Beast Pieces

Thinner, yet sculptural.

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:36:41 +0000

A new product we’ve been asking for (for several years) has finally arrived. Crane Lettra is now available as a 90lb cover stock that is thick, but not so thick, and good for duplexing.

Being the paper nerds that we are, we busted out our calipers to compare the thickness of duplexed Lettra stocks. Our 220lb Lettra stock calipers at .039″ (40pt) and the new 180lb cover stock calipers at .031″ (30pt), roughly a 25% reduction. Available in fluorescent white, pearl white and ecru, we’ve added this to our list of preferred house stocks.

Our first project to hit press with this new stock was for director Nathaniel Freeman. Letterpress printed with a navy ink and a custom varnish, the 90lb pearl white stock was duplexed after printing–concealing the impression show through in the center of the card. The finished product features a nice sculptural impression, but with slightly less bulk to the card.

Sundae & Wiener Poster Pair

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:41:04 +0000

With warmer weather starting to slide in, we designed this pair of prints to celebrate summer’s tastiest treats. Featuring wieners (tube steaks, anyone?) and ice cream sundaes, these were printed with three inks on French Poptone Whipped Cream 140C.

Sorry, we can’t split the set, only sold as a combo meal. Available in our shop.

Kate Arends Wedding Roundup

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:03:17 +0000

We’ve had the pleasure of printing several wedding suites designed by local Minneapolis creative Kate Arends. A full-time designer over at Cue, Kate also freelances and does a beautiful job curating her blog Wit + Delight.

Sized to fit in preexisting #10 envelope, the first suite is printed with three inks on Neenah Classic Crest Natural white 165C with a flash of metallic gold edge coloring. No checkboxes in sight, the RSVP is cleverly designed as one card perforated down the middle–allowing the guest to respond with a hearty “YES” response card or use the alternate “Regretfully Decline” postcard.

We love the bold graphic nature, humorous wording and great use of an inline font on this second suite. Printed on French Poptone Sweet Tooth 140C, the invitation card scores twice to z-fold into the envelope. Though the cards use only black ink, the fluorescent green envelope, Mohawk’s BridteHue in UltraLime, adds a punch of color.

Update // See Jon and Alecia’s entire wedding over on 100 Layer Cake.

Lastly, there’s a wedding suite and save the date Kate designed for an Australian bride out of Adelaide. Filled with elegant typographic lockups and textured backgrounds, this was printed with gold ink on French Poptone Whipped Cream 140C .

Black Arts Apparel

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:29:11 +0000

For those of you who might not know, printing has a pretty shady past. At one point it was considered the work of Satan (how else could you explain being able to reproduce the Bible so easily?), which is how the profession earned the nickname the “Black Arts.” In full disclosure, there are some who claim this moniker came about because printers were often covered with black ink. Could be, but we like to believe the story with a bit more mystery behind it.

Enter the newest addition to the Studio On Fire shop: our homage to the black arts. Silver ink on a 100% cotton black tee shirt, this is a perfect purchase for anyone wanting rock a little bit of printing history. Buy it here.

Linotype: The Film

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:33:01 +0000

We are proud to be teaming up with AIGA Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas to bring a screening of Linotype: The Film to the Twin Cities. April 13th, 7pm, St. Thomas campus. Be there. Details available over on the AIGA MN website.

“Linotype: The Film” Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.