Monthly Archive for March, 2009

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Hey, Nice Ensemble

You know what they say about too much letterpress – you’ll eventually go blind. That is exactly what happened to our design friends at Spunk Design Machine. They created this stationery system for Ensemble with a beautiful and subtle pattern that we letterpress printed blind (a plate striking the paper with no ink). Imagine, a design for a financial company that is both fun and elegant. Which makes sense for Ensemble because they cater specifically to creatives running small businesses by managing benefits and financial operations.

For the letterhead, the blind pattern runs on the text weight sheet along the top edge of the paper. That pattern also prints in color on the back of the No.10 note card (a flat card sized for a No. 10 envelope). A pattern like this is a great way to get some color into a letterpress print job without running a big solid color block. Since this card and the business cards are on the same paper and print the same color, we can run them together. We run a lot of jobs with a this card and a business card on the same press sheet. That gives the client way more bang for their print dollars.

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Published on March 12, 2009 in Letterpress. 1 Comment Tags: blind, business card, Design, ensemble, envelope, impression, letterhead, Letterpress, minneapolis, No. 10, pattern, printing, services, spunk, spunk design machine, stationary, stationery, system, Tea Slip, thick.

Studio On Fire and Zeichen Press – Open House

We will have some letterpress work on display along with Jen and Fran from Zeichen Press over at Hoffman Parkin Urban Realty. If you’re in the area, come join us this Friday from 4-7.

Published on March 11, 2009 in News. 0 Comments Tags: event, hoffman parkin, Letterpress, open house, zeichen press.

Six Degrees Of Colored Paper

Since letterpress doesn’t do a great job flooding a page with ink, designers must come up with production alternatives to bring in big areas of color. One of the things that can be done when designing for letterpress is combining different colored paper stocks. This works especially well for projects with multiple pieces that need to coordinate – like stationery systems, wedding invitations, etc. Our previous post on the Ocean House system shows a splash of color added to the back of everything via offset printing. Adding a contrasting paper stock for pieces like envelopes and cards can be a more cost effective production solution to still add color to letterpress and avoid offset (or “flat” printing as people call it when comparing to letterpress)

This system designed over at Space150 by Jason Strong brings color to the system by adding a couple contrasting papers. We printed the same letterpress ink color on the white stock and then the burgundy colored stock for the envelopes. This creates a tone-on-tone effect that remains legible and adds a nice texture. A smaller note card in a pink stock also matches the pink ink used throughout the pieces. The business cards are on thick 220lb Crane Lettra, which does an excellent job eliminating the impression show through of a two sided card.

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Published on March 11, 2009 in Letterpress. 1 Comment Tags: 220lb, Business Cards, colored, crane, envelope, envelopes, flood, jason strong, Letterpress, letterpress services, lettra, offset, paper, space150, stationary, stationery, thick, two sided.

Ocean House Stationery – Mucca Design

Our good friends at Mucca Design in NYC designed this beauty. A tight piece of typography with a punch of color to bring everything to life makes this system sweet.

The large color flood on the back of everything is offset printed. Then we printed two color letterpress. The paper is Monadnock PC100 throughout which gives a nice warmness and a little texture.

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Published on March 9, 2009 in Letterpress. 1 Comment Tags: business papers, businss cards, card, Design, envelope, flood, ink, letterhead, Letterpress, letterpress services, mucca, ocean house, offset, stationary, stationery.

Sweetheart Seamstress Stationery

Check out a feature from our own product line…

The Studio On Fire Deskline contains uniquely formatted and detailed paper goods. Sweetheart Seamstress stationery elements include stitched journals, letter writing sets, punch-out calling card and tag sets, self mailing notes with pinhole perforated labels and mini folders.

Look for these details: custom scalloped edge envelopes, fill-in-your-name calling cards, mini book marks, perforated label sheets with dry gum backing.

Our vision for a product line was to create finished pieces that captures some of the random qualities that happen in test prints and makeready. We worked with Kelly English and Kindra Murphy on three different product themes. On this theme, Kelly used vintage sewing pattern inspired elements to create layers of texture and pattern. The detail is almost to cute to stand. And of course all of it is letterpress printed. They can be purchased on our website.

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Published on March 7, 2009 in Design, Letterpress and Studio On Fire Products. 7 Comments Tags: bookmarks, calling cards, card, deskline, envelope, folders, handmade, journals, kelly english, labels, letterhead, Letterpress, letterpress services, mailer, minneapolis, patterns, product, scalloped edge, sewing, stationery, stitched, studio on fire, sweetheart seamstress, tags, thread.

McKnight Artist Fellows – Letterpress Journal

We worked together with designer Stuart Flake and illustrator Brian Gunderson on this fine little journal project for the McKnight Foundation. The McKnight Foundation is truly one of the significant supporters of Minnesota artists. Each year they award grants to independent artists in several categories. This journal was used to commemorate the artist fellows awarded in 2008.

The journal is perfect bound with a letterpress printed 60pt blotter board affixed on front and back covers. We found an existing library pocket and printed those to contain a card with the list of the artist fellows. Note the beautiful way Gunderson incorporates overprinting into his illustration to make a third color.

