Author Archives: StudioOnFire

Four Friends Letterpress Business Cards - Pt 1

This is a big post with lots of images so be sure and see Part 2 as well.
We’ve been an online friend with French designer Fabien Barrel for a while. He’s been kind enough to show our press work on his Graphic Exchange website. His site is a finely curated collection of designers and projects [...]

Four Friends Letterpress Business Cards - Pt 2

This is part two showing the production of business cards on our Heidelberg Windmill. Be sure and see Part 1 showing the finished cards.
We start with a high resolution film negative. The negative is used to expose the plastic plates. The plates are attached to an aluminum base and placed into the press. The press [...]

Mix Tape Letterpress Wedding Invitations

This invite pumps up the jam with an old school boom box and mix tapes. We love it for it’s fun factor and unique departure from most wedding stationery. The horizontal size is different, the illustration is super fun and the couples initials are even in the speakers of the boom box!

Adam Ramerth at Lark [...]

Affordable Letterpress Wedding Invitations - Part 2

This is a follow up to our post about affordable wedding invites. These invites were designed by the bride and groom Stephanie Mead and Doug Kohnen at Docent Creative. Doug did some beautiful illustrations that turned out stunning on press. We letterpress printed and trimmed the cards for them. They are dense black ink on [...]

Smashing Alphabets Letterpress Poster

Coming soon to an alphabet near you is a typographic mash up. Once again Spunk Design Machine created a simply amazing poster, this time for Chank. Be sure and check him out as he tours the design community.
And getting smashed comes easy for paper on a letterpress. Hot off our big Heidelberg cylinder press, these [...]

Note To Self

I went to Des Moines to judge the ADAI design exhibition. It was a good time with many good people. I gave a presentation about Studio On Fire to the organization and then we hit the bar for an evening filled with beer and bacon and some guy drinking by himself that talked a lot [...]

An Advertising Sleeper Cell

In the spirit of the freemasons, there exists a creative group called Levy 7. Not much is known - they describe themselves as, “a collection of like-minded individuals who, through their awesomeness and grace, elevate the larger group in any and every social and professional endeavor, making us simply the most dynamic advertising sleeper cell/social [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]