Archive for the 'Letterpress' Category
This print is the result of a collaboration between illustrator/painter/art maker Oliver Jeffers and swissmiss’ Tina Roth Eisenberg. Quirky and fun, this three color poster measures out at 11″ x 14,” printed in our Minneapolis studio on Crane Lettra Flo White 110lb cover stock. Does anybody else think popcorn sounds really good right now?
Available for purchase over on Swiss Miss.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of exploring Jessica Hische’s work, you should really go check it out. Her remarkable talent and wit permeates everything she does, a prime example being this poster she designed last year asking the age old question “should i work for free?” Every designer has asked themselves this at some point and Jessica has taken the time to break it down for you in this FIVE color poster she had us letterpress. Printed on Crane Lettra Flo White 110c (one of our house stocks), each 15″ x 25″ print is signed and editioned. Available for purchase in Jessica’s store.
Another side project Jessica produced is inkerlinker, a site dedicated to finding an awesome printer to fit your needs. We’re pretty pumped about the love people have shown us on the site and always enjoy reading the comments people leave. Go ahead and “like” us… you know you want to.
Who can resist a wedding invitation with flamingos? We can’t, that’s for sure. Designer Scott Peiffer created this elegant, yet whimsical, wedding suite we printed for an upcoming Miami wedding. There are a lot of pieces to this system, similar to the suite Scott designed for his own wedding we printed a couple years back, but each card effortlessly coordinates without being matchy-matchy.
All of the cards, along with the belly band, were printed together on one press sheet with two inks on Crane Lettra Pearl White 110c. The pattern on the folder was created by using one tonal ink on Arturo Pale Pink 260gsm. The folder was custom diecut and hand assembled after printing.
Hard Graft, it literally means “Hard Work,” and boy does this European company live up to their name. Makers of beautifully designed and handcrafted gadget cases, this duo (one English, one Austrian) has a passion for what they do–and it shows. From designing the products and tracking down the finest italian craftsman (they used to make every single item themselves), to packing each order by hand, they are involved in every aspect of their business. We’re actually surprised they don’t have sheep in their back yard (then again, for all we know, maybe they do). Moral of the story–they care, these are the kind of people we love to work with.
To complement their 100% wool felt and leather goods, they designed noted cards, merchandise cards and labels for us to produce. The note card and angular merchandise cards were printed on 60pt Ahlstrom Blotter, which is what we traditionally recommend for coasters. Though the outcome is beautiful, these items were a challenge to run on press. Whenever you run a flood of color alongside fine type you will constantly have to fight to keep the text crisp while still making the flood of color as solid as possible. This project was especially tricky because the blotter stock is notoriously challenging to run solid areas of color on, there is no avoiding what we call a “salty” result–luckily this was the look they were going for. They were finished with a custom diecut, which helps the cards tuck tightly into felt pockets prior to shipping (see the picture below that Hard Graft was nice enough to send over of the cards in use).
The labels were printed on Strathmore Soft White label stock, receiving a kiss-cut after printing, allowing them to easily peel off the backing sheet.
Still working on your holiday shopping? No worries, we’re here for you. Just this morning we added yet another new item to our shop, the Buzzed & Fuzzed Print Set. Give them as a pair or break them apart to give to your boozy best friend and highly caffeinated little sister.
Printed with three inks (brown, yellow and a tonal warm gray) on Wausau Royal Compliments Natural White 100c, each print measures 12.625″ x 9.625.”
Just want one? Too bad, they only come as a set. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter for an exclusive discount promo code.
Published on December 14, 2011 in Design, Letterpress, Posters and Studio On Fire Products. 0 Comments
This is a post not for admirers of letterpress products, but for the folks actually doing letterpress printing. Crafting high quality work is all about the details. Sometimes the littlest things make a really big difference. The black arts ain’t always easy. In order to letterpress print professionally you need the right tools for the job. These are some of the things that we use daily in our shop. Individual items range in cost from $5 to $60. Granted, they are not items found in letterpress shops a hundred years ago, but that is a bonus you get for being a letterpress printer in the age of the glowing screen.
