Tag Archive for 'crane lettra'

What We Do

Our latest print, which has also been added to our online store, is a poster created for the 6th installment of Poster Offensive (a bipartisan political poster show that happens every two years, coinciding with elections) which was hosted by Big Table Studio in downtown St. Paul this past November.

The poster measures out at 13″ x 20″, with four inks (three beautifully overprinting and a fourth offering some sage words of wisdom) letterpress printed in our Minneapolis studio on Crane Lettra Pearl White 110 lb cover.

Published on December 21, 2012 in Posters and Studio On Fire Products. 2 Comments Tags: 110c, crane lettra, custom letterpress, four inks, letterpress printing, pearl white, poster, poster offensive, store, what we do.

Two-Toned Edgecoloring

We recently produced this stationery suite designed by Together We Create for the Massachusetts based film company Mystic Artists. The design called for two-toned edgecoloring–a production first for our studio–with two edges colored bright teal and the remaining two sporting a nearly-flourescent red. The outcome is fairly stunning, if we do say so ourselves.

The business cards were printed on Crane Lettra Flo White 90C custom duplexed after printing to make a 180lb thickness. Letterhead was printed on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80T with a coordinating 70T pre-converted square flap #10 envelope.

Published on October 23, 2012 in Business Cards and Letterpress. 5 Comments Tags: 180C, 70T, 80T, 90C, crane lettra, custom duplex, edge coloring, edge painting, envelope, flo white, neenah classic crest solar white, stationery, two color, two toned edge color, two toned edge coloring.

Beautiful Blind Impression

Based out of San Francisco, Passing Notes designed this beautiful stationery system for Muhs Home, an online store retailing elegant home furnishings and accessories. Refined typography utilized two inks alongside chic illustrations. Since the illustrations were printed with no ink, what is referred to as a blind impression, we used a thick Crane Lettra Flo White 220 lb cover stock, allowing us to really go deep with the impression while reducing show through.

Other projects we have produced for Passing Notes include this Aphro Chic system and Patti Schmidt business card.

Published on September 11, 2012 in Business Cards and Letterpress. 0 Comments Tags: 220c, blind, blind impression, business card, crane, crane lettra, custom letterpress, flo white, letterpress printing, muhs home, note card, passing notes, pattern, stationery.

Finessence Photography Identity and Stationery

A husband and wife photography team, Finessence Photography had just adopted a new moniker and was looking for a fresh look when they approached us to handle their rebrand and produce their print collateral. While we spend a lot of time (happily) printing for other designers, it’s always a treat for us to act as the design firm behind a project that hits our pressroom.

For the business cards we created a custom stock, duplexing Crane Lettra Flo White 110C and Beckett Concept Mohagany 130C. The rich mahogany stock was a great way for us to counterbalance the ultra-feminine flourish filled “F” we created for the main logo with something a little more masculine. A custom brown ink was mixed to match the mahogany stock for the crisp letterpress printed type sandwiched between two bands of a sculptural teal pattern. We were also able to use one of our favorite finishing techniques, giving the slightly undersized cards a splash of teal edge coloring.

After completing the business cards we proceeded to create a photo folio and gift certificate to round out their set of presentation materials. The structure of the photo folio is a call back to the flimsy paper sleeves drugstore prints used to come in, but this version is a bit fancier. A custom steel rule die line was created, which included an interior diecut to hold the business card, letterpress printed with two inks, hand assembled and kept closed with a velcro closure.

We’re also pretty proud to say this system was a winner in the 2010 FPO Awards.

Published on July 26, 2012 in Business Cards, Design and Letterpress. 1 Comment Tags: 130c, beckett, bright white, brown, champagne, concept, crane lettra, custom duplex, custom letterpress, Design, duplex, edge coloring, finessence photography, finishing, flo white, Letterpress, mahogany, mohawk, photo folio, photography business cards, studio on fire design, teal, tonal, velcro closure.

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.

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.

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.

The Smallest Business Cards Ever

Designed by Calgary based design studio Wax, these cards for a small business bookkeeper are quite possibly the smallest thing we’ve ever produced. Measuring out at a compact 1″ x .6,” the cards were so petit we were unable to trim these down using our paper cutter (there simply wasn’t anywhere to hold onto them) so a custom made 8up die was used. Printed on Crane Lettra Flo White 220c with one ink on both sides.

We photographed them with some firecrackers we had laying around the studio (what? don’t you have firecrackers on your desk?) to give you a better sense of their size.

Published on March 9, 2012 in Business Cards. 6 Comments Tags: 220c, business card, crane lettra, custom diecut, diecut, flo white, letterpess, small, Wax.

See Jane Blog Business Cards

Jane, from the family/design/lifestyle blog See Jane Blog, approached us to design and produce some fresh cards for her before she headed off to the annual Alt Summit blogger conference in January. Jane was great to work with, she had a few ideas and elements she wanted included but really lets us run and create something that would look great letterpress printed. Some of our favorite features include the custom diecut (designed to accentuate her signature asterisk) and the thin linework pattern (referencing back to her patterned blog header).

Production wise, these were printed on Crane Lettra Flo White 110lb cover stock that was custom duplexed to a 220lb weight after printing. With two inks, a blind impression and a custom diecut, the presssheet for these cards ran through the press a total of four times.

You can also read about these in a lovely post over on Jane’s blog.

Published on March 8, 2012 in Business Cards and Design. 1 Comment Tags: 220lb, alt summit, Business Cards, crane lettra, custom diecut, custom duplex, custom letterpress, Design, die cut, flo white, Letterpress, minneapolis, studio on fire design.

When Designers Wed

Local Mpls designers Ross Bruggink and Jessica Keintz were married last year and we were pumped to print their invites that utilized beautiful eclectic typography.

An arrow theme, which we have a hunch is based on the bride’s wrapping arrow engagement ring, runs throughout this two color suite. Printed on Crane Lettra Fluorescent White 110C stock, the cards custom duplexed after printing, allowing us to run a heavy impression on the flood of pattern without completely killing the delicate type on the opposite side of the card.

Can’t get enough? They also created one of the coolest wedding websites we’ve seen.

additional photography provided by Ross and Jess.

Published on March 1, 2012 in Letterpress. 2 Comments Tags: 220c, crane, crane lettra, custom duplexed after printing, custom letterpress, designers, duplex, flo white, gray, lettra, minneapolis, printing, two color, yellow.

Brooklyn Wedding Invitations

This wedding suite, designed by the bride and groom, shows that you can have playful invitations while keeping the aesthetic classy. The main invitation was mailed with an accompanying information card–cleverly designed with a perforation line, allowing the attached RSVP card to be removed and returned. With many brides shying away from complicated wedding systems, it’s a practical way cut down on the number of pieces recipients will pull out of the envelope. Additional tags and cards printed on the same press sheet were used at the actual event

Printed with two inks, antique brown and a bright zip of yellow, on Crane Lettra Pearl White 110C (one of our house stocks).

Additional photography courtesy of Oh, Darling! Photography.

Published on February 29, 2012 in Letterpress and Wedding. 2 Comments Tags: 110c, crane, crane lettra, custom letterpress, invitation, Letterpress, lettra, pearl white, perf, perforation line, two color, Wedding, yellow.

3D Boy Poster

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.