mitigate this ink transfer.)

Producing a card like this is not quick, which leads to a note about expense and quantity. This piece of paper required three passes through our letterpresses and two passes through an offset press, then a final trim of the press sheets. That is labor intensive with a separate set up, wash up and press run for each color. In an age of digital printing where you can pay by the number of copies, there is a misconception that a lower quantity will make a big difference in price for letterpress. In fact, a production quantity of 100 business cards or 1000 business cards really does not make a big difference in the cost of a job with these kind of production specs. Pricing for custom work all depends on how complex your production specifications are. We advise that the more complexity in your project, the more it will cost. A one color card letterpress card can be cost effective. But like anything well crafted, five times through the presses most certainly costs more.

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Published on March 18, 2009 in News. 2 Comments Tags: business card, cheap, complex, crafted, Design, expensive, flood, Letterpress, letterpress business cards, letterpress services, line screen, Murphy & Co Design, Murphy and Company, offset, paper, quantity, rub off, transfer, typography, uncoated, vignette, VO2 Media.

Conor Lawrence – Rhino Stationery

What could be better than a letterpressed rhino ready to charge? One with wings? Ok, here it is.

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This is a two color letterpress stationery set for artist rep Conor Lawrence designed by Aurora Whittet at Red Organic. The printing is red and silver metallic inks on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White. The cards are on a thick, rhino worthy 165lb cover stock.

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Published on March 17, 2009 in Letterpress. 1 Comment Tags: 165lb, Aurora Whittet, business card, classic crest, conor lawrence, cover, envelope, ink, Letterpress, letterpress services, metallic, minneapolis, neenah, No. 10, red organic, rhino, silver.

1st 100,000 – Thanks Beast Pieces Readers

The benefit of slow times is they make us try new things. At the end of January it was a slow time in our studio, and we certainly don’t like to sit with idle hands. We had this blog started in 2008 but due to low content we were only seeing a trickle of 50 or so daily visitors. With a camera in hand, I started writing nearly every day here on beastpieces.com showing our press work in detail and talking about our production process. We never imagined the response. Six weeks later it has become part of our daily routine and a great extension of our studio to the design community. This week marks some sort of milestone for us – over 100,000 visits in the past six weeks. We’ve heard from so many designers and made many new friends.

We live and breathe great design and production. We’d like to thank some of the fine blogging folks and design sites that have taken notice of beastpieces.com recently. We enjoy these sites and invite you to take a visit:

Bad Ass Ideas – Blog of design, culture and typography

Black Eiffel – Blog of people, places, things, and ideas

Booooooom – Fostering a community of people excited to go out and be creative

Briar Press – A letterpress community

Card Observer – Business card design inspiration

CMYKern – Blog of simple clean design with good thought process

Designers Talk - Design community discussion board

Design Sponge – Daily website dedicated to home and product design

Draplin Design – Blog of damn good designers, makers of Field Notes

The Fleuron – The Britsh Journal of Typography and Design

FFFFound – Image bookmarking (will someone please invite me already!)

Grain Edit – Modern graphic design plus vintage graphics

Graphic Exchange – Amazing selection of graphic design projects

How Design Magazine – Top 10 websites for designers

I Love Typography - Bringing the subject of Typography to the masses

Image Spark - A new site for image collection and inspiration

Oh So Beautiful Paper – A celebration of all things paper

Qbn.com – A great design community discussion board

Quipsologies – Daily creative morsels for design awareness

Snippet And Ink – Daily wedding inspiration

Style Me Pretty – Blog for the style obsessed bride

Subtraction.com - Blog by Khoi Vinh – Design Director for the NYtimes.com

The Best Part – Daily commentary on all things design

Type Theory - A journal of contemporary typography

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So, thank you for visiting us. As we continue to post on beastpieces.com we’d love to hear from you. Is there something you’d like us to post about? Anything missing? What should we talk about more? Feel free to leave comments.

And of course we’d like to hear about your upcoming letterpress project and always appreciate estimate requests and the chance to work with new people. Reach us at numbers(at)studioonfire(dot)com with details about your project. Maybe it is perfect for the next post on beastpieces.com

Published on March 16, 2009 in News. 8 Comments Tags: blog, blogging, community, Design, Letterpress, printing, production, thank you, Thanks, typography.

A Shaped And Buckled Letterpress Wedding Invite

This uniquely shaped invitation was designed by us at Studio On Fire. It is one of the most interesting die lines we’ve created for wedding invitations – elegant and fun at the same time. It is a simple green one color letterpress on white paper with that same green printing on a green paper for a tone on tone effect. What really gives this invitation set a unique twist is that the cards nest into a four strap belly band enclosure which holds them together. Inside there are three cards: an invite, a map and an RSVP postcard. The four strap enclosure buckles together with slits in the paper and does not require glue or tape. The address area on the enclosure can be written on like an envelope. Once fastened together the invite then mails in a clear bag rather than an envelope.

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Published on March 14, 2009 in Letterpress and Wedding. 5 Comments Tags: belly band, buckled, clear bag, Design, design services, die cut, die line, diecut, enclosure, invitation, invitations, invite, Letterpress, letterpress services, minneapolis, shape, shaped, Wedding.

Roller Coaster, Yeah, Ooh Ooh Ooh

Here’s a tip for getting some letterpress roller coasting love. We take something into our press room from the pitchers mound – a rosin bag. You can get them at your local sporting goods store and they should cost only a few dollars. A rosin bag will change your life when printing on a Heidelberg Windmill. This is one mysterious fine white powder that won’t get you into trouble. As a derivative of pine sap, rosin is valued for it’s friction increasing properties.

The rails on a windmill – or any platen press for that matter – must be clean and oil free. Any lube on your rail track can create ink slurring as the rollers comes into contact with the surface of your form. It can be very slight, but noticeable if you look at your printing under a loupe. We are all about having as crisp and clear a transfer type and image as possible.

After the rails have been cleaned well with alcohol, a few small taps with the rosin bag down the roller rail track will transfer some powder and create additional grip as the roller trucks move over the rail. Don’t use too much, you don’t want it to build up and create little gobbers and bumps. If you have your roller height set correctly, this little bit of extra friction will help your rollers sail over your printing form.

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