These cards were letterpress printed on 220# arturo with Pantone match and matte metallic gold inks as a 1/1 business card for Phoebe. Phoebe is an excellent graphic designer and designed these cards for her branding collateral as an extension of her already awesome website.

I am a big fan of chevrons lately and am totally digging these wide set ones on the back of Phoebe’s card, how about you?

Edge painted with a custom mix strawberry ink, thanks Phoebe for being so excellent to work with! I loved how these turned out.

Her knocked out type was built up with extra stroke wight so that we could flood the press with a LOT of ink and by the time the letters started to fill in they were back to their “normal” weights. Serifed typography is a lot harder to work with and isn’t recommend (especially when small). If you want to knock out of a flood color area (knock-out meaning that the type is white or image area is white with ink surrounding it) then stick to imagery or typography that can be bulked with a stroke or two – that extra padding will make a huge difference in how your print turns out.

Another advantage to flooding with Vanessa’s cards was the selection of a lighter ink value for her cards. Lighter colors usually flood more evenly. The reason behind this is that all inks are transparent. With transparent inks, large coverage areas, and a textured paper can often have the flecks and texturing show through, lending a “salty” look to the pieces being printed. The darker the ink color, the more evident the salty look. While the press can be run with a double strike (run through the press twice) you can run into registration problems and more waste. You can also set up your press to ink the forme twice before printing, however this can be time consuming and add to your labor costs as well.

Ultimately if you are considering a flood or large inked up area, know that there will be variables. Letterpress is much different than offset in that way. Stay tuned for the other half of flood printing where we’ll go over paper selection if printing a flood!

Letterpress printed on 220# lettra paper, 2/1 pantone inks, trimmed to 2×3.5″ – For a set of your own, get an estimate, we’d love to work with you! If you have questions about a file, you can also email it over and we would be happy to advise.

I know I feel a sort of psychological connection to color. Yellow for a long time was a color I despised. I hated its flaming cheeriness (I used to be SO serious). Now look at me – I scream yellow! While brands should reflect more than just something you like or a fad of the moment, there should be some personal attraction to it. A lot of times branding has to grow up. I see many brands start with an unhealthy amount of color (think of rainbow suckers) and then over time neutralize to become more sophisticated. Some brands continue to express their bright colors but mature through typography so as to not loose a target demographic. In the end I like to ask my clients how they feel about their brand. If it is a new business, what drives them? Where is the passion behind the product or the service. Pair that with a target audience and colors start to pop up and fit together.

Below are color explorations for my lovely client Jolynn. These are not where they need to be yet but are getting there! I love seeing the process evolve.

These black letterpress calling cards were printed on a black 80# coverstock (I think it was AstroBrights paper). Black can be tricky on press because letterpress inks are very transparent and do not get good opacity when printing on dark papers. We like to recommend a color mix with opaque white to help bulk up the color (PMS Silver 877 works great too if you can afford to have a little tonality with the grey).

With the left-overs we decided to add a teal edge paint to see how it would take to the black. I feel like I’m having an 80′s flashback!

Because I just couldn’t get enough, I decided to see what a lavender would look like. If you want to order a set for yourself, you can customize them right here and we’ll make sure they look radical before they ship out to you! If you are unsure about color, stick with lighter hues. They will print and show-up much better than darker colors on the color wheel.

A few things about Matt, he really liked this flying pig that was rejected by another client. He claimed it as his own. Matt’s personality is all about having fun, enjoying life and having a positive attitude. He also snorts when he laughs (just kidding Matt, you only did that when you were a baby or when I was trying to choke you).

These cards were a custom duplex with Lettra 110# white and Revere 110# black. Duplexed cards can be tricky on press because of the extra glue between the sheets. That glue can make for a harder and less flexible paper resulting in a not-so-deep impression on the back side.

I still love how those skinny chevrons turned out though, BEAUTIFUL!

Thanks Matt for putting up with your crazy sister for a year and for being the best small business consultant EVER (next to dad who gives great legal advice)!

The great thing about single color letterpress is that when you re-print you can switch up the color to whatever suits your fancy. It is very cost effective in letterpress terms, and really creates a great minimalist look. Many people totally rule out single color business cards, but it is a great way to get creative with the design or illustration and a fun challenge to make the design interesting for one color printing.

Letterpress QR code business cards, printed on Legion Eco-rag 220# with registration black ink.

Edge painted in black ink, sized at 2.5×2.5″ – you can read the full write up on the letterpress project at FPO (UnderConsideration). So excited!!

Want some of these rad cards for yourself? Contact us for an estimate (they are quite well priced)!

