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.
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.
So often, what we do for our clients in the graphic design profession is disconnected from personal passions. This project managed to combine both food and design values. The food our family eats falls into a traditional foods diet, as recommended by the Weston Price Foundation. Which is why we were especially excited when Rebecca and Ross Williams asked us for business cards for their new adventure called Many Fold Farms. Their must-read blog is smartly written and shows a true passion for food and land. I’ve been learning about fine cheese and feeling a bit envious of their farming adventure.
This was both a design and print project for us, which is where our company can truly shine. Not that we don’t love printing the custom work of other designers and collaborating in the production process. We also love owning a design project from concept through production completion.
The design for the logotype merges custom 19th century inspired decorative capitals with slab serifs. We combined typographic texture with a folk inspired pierced tin borders and an inverted round corner die cut. The letterpress printing is on Crane Lettra Ecru (Ivory) 220lb Cover stock for a thick and soft feel in a nice warm color. We produced two different sizes – an oversized card with farm information and a smaller card with personal contact info.
Published on
February 12, 2010 in
Business Cards, Client Focus, Design and Letterpress.
Tags: 19th century, 220lb, artisan, Business Cards, calling card, cards, cheese, cotton, Design, die cut, diecut, ecru, ephemera, farm, identity, lamb, Letterpress, many fold farm, pierce, punch, sheep, the dirty way, tin, type, typography, weston price.
Conrad Lim, a photographer out of LA, had some ideas for an identity and we made it happen. He was pretty darn excited that the letters R-A-D were smack dab in the center of his name so it was pretty clear where we needed to go with it.
Published on
November 19, 2009 in
Business Cards, Client Focus, Design and Letterpress.
Tags: business card, camera, card, conrad, heavy, icon, ink, Letterpress, lettra, paper stock, photo, photographer, photography, rad, red, type, typography.
Here’s a sweet little run we just finished up for Mauseth Design out of Hoboken, New Jersey. They came up with this set of faux business cards with fake names and numbers for those certain instances where you just- well, where you just could use one of these little guys (e.g. Clubs, Bars, Lounges, Coffee Shops, Class Reunions, Chinese Restaurants and Traffic Stops).
Published on
July 21, 2009 in
Client Focus, Letterpress and News.
Tags: 130lb Manadanack astrolite PC 100, Business Cards, funny, illustration, Letterpress, perf, perforated, post consumer, recycled, three color.
Fresh cards sent in from the good dudes at LovelyMPLS (who’ve got a real solid portfolio of design/screenprinted work). Two color print with ultra-bright day-glo pink and metallic silver on the good old 220lb Crane Lettra make for a very impressive and striking card, to say the least.
Check out that fine pattern work on the back- the envelope really got pushed with this one. A bunch of that line work is 1/4 point thick (literally as thick as a hair), tapering down, and on top of that the thing’s are reversed out!
Published on
June 8, 2009 in
Client Focus and Letterpress.
Tags: 220lb, day-glow, flourescent pink, Hairline, letterpressed, lettra, Linework, LovelyMPLS, metallic ink, pattern, registration, Reversed Out, tight.
It started back in high school art class. I was a junior and there was this senior that sat in the back doing pottery and was always throwing frickin’ balls of clay at my head while I was trying to draw. Fast forward over a decade and both of us have design careers. Me – running my design/letterpress studio and he (Jason Strong, or Bone as some people call him) is a design director over at Space150. He called me up and invited me to be a guest designer on a Space150 identity system version.
Now what you must understand about Space150 is that they redo their entire identity every 150 days. The WHOLE thing – business papers, website, mission statement, etc.
Our studio gladly accepted the assignment to design version 16 with letterpress printing for the full system. Version 16 was such a success that we were invited back to create and letterpress print version 17 as well. They moved off of letterpress for version 18 and almost had a mutiny because everyone became attached to their letterpress business cards. And believe me those new media folks really know how to throw down a mutiny. So version 19, 20, 21 and the current version 22 are all produced by Studio On Fire with letterpress printing, laser cutting, etc. Space 150 has designed 19-22 in house with their own killer designers, Ned Wright and Dan Jenstad.
It is our hope that this set of business cards represents a very different sort of letterpress printing and approach to commercial production. Studio On Fire is not tied to the historical visual baggage of letterpress. We try to take a little vintage and a little modern and mix it together with mad production skills. In the end, these cards land in peoples hand with a sense of wonder – and that is what good design and production is all about. Enjoy…
Please contact us for your next challenging print project. We thrive on working with other creatives to produce award winning design.
Oh, and Jason, just you wait. I’ve got some clay balls saved up for next time we meet. Unless we can settle this like gentleman?
When our letterpress printing client at Electric Fusion handed out one of his new business cards, almost a year later he saw a project come in because someone remembered his card and held onto it. Here’s a note just in from our client:
“I hope all is well. I wanted to share a story about a new client and project I just landed. My client told me that part of the reason they remembered me (in addition to my sparkling personality) was the business card. So, thanks — I dig having a memorable card!”
At a time when virtually every industry is struggling, letterpress is bringing business in the door. The tactile quality of letterpress is about creating something memorable that literally buys a few extra seconds in the hands of a recipient. Appealing to both sight and touch senses helps create that memory. We thought it was sweet that someone doing web application programming wanted letterpress business cards. What could be more opposite than letterpress? But we know it works, and not just for creatives. As creative professionals, we all have our little bin labeled “cool business card samples” don’t we? It’s important to remember that the “cool business card” reaches beyond us as creatives and has some very practical business realities. So, why haven’t you contacted us to letterpress print your project yet?
Wedding photographer Craig J.Stodola wanted a card with a memorable thump factor. This one is printed on 60pt blotter. And take a look at the edge coloring. After we printed a Pantone color, we color matched the edges to the face of the card.
Our friends at Mucca and Darden Studio sent this project our way. Darden typefaces are beautiful in utility with details that aren’t overworked. They are masters at creating a unique typographic voice. And letterpress printing just makes type that much sweeter.
Sakura Bloom, a best in category baby carrier brand reinvents themselves with design and letterpress.
Continue reading ‘The Modern Art of Babywearing’
