The Studio On Fire 2010 Calendar is now available on our new web site. This calendar is a decade marker for us. Established the end of 1999, Studio On Fire began letterpress printing in a cold Minnesota basement. Our first press occupied a spot between the boiler and the litter box, and oh, how the studio has since grown. Now seven presses strong with a fully equipped studio space, we celebrate ten years as a bustling design and print studio.
This Tenfold Edition calendar is letterpress printed with four colors on a cotton-blend stock, each month beautifully illustrated by selected designers the world over.
Contributors:
Jan/Jul_ Studio On Fire
Feb/Aug_Cecilie Ellefsen
Mar/Sept_ Brian Gunderson
Apr/Oct_ The Little Friends of Printmaking
May/Nov_ ghostpatrol
Jun/Dec_ Rilla Alexander (Rinzen)
Published on
January 7, 2010 in
Design, Letterpress, News and Studio On Fire Products.
Tags: 2010, Brian Gunderson, brown, calendar, day-glo, Design, easel stand, edition, florescent, ghostpatrol, green, illustration, Letterpress, little friends of printmaking, months, pink, poptone, printing, rinzen, studio on fire, tenfold.
This is our letterpress poster for the Toys In The Attic show opening at the Soo Visual Arts Center on Dec 4th from 6 to 9PM. The show features both custom toys and toy inspired posters. Proceeds benefit Toys For Tots. Hey, that’s tomorrow night! We hope to see you there.
These beasts are in fact our toys. The graphic beasts are constructed from various press parts and form into a crest that commemorates ten years of printing here at Studio On Fire. The dog latin phrase reads “Iron Beasts Make Great Beauty”. It is printed in fluorescent and dark silver inks on Crane Lettra Flo White 220lbC at 13 x 13 size.
It was ten years ago this month back in 1999 that the first C&P was lowered into the then basement studio. More to come on our own ten year anniversary party soon.
Published on
December 3, 2009 in
Design, Letterpress, News and Posters.
Tags: 220lb, beast, crane, crest, Design, edition, fluorescent, ink, iron, Letterpress, lettra, minneapolis, poster, press parts, print, printer, silver, soo, soo visual arts center, soovac, studio on fire, ten years, toys for tots, toys in the attic, unique.
AIGA Minnesota put together a short video about our studio on their emerging designers web site. Check it out:
emergingdesigners.minnesota.aiga.org
Published on
October 28, 2009 in
Design, Letterpress and News.
Tags: AIGA, american insititute of graphic arts, Design, designer, letter press, Letterpress, minneapolis, minnesota, MN, modern, News, printer, printing, Sevnthsin, studio on fire, twin cities.
Last night we had a rockin’ time showing off our studio space and letterpress shop to Minnesota AIGA members. A big thanks to Minnesota’s AIGA chapter for giving us the opportunity.
We talked about the relationship of letterpress and design, did some Q&A, drank some Pabst Blue Ribbon and wrapped up the event with a little coaster project on press. Take a look at the coaster sheet – it’s 60pt Ahlstrom blotter paper. We pre printed a couple colors before people arrived. Then, we had a different color set up on both of our Vandercook presses. Everyone got to pull a couple prints, then we die cut the sheet into the set of four coasters. Lots of paper touching and good times had by all. Thanks Kayd Mustonen for taking some pics to share.
Published on
July 31, 2009 in
Design, Letterpress and News.
Tags: 60pt, ahlstrom, AIGA, blotter, board, coaster, coasters, demo, Design, impression, Letterpress, minnesota, MN, pressroom, printer, printing, Studio, studio on fire, thick, tour, type, typography, vandercook, workshop.
So we got a call from Forbes last month. We did an interview about the resurgence of letterpress and talked about how modern photopolymer plating makes letterpress available to a more contemporary design aesthetic. But a lot of people are stuck with a mental image of letterpress as it came into mainstream design popularity several years back – distressed wood type, over inked artwork and a makeshift quality to the design that comes from using whatever typefaces and elements that happen to be on hand. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hatch Show Print and have been through the Nashville shop several times. But letterpress has a range far beyond that limited aesthetic. Pushing the medium is what our shop focuses on intently. To us, the resurgence of letterpress is this: making letterpress a viable commercial production method for contemporary design.
