Beast Pieces

Beautifully Patterned Business Cards

These beautifully patterned, slightly oversized, cards for Julie Dasher Rugs were created by Minneapolis designer Laurie DeMartino. With a common brown and yellow footer on each card, each rug inspired pattern features a different color from Julie’s brand identity. The reverse of each card shares a common pattern with the front, but is printed using a tonal varnish, allowing the contact information along the bottom to spring forward as the focal point.

Letterpress printed on French Poptone Whipped Cream 140C, custom duplexed after printing to make 280C.

Published on July 9, 2012 in Business Cards and Letterpress. 4 Comments Tags: 100c, 200c, custom duplex after printing, custom letterpress, french paper, french poptone, Letterpress, poptone, tonal varnish, varnish, whipped cream.

Wondermade Marshmallow Packaging

Heads of State designed this identity and packaging for newly launched artisan confectioners Wondermade. They wanted this truly tasty marshmallow treat to be bold and fantastic on the crowded shelves at confection stores. With a unique assortment of flavors Wondermade needed a really special little box.

We letterpress printed this packaging assortment on French Papers. Using Speckletone Madero Beach 80lbC custom duplexed to six different Poptone 65lbC colors we achieved a 145lbC hefty box, still able to pack flat and fold up sturdy. On press, we used the same plates for all the boxes, just adding a color wash up on the diagonal strip plate as we rotated through the Poptone colors. That way the outside and inside of the package coordinate and the colors can be matched up with flavors. The boxes are sealed with a digitally printed label that Wondermade can add as they create new flavors. We think the letterpress craft of these boxes makes the ritual of opening and enjoying even more special. You should try them now.

Published on June 28, 2012 in Letterpress and packaging. 3 Comments Tags: 145lbc, 65lb, 80lb, artisan, box, carton, confection, die cut, diecut, duplex, florida, foodie, french, madero beach, package, pasted, pasting, poptone.

Venn Diagram Wedding

This suite, designed for Lindsay and Ben by their good friend Nicolas Carbonaro, is a great example of how to utilize overprinting inks. Since letterpress inks are not opaque, with the exception of metallics, a third color is created wherever two colors overlap–and in this instance, creating a great visual metaphor for love.

Another thing to note is the heavy ink coverage throughout the suite, so we required acknowledgment of our solid areas disclaimer before we proceeded into production. Printed with two inks, along with a blind pass, on Mohwak Loop Ivory Smooth 160c, the cards were duplexed after printing to create a hefty 320c stock.

Oh So Beautiful Paper also featured these, be sure to pop over to check out some additional pictures of the complete suite.

Published on June 26, 2012 in Letterpress and Wedding. 1 Comment Tags: 160c, 320c, blind, custom duplex, custom letterpress, duplex, ivory, mohawk, mohawk loop, overprinting, smooth, two inks, wedding suite.

A Collection of Radii

Designed for the ARTCRANK MSP 2012 show, our newest poster is an ode to all the radial objects in our life. With a bicycle wheel at the hub of the design, a hindu goddess, a space station and even a nipple made it on to the final print (not to be confused with the aureole that also appears, but we digress).

These were printed on one of our six Heidelberg cylinder presses (insert bragging here) on Crane Lettra Flo White 110c stock with one ink. Every print also got a blind hit of our studio seal, which required a second inkless run through the press.

Yes, you can buy one in our store.

Published on June 25, 2012 in Design and Studio On Fire Products. 1 Comment Tags: 110c, ARTCRANK, blind, crane lettra, custom printing, flo white, house stock, inkless, Letterpress, minneapolis, one ink, poster.

Vintage Vehicle Logotypes

We believe a logo is at its best with a little dimension. Combine typography and machines and you have yourself a real shindig. The custom lettering adorning the sides vintage vehicles is a design category all to itself. At this weekends “Back to the 50′s” car show at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds, we collected this gallery of logotypes. For those with a serious script fetish, this might not be safe for work.

