With beautiful pattern and subtlety, Jeff at Telemetry Studio designed this identity and stationery system for Arzu Studio Hope. Started by a former Goldman Sachs partner, Arzu is a social entrepreneurship company that works at a grassroots level to better the lives of women in Afghanistan.
We letterpress printed multiple elements for this stationery system using gray ink and contaminated opaque white ink on Neenah Classic Crest papers. The business cards are 165lb Solar White, a smooth stock with a with enough thickness for some impression on both sides with minimal show through. We printed on pre-converted envelopes opening the flaps, printing envelope face and flap at the same time, allowing the pattern to wrap from front to back. The pressed pattern in this system is elegant and understated, creating real tactile inspiration.
Published on
March 10, 2010 in
Business Cards.
Tags: #10, 165lb, afghanistan, arzu, Business Cards, envelope, florida, ink, letterhead, Letterpress, neenah, pattern, printing, rugs, social entrepreneurship, stationary, stationery, studio hope, telemetry studio, white.
V2 Creative in Las Vegas designed this system for the Bennett Family Foundation. We just received the Strathmore Gold Award for our production of the system.
Each stationery element is letterpress printed for the text and with a beautiful blind inkless impression for the logo initials. It utilizes one of the Strathmore sheets we really like for letterpress – 110lb Strathmore Cover Bristol. This sheet has a bit of tooth to the finish and takes a crisp impression. Plus there are matching text weights sheets.
The business cards are scored an fold open to present the contact information. The warm gray flood of color was offset printed (inside of folder, back of letterhead and business cards and insides of envelopes). When we manage production of a business stationery system, usually any offset printing is sent out and completed first. This allows us to properly plan full size press sheets. For instance, this project was able to combine the letterhead and envelope on the same offset sheet. Then we take the sheets back in house and complete the letterpress and finishing. And as this system shows, we do have the capability to letterpress print full size folders with our stationery system production.
Published on
February 26, 2010 in
Business Cards and Letterpress.
Tags: commercial, die cut, envelope, flood, folder, large, large format, las vegas, Letterpress, lettterhead, nevada, no ink, offset, pocket folder, score, stationery, v2 creative.
This is a nifty little letterpress card and a7 envelope designed by Duel Purpose in Austin, Texas. It is printed in three colors, the overlapping bold graphics make unique areas of overprinting ink. The stock is 100% cotton 220lb Crane Lettra, with a matching Lettra envelope. Hand written correspondence on these are sure to any leave digital message in the lurch.
Published on
February 4, 2010 in
Letterpress.
Tags: 220lb, austin, black, blue, bold, card, cards, correspondence, crane, duel purpose, duelpurpose, graphic, ink, Letterpress, lettra, overprinting, printer, printing, red, stationary, stationery, texas, writing.
This massive custom wedding system is exquisitely graphic. It was designed by the groom, Scott Peiffer. More of his design portfolio here. What is especially nice about this invitation set is the uniqueness of each card. Care was taken to bring together lots of different textures and graphics – beautifully combining, flourishes, coral patterns, florals, silhouettes, crests and even a bulldog.
We letterpress printed all the cards on a sheet together in two color on Cordenons Canaletto Grana Grossa Bianco 111lb C . It is a 20% cotton blend stock with a textural finish. The A7 folder is sized to fit inside an A7 envelope. It is letterpress printed in a coral pattern with a tone on tone blue ink and then die cut. The folder stock is a bright color 100lb cover stock from French Paper’s Poptone line. The Save the Date Envelope is also a matching stock color, printed tone on tone.
Published on
January 26, 2010 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: a7, bahamas, band, blu rasberry, bulldog, canaletto, coral, cotton, crest, Design, destination, envelope, floral, flourish, folder, french paper, graphic, invitations, invite, Letterpress, paper, pattern, scott peiffer, silhouette, stationery, system, tone on tone, Wedding.
This simple one color wedding invitation was designed by the groom for the couples December wedding in Kyoto, Japan. The head silhouettes have a unique anime / manga style. We also love the modern graphic crest containing the interlocking rings and the matrimony announcement. It’s a bold yet refined design – traditional subject with a modern presentation. Nice work Osamu!