A few of the details in the article are a little fuzzy as they published my comments and I think she got a bit of a rise out of me. (yes, I realize if you have the patience and an extra hour or two, you can set some type on a curve with metal type, but that is certainly not commercially viable for our shop) The point was that I personally take issue with anyone that would say printing with polymer isn’t real letterpress. Yeah, we use polymer. It’s a means to an end. Different tools make different marks. Maybe we should call our work “civil union printing” rather than “letterpress” so all the ludites can feel better about their craft. :) The bottom line is that photopolymer represents a new range of possibilities for designers and for letterpress. We embrace that wholeheartedly, but still have a deep appreciation for all of those willing to toil over a case of lead type.
Check out the Forbes article here.
Here are some pics of a photopolymer job being set up to print.
Published on
May 21, 2009 in
Letterpress, News and Printing Tips and Tricks.
Tags: Benjamin Levitz, contemporary, Design, designer, forbes, hatch show print, Letterpress, minneapolis, photopolymer, plates, printing, studio on fire, typography.
This is a follow up to our post about affordable wedding invites. These invites were designed by the bride and groom Stephanie Mead and Doug Kohnen at Docent Creative. Doug did some beautiful illustrations that turned out stunning on press. We letterpress printed and trimmed the cards for them. They are dense black ink on Crane Lettra 110lb Pearl White, 100% cotton. They sent us some photos of how they assembled everything with a tag and ribbon. They even silk screened their own envelopes. So, how do you get a gorgeous wedding invitation for a reasonable price?
Continue reading ‘Affordable Letterpress Wedding Invitations – Part 2′
Published on
April 4, 2009 in
Letterpress and Wedding.
Tags: affordable, bargin, best price, bride, c, cards, cheap, cost, deal, designed, docent creative, groom, invitation, invite, invites, Letterpress, minneapolis, printed, printer, printing, sale, screen, sets, stationary, studio on fire, typography, Wedding, wholesale.
Check out a feature from our own product line…
The Studio On Fire Deskline contains uniquely formatted and detailed paper goods. Sweetheart Seamstress stationery elements include stitched journals, letter writing sets, punch-out calling card and tag sets, self mailing notes with pinhole perforated labels and mini folders.
Look for these details: custom scalloped edge envelopes, fill-in-your-name calling cards, mini book marks, perforated label sheets with dry gum backing.
Our vision for a product line was to create finished pieces that captures some of the random qualities that happen in test prints and makeready. We worked with Kelly English and Kindra Murphy on three different product themes. On this theme, Kelly used vintage sewing pattern inspired elements to create layers of texture and pattern. The detail is almost to cute to stand. And of course all of it is letterpress printed. They can be purchased on our website.
Published on
March 7, 2009 in
Design, Letterpress and Studio On Fire Products.
Tags: bookmarks, calling cards, card, deskline, envelope, folders, handmade, journals, kelly english, labels, letterhead, Letterpress, letterpress services, mailer, minneapolis, patterns, product, scalloped edge, sewing, stationery, stitched, studio on fire, sweetheart seamstress, tags, thread.
We love thick stocks. It is a friend with benefits. One of the challenges in letterpress printing is working with the “show through” of the impression to the opposite side of the page. When you have a thicker stock it becomes easier to show more impression and have less show through.
These pictures compare 110lb Cover (300gsm) with 220lb Cover (600 gsm) Crane Lettra which is 100% cotton. What you should notice is that they both have a sculptural impression. But the thinner stock on the top does have some show through, while the thicker stock below has even more impression and no showing on the opposite side. That becomes important if you are doing a two sided business card and wish to minimize showing. The depth of impression on letterpress is controled by varying the amount of packing material underneath the sheet being printed. A single sided design is easier to achieve heavy impression because there isn’t as much worry about the back of the paper.
Published on
February 9, 2009 in
Letterpress.
Tags: 110lb, 220lb, Business Cards, cotton, crane lettra, heavy impression, impression, letterpress services, show through, studio on fire.
This is a promo piece designed by our friends at Swink. We had this job on press a while back and wanted to show the exquisite finished project. It was 3/2 PMS letterpress printing plus lasercutting. Note the overprinting blue and orange to create the brown. All this on a 220lb C. tree free, reclaimed cotton fiber stock. We are always excited to print anything with fire on it.
