Monthly Archive for March, 2010

Come Visit Us – Open Studio Invitation

On Friday, April 9th begining at 4 PM we are having an Open Letterpress Studio. Come and visit, get out of the office early, bring a friend for a delicious brew of design and letterpress here at Studio On Fire. If you like grilled butchers shop hot dogs, some local brews and other treats, than this is good way to start your Friday night. See all our letterpress beasts and the now famous wall of beer cans. Our “new” 1950′s Swiss Geitz Platen press is suppose to arrive from Germany just in time for the event. We’ll have lots of letterpress samples to look at and a project on press with a print for you to take away. Plus we will have a new tee shirt for sale. (preview below) Hope to see you there.

We are at:

1621 East Hennepin Avenue #226 Minneapolis MN 55414

Enter the building on 16th Avenue SE and proceed to the second floor.

Call 612 379 3000 if you get turned around.

Drop a comment if you are excited to visit.

Published on March 31, 2010 in Letterpress and News. 9 Comments Tags: beer, brew, Design, hot dogs, Letterpress, minneapolis, minnesota, open studio, party, t shirt, tee shirt, tshirt.

Away We Go – Lots Of Letterpress Ink

This invitation designed by the groom Tyler Thiessen at Neuhaus Design and illustrated by bride Jessie Turner makes their wedding invitation into a fresh art print. It is nice to see a wedding invitation that is illustration centric versus type heavy. They put all the text on the web. You can check out the couples wedding website here.

The illustration is simple with just a little overprinting of bright red and light blue inks. Most of the artwork knocks out, requiring very tight register. (like the blue dotted lines on the hot air ballon.) It is printed on Crane Lettra Flo. White 110lbC The card is like a small poster and folds up to a 5.5 x 5.5 square.

We won’t mince words, this was a hard invitation to print with letterpress. Registration was tight, and the paper does stretch with heavy impression over a solid graphic area. Plus, large areas of solid color are not ideal for letterpress. Letterpress is definitely not like screen printing these kind of solid colors. Most letterpress equipment will not be able to handle this kind of press work. We printed this one on a Heidelberg Cylinder that has the impressional strength to lay down some pressure. Chances are if you send an invitation our way with a lot of ink going down you will get an email with our handy disclaimer that goes something like this. Once all this is understood we can move to press. And as you can see, we DO print areas of solid color and it can turn out very beautiful. Just realize there WILL be variation within the job that is inherent to printing this type of work with letterpress.

Published on March 30, 2010 in Letterpress, Printing Tips and Tricks and Wedding. 5 Comments Tags: 110lb, area, art print, blue, canada, color, flo white, Heidelberg, hot air ballon, illustration, impression, ink, invitation, invite, Letterpress, lettra, neuhaus design, poster, red, register, solid, square, tyler thiessen, Wedding.

Blind (inkless) Letterpress Business Card

These cards, designed by Jacob Ward have a heavy blind (inkless) letterpress impression on one side and black ink on the other. A blind hit needs a substantial amount of impression since it is relying only on the change in paper surface without any ink color to define the graphic. The large type size really pops on this card. If you have a good monitor and click through the pics below, you can see that even on a 220lb cotton stock there can be small amount of impression show through on the reverse side.

Published on March 25, 2010 in Business Cards and Letterpress. 1 Comment Tags: 220lb, blind, business card, cotton, crane, flo white, impression, inkless, jacob ward, Letterpress, lettra, type, typography.

Vista Caballo Letterpress Stationery

Vista Caballo is a ranch retreat with a special connection to horses in Dove Creek, Colorado. We worked with Thinktopia to design this stationery system for the client. They already had a logo design and needed stationery developed using the existing mark.

One of the things often overlooked in design is the choice of materials. This is something we strive for in our own design work. Material selection can be a central component for building the look and feel of a brand. In this stationery system we use a variety of brown toned papers to compliment the tactility of the letterpress printing and echo the desert landscape of the location. Kind of like making a color palette, instead we made a material palette. Each piece is printed with the same brown PMS color.