1. Schaedler Combo Ruler
This ruler is used across every step of production in our shop. It has really tiny increments. So small that you can measure the lines on your typical ruler. They have it all on this one ruler: points, picas, metric, standard and decimal inches.
2. Depth Ruler
This is the perfect tool to quickly square up your artwork to the press sheet. We don’t use them for increments. We use them as a tool to slide the gauge and compare side to side on a press sheet.
3. Digital Thickness Gauge
To adjust impression and do proper makeready you have to KNOW exactly what thickness you are putting in the press and adjust your packing accordingly. This is the tool to do just that. Find the overall thickness of materials in metric and decimal inches.
4. #99 Heidelberg GTO Suckers
These will change your life if you run Heidelberg letterpresses. They are specifically useful if you have ever struggled with warping, wavy cover stock or heavy board stock. The accordion body on these offer a little additional reach beyond the disc type suckers, without double sheeting. We use them on both Heidelberg Original Cylinders and Heidelberg Windmills.
5. Dogwood Coffee
Drinking on the job is almost a requirement in our shop. For consistently great coffee we love the micro-roasted batches from Dogwood Coffee. It’s a daily ritual from folks that embrace craft like we do. They have sweet little holiday brewing bundles available on their site.
6. Linen Tester Magnifier
See what is going on on your press sheet close up. You can then more quickly diagnose your print issues. Overinking, plate problem, impression, etc. We like the open body style of the folding linen tester magnifiers.
7. LED Magnetic Flex Light
Have a hard time seeing an enclosed part? Ever drop something inside a press. We have. This bright little light is perfectly small and has a magnetic base to keep your hands free.
8. Precision Oiler
We use a heavy weight press oil in this little guy to get a precision drop of oil right where it needs to go. Perfect for oiling the small parts around feeding and delivery, especially on Heidelberg Windmills.
9. Rosin Bag
Originally a product used to add gripping precision in many sports, this little bag works well to add some stick to the rails your roller trucks ride on. Gets rid of that pesky little ghosting start mark by slapping this sack on your rails a few time. This is an especially good tip for Heidelberg Windmills.
10. Super Soap
Sometimes is feels so good to be dirty. But to handle cotton paper you better get clean. This soap is easy on the hands and has a little sawdust grit for scrubbing action.
11. Teamster Shop Apron
This is one mother of an apron. This is an extra long apron that We love the split leg design that allows you to get up and down to worship your iron beast.
12. Pressroom Creed Poster
If you want your studio visitors to better understand your letterpress neurosis, hang this in your shop. (yes, this is a shameless promotion of our own product) It is a 13 x 20 sheet size, heavy 220lb cotton stock. “This is my printing press. There are many like it, but this one is mine…”
Yael Miller, from Miller Creative, designed these gorgeous business cards for Olli Salumeria, a salumeria that makes dry-cured salumi in Virginia. Though the outcome is, dare we say stunning, these cards posed several production challenges along the way.
As a general rule, we don’t suggest using letterpress when the design uses floods of color and require clients to agree to our Solid Areas Disclaimer before we will proceed with their job. To achieve a nice solid coverage of color we had to run the ink heavy across the card, thankfully we had added some additional stroke weight to the artwork in the pre-press stage so the line work would not fill in on press. Another trick we used was lightly wetting the sheet before running- this cuts down on the appearance of saltiness and variation across the color.
Flood aside, take a look at that red. Yael refers to it as “Ferrari red,” and we can’t say that we disagree. The design actually specified a Pantone GOE color, which is not a Pantone book we match to, but since we custom mix all of our colors we were able to match a swatch that was mailed in for reference. We took one of our base red inks and pumped it up with a hit of fluorescent red to really get the color to pop.
These cards are printed on Crane Lettra 110lb cover that we custom duplexed after printing to make 220lb. By duplexing after printing we were able to run the flood without completely flattening the text on the other side of the card (not to mention we love any excuse to make a business card thicker). A custom diecut, shaped to reference a ticket or label, finished off the cards in an unexpected, yet refined way.
This project can also be found on FPO, DesignWorkLife, and Miller Creative.
Published on December 6, 2011 in Business Cards, Letterpress and Printing Tips and Tricks. 3 Comments
Local Minneapolis designers Ned Wright and Laura Belle were married a couple months back in a small backyard ceremony. Both being designers, it makes sense that they started their journey as man and wife by collaboratively designing the invitations for their big day.