The cards were layed out together on a large 13 x 18 Flo White Crane Lettra 110lbC press sheet. These were printed on our Vandercook Uni III. We letterpress printed two passes of the gold ink for better ink density . Here’s something to keep in mind when running a double pass on a cylinder press – don’t adjust the packing on the press between pass one and two. By adjusting the packing, you also change the circumference of the cylinder, making it very difficult to register the second pass. We like to run two passes of ink metallics to give a little better sheen. Metallic ink, especially on an uncoated cotton stock will never be shiny like a coated stock or approach the mirror finish of a foil stamp, but it is crisp in details and does offer a small amount of shine.
Published on
October 6, 2009 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: 1 color, 110lbC, anime, cards, crane, crest, custom, cylinder press, Design, graphic, invitation, invitations, invite, japan, japanese, kyoto, Letterpress, lettra, manga, modern, one color, silhouette, stationery, uni iii, unique, vandercook, Wedding.
Not every wedding invite is so typographically unique as this one, with wedding birds too! Emily and Emory, the Bride and Groom designed these fun loving cards with display typography built from basic geometric forms overprinting each other. The warm color palette is three spot PMS colors which overlap and create additional letterpress texture. The cards are Crane Lettra Florecent White 110lbC 5 x 5 size – all printed together on a single large press sheet in tight register. They even included a little “eye spy” art print that turned out really sweet as well. The envelope is a metallic Stardream stock printed with silver metallic ink. Check out Emory’s site for even more illustrative work.
Published on
September 4, 2009 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: 110lb, crane, Design, emory, geometric, illustration, invasion, invitation, invite, invites, Letterpress, lettra, ocular, ocular invasion, orange, red, stationary, stationery, type, typography, unique, Wedding, yellow.
A bilingual wedding can be challenge. The bride needed invites in English and the groom needed Spanish. The simplest solution for this wedding in Mexico was both English and Spanish versions of the invitation. We designed and letterpress printed them with a textural yet refined style – a geometric border with a simple hand lettering for the couples names. The stock is Canalleto Grana Grossa 111lb Cover (20% cotton) and is printed in three match colors. The overprinting creates additional dimension and colors in the flower and vine motif. To integrate the invites closely with envelopes, we matched our ink colors to existing envelope colors from French Paper’s Poptone color line – orange fizz and limeade. Salud!
Published on
August 31, 2009 in
Design, Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: 111lb, bilingual, border, canaletto grana grossa, cards, Design, english, flower, geometric, green, gruppo cordenons, hand lettering, invite, invites, lettering, letterpress wedding invitation, mexico, orange, printer, printing, spanish, stationary, stationery, texture, type, typography, vine, Wedding.
When a design firm gets all the details right, it’s a beautiful thing to print. These business papers for Dohmen were designed by GS design in Milwaukee, and the details are tight. We just finished printing them and thought it was a design well suited for letterpress. The radial dots under heavy impression create a tactile logo, the custom converted rounded envelope flaps echo the logo shape and the edge coloring is a perfect accent on the business cards and folding note card.
The business cards are Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 165lb Cover. They are 2 color letterpress printed with edges colored to match the logo PMS color. Since this was a single sided business card, some impression show through on the back side was not a concern. However, check out the photo of the back side of the business card and you get a visual on what we’d be looking at if there were printing. Printing on both sides with letterpress is possible. Be aware if if deep impression is used, there will be show through from side to side, even on thick stock like 165lb Cover. We can pull back on impression and minimize show through for two sided cards.
The note cards are Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 130lb C – just a little thinner to help get a nice fold.
The letterhead and envelopes are Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb Text. We like the additional weight of an 80lb vs. a 70lb text weight for letterpress printing. It helps everything feel a bit more substantial and does better job with a heavy impression. And the custom converted envelopes are pretty cool – check out the side flaps – they even follow shape of the rounded seal flap. We freak out about stuff like that – nice.
Published on
August 24, 2009 in
Letterpress.
Tags: 130lb, 165lb, 80lb, business, Business Cards, card, cards, converted, cover, custom, deep, Design, detail, Dohmen, dots, edge color, envelope, envelopes, flaps, GS Design, impression, letterhead, Letterpress, Milwaukee, note card, notecard, paint, printer, printing, radial, show through, stationery, text, unique, wisconsin.
Erin Jang designed this custom wedding project for Marci and Ben with a unique combination of letterpress and digital printing. The typography here really has a beautiful touch – even with lots of different typefaces, the design is balanced and elegant. Not always an easy thing to do. We also like how the mini envelope on the invitation card creates another level suspense in opening the invitation.