Here we have her logo options in standard black and white to inspect kerning and spacial relations between each letter as well as the look of the logo as a typographic whole. Below is the logo presented in color with alternate ornamentation along with typographic pairing and patterning. Liz is going for minimalist and modern.

While these round 1 proofs didn’t quite hit the mark I’m really excited with where these are going and know they will compliment her collection as her business grows and expands.

When working on Stephanie’s design for business cards she wanted something that reflected her logo that we had done for her, but that also conveyed a look of minimalism paired with good organization. Her hierarchy was easy to work with and the logo helped hint us at where we needed to go with the stacking of her business name. The cards needed to be flexible enough for letterpress and offset printing as well as economical. Although we had the blush/grey with the heart going on in her branding, it was clear that we didn’t want to be overly cute with the design either. The emphasis on large margins helped with that sophistication, and the creative organization of the typography helped keep things playful within the design – ultimately not having it end up cute, but not having it be so minimalist either that it becomes stale. Below is the finished piece, what do you think?

Now I know I say this a lot about my clients but Natalie was SUPER awesome to work with. While we explored what felt like hundred of options, Natalie was really patient with us as we worked on her designs, layouts and typography to create a minimalist rockstar card for her new consulting venture.

When we finally got close to the design that Natalie wanted, it was a matter of then taking that and figuring out color and iconography to organize her information. This type was beautifully small and I love how petite it looks with their little matching dingbats and knocked-out type. I love the red on these too – it was a really rich and bloody color to print! Thanks Natalie for working with us and being so inspiring to work with. I am so happy with how these turned out, I hope you are too!

Letterpress printed on 110# Lettra paper. 1 Spot color ink, design and layout included.

To request an estimate for branding and letterpress work,
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All designs ©2011 Dingbat Press

We worked on Brittany’s branding awhile ago and she recently came back for more printed material. Above were her banner/avatar options, as well as final style guide.

Her business collateral now consists of letterpress business cards, with matching letterpress 4Bar flat notes and folded notes.

I love seeing how a brand develops and the styling really takes its own personality when applied to other pieces.

This was a branding package done for Gayle of Pickering Design. We explored many many options with Gayle in her branding and it all came down to art deco styling.

This project was a collaborative effort between myself and one of my good friends and freelancer Linsey Bair.
Linsey presented the base design that turned into the final branding work for Gayle and then we refined it and adjusted from there.

One thing that really stuck with me on this project was the color choices that Gayle made. I have a REALLY hard time mixing warm and cool colors, especially when they are in the same family. Gayle knew what she was doing and insisted on the blue, lavender with coral combination and I was utterly amazed when they finally came off press.

In addition to Gayle’s branding, we developed design out into her business papers, including business cards and letterhead.

Letterpress letterhead is something that I need to do for myself, especially after seeing these beauties in their finished state. The letterhead was printed on 120GSM Lettra soft white letterhead sheets, 2 inks and paired with matching letterpress printed no. 10 envelopes also printed with 2 ink colors.

Business cards were letterpress printed 3/0 on 110# paper with pantone matches for each color.

The envelopes were a little weightier stock and came from Wast Not Paper (Paper-source.com’s wholesale company). We matched WNP’s soft white No. 10 envelopes with the letterhead and they added a little thickness just exactly where it was needed regarding the take of impression and contrast of ink.

Thanks Gayle for being SO fun to work with, we are really happy with how these turned out and are honored to have had the opportunity to worked with you.

We designed layout of Hope’s cards in conjunction with Sarah Ewell, one of our freelance designers. Upon approval of the design, these were letterpress printed on 110# Crane’s Lettra paper. Two inks, pantone match, and dressed to impress. I just love the QR code on there paired with the circuit board. Sized at 2.5×2.5″, if you are looking for branding help or have your own design files ready and just need printing, please contact us for a request for a letterpress or design estimate. We’d LOVE to work on your next project!

In addition to the style guide, upon establishing the brand look, we can also apply the brand elements across to other pieces such as business cards, letterhead, notes, product tags and labels, and more.

Part of establishing a style guide is to help grow the brand equity, especially when its a new brand. By establishing color harmony and typographic suggestions, we help that brand (and the people doing the every day stuff behind it) to establish a relationship with it style. If there is a flyer or ad that needs to be placed, they can pull the typography suggestions and color suggestions to keep things in relation to where they want their brand to go. It helps create awareness and recognition across the board.

Whether you have your own logo but need styling help, layout, or want to start fresh with something completely new you can check out our branding section in the shop or request an estimate for a more customized package.