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Published on March 5, 2009 in Letterpress. 3 Comments Tags: 2008, 60pt, artist, blotter, board, book, Brian Gunderson, fellows, journal, Letterpress, letterpress services, library card, McKnight Foundation, minnesota, perfect bound, Stuart Flake.

Secret Agent Man Letterpress Business Cards

The thickness of these cards allows them to also serve as a secret weapon. When your primary audience for business card hand off is art directors and designers, your card had better be memorable. A 55 point coaster board makes them fantastically textural and unstoppable. Clockwork Active Media Systems designed these for photographer rep Jeff Cerise – aka Secret Agent Man. They are hot off the press.

One thing to note about Coaster Board – it does not take a sculptured impression like other softer sheets. The surface will break. One of the detail photos below shows the surface cracking that will occur with to much pressure. This is likely especially in interior areas of artwork and must be watched for and adjusted to avoid this breakage. However, the finish of the stock is nice and pulpy – a definate stand-out among more typical paper mill stocks. We also like the “salty” look to the dark ink color on this stock. Gives it an aged / weathered appearance.

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Published on March 4, 2009 in News. 4 Comments Tags: 55 point, 55pt, board, Business Cards, clockwork, clockwork active media, coaster, cracking, jeff cerise, Letterpress, letterpress services, minneapolis, photographer, rep, salty, secret agent man, stock, thick, ultra.

BBDO – Letterpress CD Packaging, Coasters, Cards

We print for other creative companies both large and small. Our friends in Designworks at BBDO in New York made up this gem of an identity system for their new post production suite called The Kitchen at BBDO. The system blends some fun patterns and crisp tiny type onto coasters, business cards and a CD package. And it was among the projects we printed that won a feature in the Print Design Annual.

It is a misconception that letterpress is only for small projects. We are not scared to run a big press sheet and handle large volume work. The 4 panel, 2 pocket CD package ran 2 up on our full size 18 x 23 sheet and was custom die cut and converted. The coasters and business cards ran together on a second sheet. And the details still look edible.

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Published on March 2, 2009 in Letterpress and packaging. 2 Comments Tags: BBDO, Business Cards, CD, coaster, designworks, identity, large format, Letterpress, letterpress services, minneapolis, package, packaging, pattern, press sheet, print, system, the kitchen at bbdo.

How Design – Top 10 Sites for Designers

Our blog was just selected by How Design as a “top 10 site for designers”. You found us. See the rest of the list here.

Thanks How!

Published on March 2, 2009 in News. 3 Comments Tags: awards, Design, How, Letterpress, magazine, resource.

Black Paper: White Vs. Silver Inks

Here is an image comparison of “opaque” white ink to silver ink. We did this little letterpress test to illustrate why opaque ink really isn’t opaque.

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Note: The small type in these images is about 4 point serif type.

We offer letterpress services to designers around the country and are constantly asked to print white ink on black paper. You can see above that it does not look crisp and bright like you might expect it to. The conversation we have with designers goes something like this:

- Can I have white ink printed on my black paper?

Yes, but it will not be opaque like you might expect.

- What will it look like?

Sort of whitish blue and blotchy and with a bit of ink squeeze on the edges.

- Oh, why doesn’t it just print white?

Opaque white ink for letterpress and offset printing is actually not very opaque.

- Why is there ink squeeze?

A thicker film of ink must be run on press to achieve any sort of opacity. When the ink is run thick on letterpress, you get ink squeezing out at the edge of the artwork.

- Can you do anything to get it to print up better?

We can run the paper through twice. The first pass is run with almost no ink and heavy impression. The second pass is run with heavy ink and just a kiss impression. This allows the white ink to sit right on the surface of the paper. It is not a very nice bright white, more of a blueish white.

- Does twice through the press mean I’ll pay more?

Of course.

- What do you recommend?

Print a metallic ink. Unlike opaque white ink, metallic ink is actually opaque. One hit of metallic ink can get good coverage on dark colored stock. A double pass of the metallic ink can even offer a nice sheen.

- How about yellow or pink, will that work on black paper?

Nope, this goes for all inks of a lighter color printing on darker colored stock. The stock affects the color of the ink. Colors printing on dark colored papers will not be opaque.

- How can I know what my ink color will look like printed on a colored paper.

We recommend using the “multiple” filter in Adobe Illustrator. It isn’t a perfect match but does give a good approximation.

- Is there another printing method that can print opaque white?

Silkscreen Printing – but small details can suffer.

Foil Stamping – but small details can suffer.

Engraving – but the size and nature of the artwork is limited. And the cost is $$$.

- Can you engrave it for me?

We do only letterpress printing services and some small foil stamping work. We do not do engraving. We partner with another vendor for engraving services when there is engraving combined with letterpress printing.

- Hmm, maybe metallic ink will work for me…

Great, we are glad you understand!

Published on March 2, 2009 in News. 9 Comments Tags: black letterpress, black paper, Business Cards, card, colored, double, engrave, engraving, foil stamping, foiling, ink, letterpress services, metallic, minneapolis, opaque, silver, stationery, stock, tip, white.