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.
Tactile design can use a lot of different production processes. This card is both blind embossed and letterpress printed. Many people incorrectly use the term “emboss” when speaking about letterpress printing. “Emboss” actually refers to a raised area accomplished by use of a two part die with a form and a counter form. Letterpress printing with heavy impression is closer to a “deboss.” A deboss is pushing down into the paper. (remember “d” for down = deboss) Letterpress plates can use ink but embossing and debossing dies do not use ink. They must be used blind, registered to preprinted artwork or used with foil stamping / blocking.
Letterpress equipment can be used for embossing, debossing and letterpress printing, with the correct dies. Unlike embossing and debossing, letterpress plates do not use a form and counter form. A letterpress plate is inked and pressed down into the sheet. See an image below with the polymer plate and its corresponding print and note the difference from the copper embossing die with a white and blue fiberglass counter form that made the circular design embossed on this card. These are two very different types of plates and printing effects, but run on the same Heidelberg windmill press.
Considering each side of the page is an important design consideration with tactile production processes. With letterpress plates, the amount of bruising or “show through” on the back of the print depends on the amount of pressure applied during printing. However, this definition on the reverse side of the sheet is different on embossing dies because there is a counter form that pushes into the sheet.
When an emboss is specified there are a few other considerations we would mention. Smaller sized artwork, say 12 point type and smaller offers very little raised definition. Paper thickness is also a concern. We like really thick stocks for letterpress printing, but when embossing that thickness makes it even more difficult to get good definition in smaller details. This paper was 134lb Crane Cover Flo. White, it is 100% cotton and offers a soft and sculptured impression.
Published on
February 16, 2010 in
Business Cards, Letterpress and Printing Tips and Tricks.
Tags: 134lb, bay area, block, blocking, Business Cards, CA, California, copper, counter, cover, crane, deboss, Design, emboss, embossing, equipment, fiberglass, flo white, foil, foil stamp, form, Heidelberg, Letterpress, palo alto, print, printer, printing, process, San Francisco, show through, tactile, thickness.
Space 150 changes their identity every 150 days. And with an identity process and look all their own, today marks the 23rd version of the Space 150 brand. This is a business card project we’ve managed the letterpress print production on for several versions now. Designed by Ned Wright at Space 150, this simple looking card still combines 4 production processes. Can you spot all four? Here they are:
250gsm Black Stonehenge sheet – FOIL STAMPED with gloss black foil.
22 pt White blotter sheet – LETTERPRESS PRINTED with silver ink.
After printing, these sheets are DUPLEX pasted back to back for zero impression show through.
After trimming the cards to size, they are EDGE COLORED in black for a clean look on the edge.
We print these cards for around 70 people. For a large studio, value comes with quantity. It would be fiscally improbable for an individual to produce a design like this on a small run of cards. (If you have to ask, “How much?”… )
Published on
June 5, 2009 in
Completely Unrelated and Letterpress.
Tags: black, blotter, business, Business Cards, cards, Design, duplex, edge color, edge coloring, edge painting, foil, foil stamped, impression, ink, Letterpress, minneapolis, ned wright, printing, silver, space150, stonehenge, typography, unique.
When we work with designers on projects we have conversations about “production strategy.” Sometimes letterpress is a good fit for the design intent, sometimes not. And often times we combine other production methods to achieve the effect being sought after. Black business cards present a range of production challenges. Flooding a white paper with black ink doesn’t produce fine detail in small type sizes. Here are two projects featuring different ways to print on black paper by combining letterpress with other processes.
Jamie Wickard Card – Designed by our friends at Westwerk Design
This card was produced on black paper stock: Tonal Black letterpress ink and a gloss black FOIL (side 1) and Silver Letterpress (side 2)
Antitdote X Card – Designed by our friends at Antidote X
This card was produced on cream paper stock custom duplexed to black paper stock. (Black letterpress on the cream side and white ENGRAVING on the black side) Then it was finished with custom die cutting.
To achieve fine white type on a black background Engraving is the most premium (and most costly) printing method. By duplexing a black stock rather than printing black ink and reversing out the white we’ve achieved something letterpress and offset printing would not have done well – notice the fine 3 point serif type! White foil and screen printing can print on black, but not with detail like that. Letterpress printing does not do well printing opaque white on dark colored paper and achieving bright opacity either. Like offset printing, opaque white can be laid down with several passes and achieve a mottled looking white – not a bright white. As a rule for general production: only metallic inks have good opacity on dark stocks.
Of course this all combining of production methods comes at a cost. Which comes to a final point – KNOW YOUR CLIENT BUDGET. Our best production advice is to know what your client wants to spend before finalizing your design. If you have an extravagant design with multiple production steps and your client has only a $300 dollar budget, you’ve just wasted design time on something they can not afford to produce. But if you plan production along side design, you can present your client an option that doesn’t need rounds of compromise. That is what “production strategy” is all about.
Published on
February 22, 2009 in
Letterpress.
Tags: antidote x, black, Business Cards, Design, die cut, duplex, engraved, engraving, foil, foiled, ink, jaime wickard, Letterpress, letterpress services, minneapolis, opaque, paper, print, printing, production, silver, strategy, westwerk, white, white ink.