We printed the letterpress portion of the project with 220lb Crane Lettra in an Ecru color and returned them to Erin for finishing. (They needed them quickly, and yes we are always doing some sort of rush custom letterpress work) These cards then had a unique small envelope afixed to them which contains the digitally printed red invitation. Also worth a produciton note is the perf that separates the map and the rsvp card into two parts. We used a fairly coarse perforating rule – about 20 tpi. (teeth per inch) A very thick stock needs enough paper left intact on the perf so it doesn’t just accidently fall off. It’s always worth having several kinds of perf rule around to test the stock and use the one that works best. The difference between a perf that just won’t tear clean and one that falls apart to easy can be tricky to balance. We keep rule around from around 18 tpi up to 100 tpi micro perf.
Check out Erin Jangs blog for more sweet design work. And if you want more, this invite has also been bloggity blogged on some of our favorite sites including Design Sponge, Black Eiffel and Mint Design Blog.
Published on
August 12, 2009 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: 220lb, cotton, crane, custom, Design, designer, ecru, envelope, erin jang, gray, invitation, invitations, invite, Letterpress, lettra, mini, perf, perforation, printer, printing, red, script, stationary, stationery, tpi, type, typography, Wedding.
Sometimes a great didone typeface just looks succulent, at least we think so. Those serifs are so nice and letterpress crisp, mmmm.
Sara Janssen, who I worked with back in the day at Carmichael Lynch Thorburn (now The Thorburn Group), designed them beautifully. The detail of the hummingbirds and the classic type makes this an elegant set of wedding stationery indeed. Hummingbirds are such an exquisite little bird of great symbolism, we love the copy they put on the table number card. The color is a dark purple ink printed on Gruppo Cordenons Canaletto 111lbC. We’ve been specifying this sheet for some weddings as a cost savings alternate to Pearl White Crane Lettra. It has a more pronounced texture but only a 20% cotton content. It does not taste very good though.
Published on
July 27, 2009 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: 111lb, birds, canaletto, cards, Design, didone, hummingbird, invitation, invite, invites, letter, Letterpress, letterpressed, modern, number, press, printing, purple, Sara Janssen, stationary, stationery, table, type, typography, Wedding.
We worked with Vermont couple Dana and Katie to design and letterpress print their wedding invitations. They had a custom silhouette using their own hands to make a heart shape produced by Le Papier Studios. We used this motif throughout the invitation stationery. The soft cotton paper and bright blue silhouettes are contrasted with a simple recycled brown bag envelope and typewriter style navy typography – just the right balance of a raw yet refined style. The invites are printed in a square format with 2 inks on Crane Lettra, 100% cotton stock. All the cards were letterpress printed together on a 13 x 13 press sheet for cost effective production.
Dana and Katie are excited to be on the cusp of history, celebrating just after Vermont legalizes gay marriage on September 1st. Congrats!
Published on
July 16, 2009 in
Design and Letterpress.
Tags: blue, bright, brown bag, cotton, crane, Design, flo wh, hands, heart, invitation, invite, le papier studio, Letterpress, lettra, print, printer, printing, raw, recycled, refined, shape, shaped, silhouette, stationary, stationery, type, typewriter, typography, unique, vermont, Wedding, wedding invitation, wedding invite.
Custom wedding projects are a specialty for our studio. When a marriage has multiple events and large amounts of information – a booklet structure just makes sense. We worked with stationery designer Kavita Ahuja on this letterpress printed booklet for her brothers wedding. (Also, her and her fiancee also have a very cool website selling boutique handmade perfumes called D.S. & Durga.)
The booklet is a french folded structure with a cover that wraps the spine to hide the raw page edges. The french folding allows a nice letterpress impression on each page while hiding any show through of impression on the interior since the backs are hidden. Everything is printed on Pearl White Crane Lettra 80lbT with navy and gold ink. The binding edge is stitched from the top with a navy thread. The booklet fits into an existing A7 square flap envelope. Note on that the envelope can print both the face and the flap by opening them before printing.
Published on
May 26, 2009 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: a7, binding, book, booklet, crane, d.s. and Durga, ds & durga, french fold, invitation, invite, Letterpress, lettra, marriage, mendi, pearl white, printing, script, stationary, stationery, stitch, structure, text, thread, top stitch, type, typography, unique, Wedding.