Published on June 24, 2012 in Completely Unrelated. 3 Comments Tags: auto, automobile, brands, brush, cars, classic, crest, fonts, handlettering, logos, minneapolis, minnesota, MSRA, script, st paul, streetrod, truck, type, typography.

Ilumini Photography Arts Business Card

Utilizing their existing logo, we designed and produced these cards for Ilumini Photography Arts, a wedding and fine art photographer based out of Hawaii. After creating a type lockup for the contact information we designed a custom diecut that would elegantly frame the ornate “I” logo.

Letterpress printed with metallic silver ink on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110C and a tonal varnish on the Wausau Royal Complements Eclipse Black 100C, these stocks were duplexed after printing before receiving the final diecut.

Published on June 19, 2012 in Business Cards, Design and Letterpress. 5 Comments Tags: classic crest, custom letterpress, diecut, duplex, eclipse black, letterpress printing, silver, solar white, tonal, varnish, wausau.

Split Fountain Summer Invites

These invites, designed by Douglas Behl for his upcoming nuptials, ooze summer. We can’t decide what we like more, the blazing split fountain color palette or the melty popsicle motif.

Split fountain printing is when we put two colors on the same roller, one on each end, allowing them to blend naturally in the middle, creating a gradient across the press sheet. This is a good way to get an extra color into your design without adding an extra plate. When planning a project that uses a split fountain across several pieces, keep in mind that the cards on either end of the press sheet end up being fairly one color. You can see in this instance the RSVP and Thank You cards were at opposite ends of the sheet, whereas the Invite and Details cards were placed in the middle where the color transition happened.

You can see split fountain printing in action in this video we took a few years back.

Published on May 31, 2012 in Wedding. 6 Comments Tags: crane lettra, custom letterpress, flo white 110c, lettra, split fountain, wedding invite.

Must-have Mustard

With Memorial Day weekend staring us in the face, it only made sense to share this bbq related project. If you live in the Twin Cities you have probably come across the stylish orange Natedog’s food cart, stocked with quality wieners, tasty hand crafted mustards, and manned by the friendly proprietor, Nate Beck. We were lucky to have him at our open house in February and recently letterpress printed the labels for Nate’s honey-spiced mustard, now bottled and available for purchase.

Holmberg Design Co, who we most recently worked with on these Dogwood Coffee labels, is behind the Natedog’s identity and label design. Letterpress printed with two inks on an existing label stock, these were kisscut after printing with a custom made die that mimics the bottle shape.

CBS recently ran a nice feature of on Natedog’s that can be viewed here.

Published on May 25, 2012 in Letterpress and packaging. 2 Comments Tags: custom label, custom letterpress, food packaging, holmberg design co, hot dogs, kisscut, label stock, letterpress printing, mustard, mustard label, natedogs, two inks.

Thinner, yet sculptural.

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.

Published on May 3, 2012 in Business Cards, Letterpress and Printing Tips and Tricks. 2 Comments Tags: 220c, 80lb, business card, crane lettra, custom duplex, custom letterpress, duplex, freeman, Letterpress, lettra, pearl white.

Sundae & Wiener Poster Pair

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.

Published on April 20, 2012 in Design, Posters and Studio On Fire Products. 2 Comments Tags: 140c, Design, french poptone, ice cream, Letterpress, posters, prints, shop, store, sundaes, three inks, whipped cream, wieners.

Kate Arends Wedding Roundup

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 .

Published on April 18, 2012 in Letterpress and Wedding. 4 Comments Tags: 140c, 165c, classic crest, custom letterpress, custom wedding design, edge color, french, french poptone, gold, green envelope, kate arends, letterpress printing, natural white, neenah classic crest, sweet tooth, wedding suite, whipped cream.

Black Arts Apparel

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.

Published on April 13, 2012 in Design, Letterpress and Studio On Fire Products. 0 Comments Tags: black arts, illustration, printing history, products, shop, silver ink, store, tee shirt.