Comprised of a main invitation card and an additional information card, this wedding suite combines unusual materials and several print processes. The main invitation is an oversized card (7.5″ x 10.5″) of 145 lb French Packing Board we custom duplexed to 100 lb Wausau Royal Complements Eclipse black cover stock. Studio On Fire letterpress printed the text on one side and then sent the piece off for foiling (white and black) on both sides.
The information card was also oversized (10.5″ x 15″) printed on one of our house stocks, Crane Lettra Pearl White 110C. Black ink is used on both sides, with an additional tonal ink used to create visual texture on the outside of the card. Once the card had completed printing it received several score and perforation lines, allowing the RSVP to be separated and returned.
As a special bonus, the couple had a great video made of their wedding weekend that they agreed to share.
You may have noticed on your way to purchase a 2012 Studio On Fire Letterpress Calendar that studioonfire.com has a completely overhauled look! We’re pretty proud of the new site and have plans to add more features in the coming weeks.
Being the paper-oriented people that we are, our friends over at westwerk design handled the creation of the site for us. Not only were they were great to work with, but their studio is conveniently located just upstairs from our basement workspace.
Along with the new site is additional merchandise for the store! All of our classic items are still available, as well as the 2012 calendar and several new posters.
Above: Artisan Activist Poster, Crane Lettra Flo White 110C, 13″ x 19″, 2 Color Split Fountain on 2 Separate Plates + 1 Tonal Varnish
Above: Sunshine Poster, Crane Lettra Flo White 110c, 12″ x 16″, 3 Color Split Fountain
Above: Matter Into Spirit Poster, Crane Lettra Flo White 110c, 13″ x 20″, 2 Color Split Fountain + Blind Impression
It’s done! It’s in the shop! Hurrah!
Around the shop our annual calendar project is a staff favorite. We pick a theme, build our a color palette, select paper stocks and ask some talented folks to join us in creating this monthly desktop calendar. As always, we designed two months and were joined by both new and old friends to round out the roster of illustrators: Missy Austin, Brian Gunderson, Dipped in Acid, Jolby and Tuesday Bassen.
This year the theme is the Positive Apocalypse, since we figure there must be an upside to our (supposed) impending doom. A few gems found throughout the pages include brain-feasting zombies, a yeti, transfigured animals, Earth being devoured and a rainbow explosion.
The calendar is printed all together on a large 26 x 20 size press sheet. It is trimmed down into 12 months on 3.25 x 5 inch cards. This year, the paper for the months and the outer wrap was a soft white Crane Lettra Pearl White 110lb cover. We designed the tri fold outer wrap by stealing bits and pieces from the interior illustrations, arranging them in a long strip to be trimmed off the overall press sheet and later used for the packaging.
The stand was a custom duplexed paper made from light green Mohawk Loop Antique Vellum Thai Gold and teal Cordenons So…Silk Glamour Green 130lb C paper stocks. Our easel stand design has a clever fold-out angled leg that reveals a peek of the inner metallic paper color. The green stock is letterpress printed with one tonal ink after duplexing before we custom diecut and hand assemble.
Perky Bros recently sent this gem of a stationery system our way. You may remember the gorgeous typographic and woodgrain wedding invitations we printed for Jeff a couple years back and we’re happy to share another one of his projects that’s fresh off the press.
This stationery system for BEDROC is a great example of how a designer can curate a combination of materials to support the overall design aesthetic of their project. The business cards are printed on Neenah Classic Crest Slate 80lb cover custom duplexed to Neenah Classic Crest Recycled Natural White 100lb cover. A subtle tonal letterpress varnish graces both sides of the card with an additional ink for the contact information. A zing of copper metallic on all 4 edges incorporates an element of elegance. Notecards are printed on Neenah Classic Crest Recycled 100 Natural White 80C, custom duplexed to make 160C, share the same ink colors and also show off that metallic edge. The letterhead, on Neenah Classic Crest Recycled Natural White 80lb text, and envelope, on Neenah Classic Crest Antique Gray 24W, round out the system using 2 inks that are common to the rest of the materials.
