These letterpress business cards were the perfect fit for web development and design company Ackmann & Dickenson. We like how these guys frame their business as “Craftsmen of Fine Technology”. They designed these cards and we letterpress printed them to reflect craftsmanship.
And this card did require some crafting. We started with the making of a custom duplex paper – 160lb Mohawk Loop Ivory Smooth pasted to French Construction Nightshift Blue 100C – totaling a thick 260lbC card. Next we letterpress printed them with two colors on each side, silver and tonal navy inks on the blue side, then blue and gray inks on the ivory side. We printed a couple 8up forms to meet all the employee name versions needs and then die cut them with small inverted corners. Viva tactility and technology.
Published on
September 2, 2010 in
Business Cards and Letterpress.
Tags: ackmann, blue, business, card, cards, corner, custom, dark, Design, dickenson, die, diecut, duplex, french, gray, heavy, inverted, ivory, Letterpress, mohawk, navy, nightshift, off white, pasted, pattern, quilted, round, soft white, stock, thick, tonal, two sided, web development.
These over sized plaid pattern business cards were designed by our good friend Mark Saunders for his new solo creative venture PlaidLab. They use some great vibrant colors and the overprinting inks make rich and saturated secondary colors.
We letterpress printed them on heavy 220lb Cover Crane Lettra Pearl White. We usually run smaller custom business card orders two cards up on a small press sheet, so it was easy to provide some variety by including two different patterns. The magenta color is the same on both cards, but a color change from orange to blue on one plate gave the cards even more variety. One thing we did to keep the quality of the type crisp and punchy was to print it as a separate pass. By printing the same color in two passes we could run the large graphic plaid with heavy ink density and light ink density on the type. Mark was shooting for something about the size of an iphone, so the final cards were round corner die cut to an over sized 4.5 x 2.25. See comparison pic alongside a standard 3.5 x 2 inch business card for scale.
Published on
August 4, 2010 in
Business Cards and Letterpress.
Tags: 220lb, blue, bright, business card, colorful, crane, die cut, diecut, iphone, large, Letterpress, lettra, magenta, mark sauders, modern, orange, oversize, pearl white, plaidlab, round corners, rounded, scale.
A good narrative is behind good relationships. That’s why a booklet telling a little bit of the couples story is extra special as a wedding invitation. This invitation was designed by Craig Duffney at BBDO in New York for his friends Amy and Adam. He did excellent work making two sets of illustrated capitals and graphics. One corresponds with the bride, the other with the groom and they co-mingle in the invitation layout.
Planning out the production of a little booklet takes some extra finesse beyond the standard wedding stationery. The format here is an A7 size booklet with a soft cover and french folded pages. The cover is a heavier 110lbC Pearl White Crane Lettra. The gutt is lighter weight 80lbT Pearl White Crane Lettra. Both were letterpress printed in two colors, a lighter green corresponding with the bride and an olive green with the groom. The pages were scored, collated and top stitched inside the cover with a cream colored thread. Then a final trim was taken from head and foot. We also produced an RSVP card and matching folding thank you cards. This is certainly among the more elaborate invitations we’ve produced, yet the final appearance remains simple and striking.
Published on
July 29, 2010 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: 110lbC, 80lbT, BBDO, bird, book, booklet, cotton, craig duffney, crane, fold, french fold, icon, invitation, invite, Letterpress, lettra, narrative, pearl white, printing, stitch, stitched, top stitch, typography, Wedding.
Sometimes it’s possible to get an oversize sheet on an undersized platen letterpress. What is important to keep in mind is the distance between the arms on either side of the platen. As long as the sheet is smaller than that dimension, it could fit.
This is a long 4 x 18 inch card that needs to fold in half to 4 x 9 inch and fit into a standard #10 envelope. We are set up in this photo to run a 3 point matrix score, but this works for printing as well. To fit this sheet size onto our 10 x 15 size C&P platen press required a special McGill gauge pin for the side guide that fits between the tympan bail and the side of the platen. It extends beyond the platen and adds the couple inches needed to get the sheet to land inside the working area. It is a good solution to handle smaller hand fed jobs.
