So often, what we do for our clients in the graphic design profession is disconnected from personal passions. This project managed to combine both food and design values. The food our family eats falls into a traditional foods diet, as recommended by the Weston Price Foundation. Which is why we were especially excited when Rebecca and Ross Williams asked us for business cards for their new adventure called Many Fold Farms. Their must-read blog is smartly written and shows a true passion for food and land. I’ve been learning about fine cheese and feeling a bit envious of their farming adventure.
This was both a design and print project for us, which is where our company can truly shine. Not that we don’t love printing the custom work of other designers and collaborating in the production process. We also love owning a design project from concept through production completion.
The design for the logotype merges custom 19th century inspired decorative capitals with slab serifs. We combined typographic texture with a folk inspired pierced tin borders and an inverted round corner die cut. The letterpress printing is on Crane Lettra Ecru (Ivory) 220lb Cover stock for a thick and soft feel in a nice warm color. We produced two different sizes – an oversized card with farm information and a smaller card with personal contact info.
Published on
February 12, 2010 in
Business Cards, Client Focus, Design and Letterpress.
Tags: 19th century, 220lb, artisan, Business Cards, calling card, cards, cheese, cotton, Design, die cut, diecut, ecru, ephemera, farm, identity, lamb, Letterpress, many fold farm, pierce, punch, sheep, the dirty way, tin, type, typography, weston price.
Happy New Year!
The Optimist is a self-promotional holiday wine bottle designed by Greg Bennett for Siquis. Each year Siquis shows their clients how much they care by designing a custom wine bottle label just for them. The label is always created by a different designer in their creative department. This year’s graphic was designed to play on “is the glass half empty or half full” concept. Obviously, once the recipient rotates the bottle to fill their glass, the glass on the label becomes half full. One of Greg’s many beliefs is that a design is only as good as it’s production. What that means is that you can have a great design but if it is produced poorly, the result will be a mediocre piece at best. That being said, this label was letterpress printed at Studio On Fire ensuring this bottle design is sure to delight even the toughest critics.
We printed on Strathmore Ultimate White Label stock with a kiss cut die for finishing that punched out the tiny glass area and gave the whole label a slight arc to compliment the curve of the bottle.
Published on
January 4, 2010 in
Letterpress.
Tags: bottle, Design, die cut, die line, diecut, dieline, greg bennett, Holiday, kiss cut, kisscut, label, labels, Letterpress, new year, premium, printed, printing, simple, sisquis, strathmore, wine.
These are the brand new cards for Dita Eyewear in Los Angeles. Bryan Crabtree designed them and did a nice post over on his blog too. The blind flourish on the light side and the diamond pattern on the black gives these cards a tonal and elegant look.
We first printed these as two sheets, a natural color and black stock and then pasted the sheets together after printing. This step eliminates show through of the impression when printing a two sided design. We’ve found that the gluing of the sheet after it is printed does flatten back some of the impression, so we start with a heavy impression initially. The lighter color stock is Wausau Compliments Natural White 100lbC and is printed with a blind pass and black ink. The black stock is Wausau Eclipse Black 100lbC and is printed with PMS 8001 silver and black ink. The final thickness is 200lbC, about the thickness of a US dime. After printing and gluing, the cards were die cut to the final shape with angled corners.
Published on
November 30, 2009 in
Business Cards and Letterpress.
Tags: 100lbC, 200lbC, angle, black, blind, bryan crabtree, business, Business Cards, California, card, cards, cut, Design, die, die cutting, diecut, duplex, fashion, inkless, LA, Letterpress, los angeles, natural, off white, offwhite, paste, pasted, shape, silver, white.
Fuel is a great creative shop in Iowa that sent us this unique business card design for Whatsup Juggling. It is letterpress printed on thick 220lb Crane Lettra cotton paper. The inks are orange, blue and a custom contaminated opaque white. The card was then die cut into 2.5 inch circles. We then tried to juggle them. Business cards are really hard to juggle.
Some production notes: The original intent was to have the white printing be a blind (inkless) impression. However, where those blind areas of text line up to one another from one side of the card to the other, there is a push back on the impression. When there is no ink to even out the visual appearance, legibility can suffer where the impression overlaps from side one to side two. Putting a white ink down contaminated with a bit of silver ink helps even out the look and gives the general appearance of a blind hit. Check out the pics for comparison. Still subtle, but with a hair more contrast than a true blind impression.
Published on
June 24, 2009 in
Letterpress.
