Category Archives: Custom

We’ve worked on quite a few fun custom projects lately, and this booklet cover for St. Andrew’s Church was on of those projects.

Greg, the Communications Director at St. Andrew’s, contacted us after seeing our cards on Fab.com earlier this year, and Andrew Barton of Andrew Barton Design did the graphic design work. It was really nice to talk with them at the start of the design process– we were able to discuss the constraints of letterpress printing and what designs work best for our press.

Printed on 110-lb cotton paper, this two-color print will be the cover to the wedding booklet that couples will receive when they get married at the church (what an amazing keepsake from a special day).

 

We really enjoyed working with Greg and Andrew and also loved having them stop by the studio to see the press in action.

Our friend Maura Ambrose is the talented quilter and textiles artist behind Folk Fibers. She makes beautiful quilts from fabrics dyed by hand with natural dyes (including indigo that she harvests from her backyard). Each piece is an absolute work of art.
 

We were so excited when Maura asked us to print her business cards. It was such a fun project to work on, and I love that handwritten correspondence was part of the process as we mailed paper and fabric samples to one another.

Maura chose a thick, recycled chipboard for her paper stock and sent us samples of her naturally dyed fabrics for ink color inspiration– she wanted her business cards to reflect the colors of the natural dyes she uses in her quilts. The samples below were dyed with yellow onion skins, red onion skins, and walnut hulls. From there, we were able to pick a color (478) from our Pantone guide.

Mixing the ink is one of my favorite parts of the process– it’s so hands on, and I love watching the new color appear.

Below are a few behind-the-scenes photos of the letterpress printing process.

Paper cutter in action

Photopolymer plate inked and ready for printing

Freshly printed business cards, stacked and ready for the final trim

Finished product

 

UPDATE 10/22/2012:

In case you were wondering who did the amazing logo and business card design for Folk Fibers: Ryan Rhodes of LAND.

 

Our good friend Stuart, recent Park Circle resident and owner of Vacord Screen Printing, came to us for custom letterpress printing for his business stationery.

We printed two, A2-sized pieces in black ink– one for handwritten correspondence (paired with a blue envelope) and one thank-you enclosure to be included with all of his orders.

While simple, they make a big impact, and we’re pretty sure his customers will notice.

Emily and Ken got married in an outdoor wedding on the evening of the Harvest Moon (which is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox). As summertime rolls into autumn, they began their new lives together under the brightness of the moonlight (so romantic!).
Neutral colors and natural materials set the stage for the outdoor wedding. Printed on cotton paper, the assembled set was tied with hemp twine and tucked into a recycled kraft envelope.

Text that looks as though it was hand-lettered suggests a casual, but intimate, event.

One of my favorite parts of the reply postcard includes a BMX biker jumping the moon, a small nod to one of Ken’s favorite activities.

And, of course, we LOVE that Emily and Ken wanted guests to include handwritten notes of advice and well wishes. Including the card with the invitation set makes it easy for people to provide a thoughtful response (rather than trying to get people to come up with sometime at the wedding).

We had so much fun working on these invitations. Cheers to your new life together, Emily and Ken!

 

From start to finish, we had a lot of fun with this wedding invitation set. Our friend and almost-next-door-neighbor, Sarah first contacted us about letterpress printing her very best friend’s wedding invitations. We had both Sarah and Heather over to the studio to talk about the project and printing. Heather is the owner and designer behind Patch Design Studio; she makes beautiful block-printed fabric goods (I particularly love this okra dish towel). It was so nice to talk with another printmaker (and someone who understands and appreciates the nuances of old-school printing).
Heather’s friend Rebecca Paull Marshall designed the invitation and two-sided reply card. We printed them in a single color (handmixed brown) onto 110-lb cotton paper (pearl white).

Since the invitation image was fairly large (in terms of our 8×12 press), it took a bit of work with the makeready to ensure an even impression for both the woodgrain and text. At the recommendation of our friend Keith (whose Chandler & Price Craftsman paper cutter we’re using), I’ve recently started using vellum for the makeready and have been really happy with the results.