These guides came with equipment we purchased several years ago and we can not find more. Although, it could be rigged up from hardware store material pretty easily. If anyone has a source for these guides, please share! Someday we’ll just get a bigger hand fed press, but then there will be an even bigger sheet.
Published on
July 27, 2010 in
Letterpress and Printing Tips and Tricks.
Tags: 10x15, 12x18, 14x22, 6x10, 8x12, brass, C&P, Chandler and Price, gauge pin, Letterpress, matrix score, McGill, newstyle, oldstyle, oversize, paper, pearl, pilot, pin, platen, printer, printing, printing press, rule, sheet, side guide.
Ty Mattson really outdid himself on the design and illustration of these announcements for his son. Beautiful stuff. You can see his post on them here. Be sure and put an eyeball on his other portfolio work as well. This guy knows how to illustrate and take full advantage of simple overprinting – a rare and admirable skill in today’s print design.
The card itself is a large 7.25 inch square print, printed on one side only. We letterpressed these on Crane Lettra 220lb Flo White in bright red and light blue colors. The registration made us a little worried at first, but it did stay true despite the tight fitting and zero trapping.
These business cards are elegant and simple with an unusual format. Although the feel of the design is traditional, the 4.25 x 1.25 inch size presents as an untraditional business card size. The client, William and Mary, makes premium gift wrap collections, so the paper crafting of the printing was very important.
These cards were letterpress printed with 2 ink colors on each side. The cards also have a heavy blind letterpress impression graphic on both sides. This blind area overlaps type on the reverse side. To get an even type appearance and a heavy sculptural impression on both sides we printed a 110lb sheet of Crane Lettra Fluorescent White and pasted it together back to back after printing. By duplexing the stock to a thick 220lb weight after printing the impression show through is eliminated. It is a time consuming and more premium production step, worth it for the final look of these cards. The final step was a round corner die cut.
Published on
June 30, 2010 in
Business Cards and Letterpress.
Tags: 110lb, 220lb, blind, Business Cards, classic, corner, crane, die cut, diecut, duplex, elegant, flo white, flourescent, glue, heavy, impression, Letterpress, lettra, long, narrow, paste, pasting, potdevin, round, slim, traditional, type, typography, unique size.
Studio On Fire is preparing for a massive move. We are moving to a much larger space in the basement of the same building in Northeast Minneapolis. We are adding several new beasts to our new space, just 20 feet down from our current second floor studio. Our 12 x 18 Gietz platen will finally be installed along with a Heidelberg 21 x 28 cylinder press with inking and a larger Polar paper cutter. These machines will enhance our current production space adding new large format letterpress capability.
Production work will continue during the move, but our office life will be turned on it’s ear. Our access to email and our ability to respond to estimate requests during the week of July 6-12th will be limited. We will begin responding to custom printing requests July 13th. If you need an estimate turned more quickly than this please let us know the timing need in your request. If you can get in touch with us this week – even better.
Published on
June 28, 2010 in
Letterpress and News.
Tags: cylinder, gietz, Heidelberg, Letterpress, moving, new beasts, polar, press room, presses, printshop, studio on fire.
These extra fine business cards were designed by Merge Creative and Touchpoint. Once in hand they require a good touching and groping session. They wanted a card with an OMG factor and this is certainly one of the most elaborate cards we’ve put together. The paper stock has a surprising skin-like feel. It is from the Appleton Coated Curious Collection. We custom duplexed the card from two colors. The black side is Skin Black 141lb Cover. That is pasted to Skin White 141lb Cover for a total thickness of 280lb Cover. With that kind of heavy, this card definitely has a thump factor.
Production went something like this… The black stock is hot foil stamped in a clear gloss foil and a mirror finish metallic silver. The white stock is letterpress printed in metallic silver ink. Then the black and white sheets are pasted together in register into a heavy duplex sheet. Those sheets are covered with a protective mask on both sides. The masked sheets are laser cut into the custom shaped business cards and the protective mask is removed.
This was an update to the look and feel of the orange Touchpoint business cards printed over a year ago. Those were on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 165lb. The production of them was elaborate as well. Those cards were offset printed with and orange solid, foil stamped in clear and metallic silver, letterpress printed in silver, masked and laser cut to final size.