Tags: 220lb, blind, blue, business, cards, circle, contaminated, cotton, crane, Design, die cut, diecut, double, double sided, Fuel, fuel inc, impression, ink, inkless, iowa, juggling, Letterpress, letterpress business cards, lettra, orange, round, thick, two sided, unique, whatsup, white.
Yael Miller designed these beautiful labels for a new company called the Painted Pretzel. She is also a contributor at another site we love – thedieline.com And these hand crafted gourmet pretzels are worth the letterpress labels. Here are some details on the production:
We printed an 8.5 x 11 sheet of Strathmore Ultimate White Wove crack and peel label stock. Unlike many kinds of label sheets, this stock takes a great letterpress impression. This sheet was printed with five spot colors and a kiss cut in tight register. (For letterpress, that’s six times through the press) The kiss cut is a die cutting process which is also able to run on the letterpress. The same as die cutting, but care has to be taken to cut only through the label and not through the backer sheet that peels away.
The printing of this sheet was an intensive bit of letterpress. With floods of color and fine type everywhere the ink density had to right on for everything to print crisply. Note how there is a salty look to the color, more so in the brown ink. This is so we didn’t over ink the fine type elsewhere on the brown plate. There is even a good example of a letterpress halftone on the pretzel in the center. Mmmm.
Published on
June 18, 2009 in
Letterpress.
Tags: crack, crack and peel, creative, Design, die cut, diecut, dieline, fine, food, halftone, label, labels, Letterpress, miller creative, packaging, painted pretzel, peel, printing, reverse, seal, sticker, strathmore, tiny type, typography, yael miller.
When we posted the Save The Date card by designer Nick Brue a couple months back, we were super excited to see what he had in mind for the design of the actual wedding invitation. Finally, here is his design that just recently left the pressroom:
This invitation set is housed within a mini custom die cut pocket folder which neatly organizes the various cards. The folder is printed with a tonal custom woodgrain pattern using a clear varnish ink on letterpress with heavy impression. A belly band is fitted to the exterior of the folder with a Continue reading ‘Woodgrain & Crest Letterpress Wedding’
Published on
May 8, 2009 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: band, belly band, brown, buckle, crest, custom, Design, die cut, diecut, folder, invitation, invite, Letterpress, letterpress printing, mini, minneapolis, minnesota, monogram, nick brue, pocket folder, printing, shield, stationery, tiny, tone on tone, type, typography, Wedding, wedding invitation, woodgrain, wrap.
This is a CD package we designed and letterpress printed for Erik Brandt with illustrations by Andy DeVore. He put this CD together after spending a year teaching in Hungary. The structure houses both a fold up lyric sheet and a CD. We printed the packaging with two ink colors on 140lb French Poptone. The design keeps cost down because the panels all print on one side only and the fold up design allows for a do-it-yourself assembly. We finished it on our 13 x 18 Windmill with unique shaped die cuts on the flaps.
Published on
April 9, 2009 in
Design and Letterpress.
Tags: 140lb, andy devore, CD, compact, cut, Design, die, diecut, dieline, disc, disk, erik brandt, french, Letterpress, minneapolis, Windmill.
This uniquely shaped invitation was designed by us at Studio On Fire. It is one of the most interesting die lines we’ve created for wedding invitations – elegant and fun at the same time. It is a simple green one color letterpress on white paper with that same green printing on a green paper for a tone on tone effect. What really gives this invitation set a unique twist is that the cards nest into a four strap belly band enclosure which holds them together. Inside there are three cards: an invite, a map and an RSVP postcard. The four strap enclosure buckles together with slits in the paper and does not require glue or tape. The address area on the enclosure can be written on like an envelope. Once fastened together the invite then mails in a clear bag rather than an envelope.
Published on
March 14, 2009 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: belly band, buckled, clear bag, Design, design services, die cut, die line, diecut, enclosure, invitation, invitations, invite, Letterpress, letterpress services, minneapolis, shape, shaped, Wedding.
Our design friends over at Westwerk have some tremendous attention to detail. Be careful, these images are NSFW. With dense black and custom silver inks printed on heavy 160lb chocolate colored stock, these cards are pretty sexy. That black ink on the dark stock impresses a subtle layer of texture. The silver was toned back with a bit of black mixed in. And the offset printed label wrap with a nice accent color is inset with a die cut and provides the information. Perfect.
Published on
February 15, 2009 in
Letterpress.
Tags: black, brown, Business Cards, custom, details corporate events, die cut, diecut, label, Letterpress, letterpress services, minneapolis, pattern, silver, thick, westwerk.