Letterhead is French Paper Speckletone Kraft, Envelope is French Paper Speckletone Chocolate, Business cards and Note cards are Crane Lettra Pearl White 220lb, Labels are Strathmore Soft White crack and peel stock, Journal covers are Fibermark Suedetex Tan 25pt with Smart Genesis Husk 70lbT gutt.

Richness of materials makes this stationery unique.

Published on March 24, 2010 in Client Focus, Design and Letterpress. 9 Comments Tags: 220lb, brown, Business Cards, chocolate, CO, colorado, crane, Design, die cut, diecut, dove creek, fibermark, french paper, genesis, husk, kiss cut, kisscut, kraft, label, labels, Letterpress, lettra, material, palette, paper, pearl white, printing, recycled, smart papers, Speckletone, stickers, strathmore, suedetex, tan, thinktopia, unique, vista caballo.

Mexico Wedding Illustration

This illustrated wedding invitation was influenced by the ultra baroque style of the church location for the marriage ceremony. Federico Jordan designed and illustrated in his unique graphic style. The event will be in the colonial city of San Luis Potosí. The Templo del Carmen was build in 1741 and looks amazing. Inside there is a small chapel know as Capilla de Nuestra señora del Carmen where the brides ancestors are buried.

The card is letterpress printed on Gruppo Cordenons, Canaletto Grana Grossa Bianco 111lbC.

We’ve also worked with Federico in the past on a little illustration promo card with a character that comes apart like a nesting matryoshka doll, with balls. Check out another post about the insane Shakespearian Thinktopia poster we printed, also illustrated by Federico.

Published on March 23, 2010 in Letterpress and Wedding. 1 Comment Tags: 111lbC, bride, canaletto, card, federico jordan, graphic, illustration, illustrator, invite, Letterpress, matryoshka doll, mexico, san luis, templo del carmen, ultra baroque, wedding invitation.

Squarespace Poster and Business Cards

The simplest looking things can be deceptively complex. This is a tricky little business card and a typographic poster for Squarespace New York. Designed by their Creative Director Tyler Thompson. The design shows restraint, making the logo treatment the hero. And the format is a square card of course.

So why is the business card tricky? It is custom duplexed stock, letterpress printed, laser die cut and edge colored. We custom duplexed Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb Cover up to a 220lb thickness. Then we letterpress printed them several up on a press sheet. A larger press sheet means we can economize the laser cutting by doing more at a time. The laser cutting can leave some scorch marks, so the sheet is masked with a paper tape that peels off after the cutting is complete. Then the sheet is trimmed up into cards and edge colored in black. That 220lb thickness shows off the edge and has a nice smooth surface. The poster is on Crane Lettra 110lb Flo white, pressed in a single PMS blue.

Published on March 17, 2010 in Business Cards, Letterpress and Posters. 10 Comments Tags: 220lb, business card, Business Cards, die cut, die cutting, diecut, duplex, edge, edge color, laser, laser cutting, Letterpress, masked, masking, neenah, new york, pasted, poster, scorch, simple, square space, squarespace, tyler thompson, type, typographic.

200 Year Calendar

This wonderfully typographic calendar is the work of Sonner, Vallée u. Partner in Munich, Germany. It is a true information architecture project, letterpress printed on thick cotton paper. Check out their online portfolio for some crisp and polished typographic excellence.

We printed on Crane Lettra Pearl White 220lb (600gsm) cotton stock in two colors -with deep impression text you can’t help but touch. The sheet is a large 420 x 297 mm.

Published on March 16, 2010 in Letterpress. 4 Comments Tags: 200 year, 220lb, 600gsm, calendar, crane, DE, deep impression, Design, german, germany, kalendar, large sheet, Letterpress, lettra, munchen, munich, pearl white, printer, printing, two hundred, type, typography.

Arzu Studio Hope Letterpress Stationery

With beautiful pattern and subtlety, Jeff at Telemetry Studio designed this identity and stationery system for Arzu Studio Hope. Started by a former Goldman Sachs partner, Arzu is a social entrepreneurship company that works at a grassroots level to better the lives of women in Afghanistan.