Published on
June 28, 2010 in
Business Cards and Letterpress.
Tags: 141lb, 165lb, 280lb, 877, argo wiggins, black, business, Business Cards, card, cards, classic crest, clear, custom, cutting, die cut, diecut, duplex, duplexed, foil, ink, laser, lasercut, Letterpress, Merge Creative, metallic, neenah, offset, orange, rubber, silver, skin, solar white, Touchpoint, white.
What if you received a mailing from a company and it was actually something beautiful? With this card, you could even try planting it. This oversize postcard for Northern Lights Landscaping was designed by WestmorelandFlint and is letterpress printed on a plantable paper containing wildflower seeds. We would say they have easily surpassed the typical beauty threshold of your garden variety direct mail piece.
We letterpress printed this 10 x 5.75 card in two colors. The stock came from our new friends here in the midwest at Porridge Paper. It is their Plantable Seed Paper, Ecotan 110lb Cover, wild flower mix. This paper does produce a beautiful sculptural letterpress impression. A cautionary note on those wildflower seed inclusions – it also makes a really big mess inside the printing press. After running several thousand sheets through the cylinder press four times, we had enough wildflower seeds inside the machine to plant a small meadow. A fun mailer AND good times cleaning up afterwards.
Published on
June 25, 2010 in
Letterpress and Printing Tips and Tricks.
Tags: 110lb, brown, eco, ecotan, flint, garden, inclusions, ink, Letterpress, mess, northern lights landscaping, paper, plantable, planting, porridge, post card, postcard, press, seed, seeded, WestmorelandFlint, wildflower, yellow.
These cards were designed by Brew Creative as part of a brand upgrade for Neve, a premium ski and fashion sportswear company based in Boulder, Colorado.
We letterpress printed these cards on two sides using Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 165lb cover with red and gray inks. The cards are finished in a matching red edge color.
Published on
June 24, 2010 in
Business Cards and Letterpress.
Tags: 165lb, boulder, brand, brew, Business Cards, CO, color, colorado, creative, edge, fashion, Letterpress, minneapolis, neenah, neve, print, red, ski, solar, white.
Designer of luxury stationery Leslie Vega created these business cards for the photographers of Verve Studio. Visit her blog post here for some additional images and details.
These letterpress business cards took us some time in production with six passes through the press. They feature a brown paper imprinted with a woodgrain texture in tonal varnish with the text in a metallic silver ink overprint. The offwhite side of the card is printed in three colors in tight, tight register. The stock is custom duplexed Crane Lettra Pearl White 110lb cover to Wausau Royal Complements Chocolate Truffle 100lb cover. The final card was round corner die cut to size.
Published on
June 23, 2010 in
Business Cards and Letterpress.
Tags: 100lb, 110lb, 877, brown, Business Cards, cards, chocolate, cut, die, diecut, duplex, duplexed, florida, leslie, luxury, metallic, pearl white, photographers, photography, rounded, silver, stationery, texture, the lv studio, tonal, truffle, vega, verve studio, wausau, woodgrain.
This ephemera was designed by the folks at Shine Advertising to dress up a pocket knife mailing sent to their clients as a promotional item. You might ask if that is really letterpress? Yep, actually that’s four color process plus two spot color letterpress printed one pass at a time. That means that lil’ piece of paper went through the presses seven times. (six color passes and a letterpress matrix score) Certainly not a typical use of letterpress, but that’s why it was so fun to print it. Laying down color one at a time means a little guess work as you build the color density for the final image, but fun to watch it unfold. The process printed picture was from CSA stock images and worked pretty well to break out into plates even though it started as a heavily line screened image. The plates were printed with a 90 line per inch screen on Mohawk Loop Husk 160lb Cover.
Also be sure and check out the flash light wrap we printed for Shine last year.
Published on
June 21, 2010 in
Letterpress and packaging.
Tags: 160lb, advertising, art, color, CSA, Design, ephemera, four, heavy, husk, impression, knife, Letterpress, mohawk, packaging, paper, pocket, pocket knife, process, shine, spot, stock, thick, wrap.