We letterpress printed multiple elements for this stationery system using gray ink and contaminated opaque white ink on Neenah Classic Crest papers. The business cards are 165lb Solar White, a smooth stock with a with enough thickness for some impression on both sides with minimal show through. We printed on pre-converted envelopes opening the flaps, printing envelope face and flap at the same time, allowing the pattern to wrap from front to back. The pressed pattern in this system is elegant and understated, creating real tactile inspiration.

Published on March 10, 2010 in Business Cards. 1 Comment Tags: #10, 165lb, afghanistan, arzu, Business Cards, envelope, florida, ink, letterhead, Letterpress, neenah, pattern, printing, rugs, social entrepreneurship, stationary, stationery, studio hope, telemetry studio, white.

Katie Kirk – Office Letterpress Print

Katie Kirk illustrated this fantastic little print to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Eight Hour Day. You can buy one of the edition in their etsy shop.

We printed it in two color letterpress on French Paper Muscletone Pure White 140lb C, at an 8.5 x 11 size.

Published on March 9, 2010 in Letterpress and Posters. 0 Comments Tags: 140lb, Design, edition, eight hour day, eighthourday, french, gray, illustration, illustrator, katie kirk, Letterpress, minneapolis, minnesota, muscletone, office, press, print, two color, yellow.

Feast Mpls Poster – Split Fountain Ink

Feast is a recurring public dinner designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund new and emerging artmakers. We did a poster for the upcoming event here at Studio On Fire. The size is 18 x 24. It was a hand drawn sketch, scanned and converted to a bitmap tiff to preserve the sketch texture. It was printed with a split ink fountain. Our split fountain had fluorescent orange ink on one side of the press and light blue ink on the other side, creating a nice purple gradient in the middle.

Published on March 8, 2010 in Design, Posters and Printing Tips and Tricks. 1 Comment Tags: arts, blue, community, day-glo, Design, drawing, drawn, effect, feast, feastmpls, fluorescent, format, fountain, gradient, ink, large, Letterpress, minneapolis, minnesota, orange, poster, print, printer, seward, size, sketch, split.

Augmented Reality Drink Coaster

This seems like a good Friday post – drink coasters. And not just any drink coasters, augmented reality drink coasters designed by our friends at Atomic Playpen. These ephemera inspired coasters were sent out to Atomic clients in a metal case. There are four coasters inside, each with a different marker on the back side. The instructions direct you to their anniversary website where you hold up one of the markers to your webcam and enjoy the action. (If you don’t have a coaster from Atomic, you can still print a marker at the site and give it a try.)

We letterpress printed them on 60pt blotter board with very dense black ink coverage so the marker would work properly. The sheet was then die cut into the four coasters. So cheers, we’ll have another round and add it to our beer wall.

Published on March 5, 2010 in Letterpress. 0 Comments Tags: anniversary, atomic playpen, augmented reality, blotter, blotter stock, board, cd case, cheers, coasters, dense black, die cut, diecut, drink, ephemera, ink, Letterpress, marker, metal case, printed, printing, round corners, ten years.

Sublimio Unique Design Formula Cards

Sublimio is a multidisciplinary design studio in Italy. They designed these cards for an engaging visual and tactile design experience.

We printed a larger message card and business cards. The message card is very subtle with a blind impression only on 110lb Crane Lettra stock. The business cards use blind impression on one side and black on the other, completed with black edge coloring. They are on 220lb Crane Lettra.

“Show Through” is a term we use to describe heavy impression from printing one side of the paper bruising the sheet and showing small distortions on the reverse side. Show through is an important consideration when a design will be letterpress printed. The double thick 220 lb Lettra is great for a project that is a two sided design because it offers virtually no show through. Note that “virtually” is a key word here. If a heavy impression is desired, there will be some show through. Generally the thicker the paper, the more minimal the show through. But even with a thick stock, impression can knock back the impression from a previously printed side affecting its appearance. In the case of this business card we printed the flood of blind pattern first with heavier impression, then the black text side of the card with a bit less impression. Balancing this impression on a two sided design depends on the nature of artwork being printed. Talk with us early in the design process to work through these production decisions.