The Dingbat’s Agenda

  • February2nd

    1 Comment

    Love by Phoebe

    Posted in: branding, business cards, Custom, extending a brand, posted by ADRIENNE

    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.

  • January26th

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    Fifi’s Beautiful Black edge painting!

    Posted in: Business, business cards, Edge Painting, Pantone, posted by ADRIENNE, Terriffic Typography

    You may remember these that we showed back as a sneak peek in October. And then of course I was slow to getting around to blogging the full set of photos! Fifi is from Australia and a recent grad and contacted us in hopes that 1) we shipped internationally, and 2) We accepted designed files for press.

    Lucky for her, we do both and were super excited to print these cards for her. Letterpress printed on 220# Arturo as a 2/1 card, I love the softness of the blushy-pink pantone match paired with the sophisticated black ink/black edge paint.

    Sized at 2×3.5″ and printed as an initial set of 250 (our minimum opening order for a set of custom or client submitted files) you can get an estimate for yourself here - we are already booking the press for March and April!

  • January17th

    1 Comment

    Letterpress & Digital Printing

    Posted in: business cards, Color, Custom, letterpress technique, OFFSET, Wedding

    Tilted Sky is a business by couple Lindsey & Stephen who shoot some pretty awesome wedding filmography for your big day. Lindsey approached us with a seemingly challenging project in that she wanted  the look of a gradient/split-fountain in a very small print area. Easy for flat printing, challenging for letterpress printing. After working long and hard on her files and the concept she was going for, we finally decided to go with the solution to have the gradient sky printed via flat printing on our 110# paper, and then ran it through our presses for the final print run with a light silver ink for their business info.

    Above and below are two pre-press proofs that we pulled for Lindsey so she could compare the color of the gradient, the value of the line screen clouds (which were hard to photograph but looked awesome in person) as well as the value of the silver. Above we have a more peachy hue, and below more pink with a lighter silver.

    Upon sending images over to the client for final sign off we hit the presses and shipped these babies out!

  • January16th

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    Die-cut and flood print, 1/1

    Posted in: business cards, Color, letterpress technique, What to expect...

    These letterpress business cards were designed by the client and were a fun project to work on. I LOVE die-cuts! Below is a great example of a flood print. In our artwork approval (your contract that you sign before we head to press) it outlines a few variables that are important with letterpress printing to note. One is color variation between prints. On our presses we print and re-ink between every 25 impressions on floods. This helps keep color consistent, however it can still be tricky. While we strive for perfect consistency, our product is part of an antique printing process. Unlike offset presses, our presses do not have digital inking fountains so all our print runs are done by comparison. Here is a sample “fan” of Elliott’s cards that we felt were a match to his pantone specification, and shows slight variety but still is consistent.

    Another letterpress technique to note is the reverse typography in Elliott’s flood. When reversing type out it shows a much better reverse impression is the image area to be knocked out is larger or more marginal. While there is a dominant and subordinate print side to all double-sided cards, you can still feel the impression because this typography is not too small.

    We’ve also noticed that with the use of the alpha-cellulose composition of the Arturo paper, it gets a MUCH better flood coverage than the lettra. I’m not sure the exact scientific reasoning behind this but I imagine it has something to do with the porous nature of the cotton lettra vs. the arturo and the fiber content of the lettra. From what I believe, the lettra has more “glue” making it not as responsive to rubberbase inks, thus the transparency and “salty” look are more prominent in comparison to the same flood on an Arturo paper.

    With that all taken into consideration, we still love printing on both the lettra as well as the Arturo but depending on the paper selection, you can come out with variables no matter how the process is tackled.

  • January12th

    2 Comments

    Calligraphy Calling Card, 59

    Posted in: business cards, Calligraphy, Calling Cards, Color, Edge Painting, letterpress technique

    Another lovely set of Calling Cards for Emily Ellyn I love the orange edge paint paired with the black ink.

    These were printed on 110# LUXE paper and edge painted with our signature highly pigmented inks with love. On these cards, I discovered that latex gloves really helps keep your hands from cracking.

    With all the hand washing, painting and heat gun settings, my finger tips have started cracking with this dry winter weather. Good bye cracking knuckles, hello latex gloves!

    If you are looking at landing yourself a set, it is a great way to get into some letterpress cards without breaking the bank and they turn around fast! Check them out here to customize a set of your own.

  • December28th

    1 Comment

    Tiny Twiggette, 1/1 letterpress business cards

    Posted in: business card proofs, business cards, letterpress technique

    This was one of those jobs when I received the files that I squealed with delight. This illustration is awesome, to say the least and we were so excited to be printing it for Tiny Twiggette. Lynn was so fabulous to work with and has some beautiful design work herself. These were printed on lettra 220# paper, in ecru. Pantone matched and printed as a 1/1, this is a perfect example of how a minimalist design and single ink color can be just as impacting with out all the hooplah of a billion press colors or changes.

    Sized at 2×3.5″ and printed as an initial set of 250 (our minimum opening order for a set of custom or client submitted files) you can get an estimate for yourself here – we are already booking the press for February and March!

  • December20th

    2 Comments

    What to expect… Flood printing, part 1

    Posted in: branding, business cards, Business Papers, letterpress technique, posted by ADRIENNE, What to expect...

    Picking up with the What to expect series today we’ll be discussing large coverage areas and floods.  Below is a business card design by Vanessa of NESS Design. It is a 2/1 letterpress business card printed on 220# paper. Vanessa’s cards got a really great ink coverage because of a few things.

    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.

  • December19th

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    Calligraphy Calling Card, 58

    Posted in: business cards, Calligraphy, Calling Cards, Edge Painting

    letterpress printed on 110# lettra paper, 1/0 inks (registration black) – sold as a set of 50.

    These were another set of calligraphy calling cards, however the client wanted to have the cards typeset instead of calligraphy. When sending out small sets of calling cards, this is our standard packaging so you can cart them around easily in a clutch, purse or messenger bag. To get yourself a set of letterpress calling cards, check them out and customize to your heart’s content!

     

  • December16th

    1 Comment

    Tropical Wedding Invitations

    Posted in: business friday, Edge Painting, letterpress technique, Wedding

    We are already two months into winter here so needless to say, my mind is wandering to more tropical climates. These shipped out for a destination wedding and let me tell you, I SO wish I was somewhere warm right now. We have  lose to eight feet of snow banks on our road in places.

    These were letterpress printed on lettra paper, 220# as a 2-color job. One thing I’m finding is that lettra – while a great paper – seems to exaggerate the “salty” look when printing large ink areas. It seems that paired with the texture and composition of the paper there is less ink absorbancy when printing a flood in comparison to other papers (Mohawk and Arturo come to mind specifically as having better absorbancy).

    In the end, I think it depends on what sort of look you are going for. The salty ink coverage can add a very unique texture to a piece, especially if you are going for a more rustic or vintage look to your wedding suite. However if you are looking for a more consistent overlay and less ink transparency then ultimately you’ll want to go with a less textured paper.

    Edge painted in hot pink, and paired with hot pink envelopes, I love how the salty print on these add character to the already flowing design. Do you like the salty look? Or do you prefer a more saturated look?

  • December12th

    1 Comment

    Minimalist Calling Card, 3

    Posted in: business cards, Calling Cards, Edge Painting

    Another Minimalist Calling Card that shipped out recently, these were printed on 110# lettra cotton paper in gray ink, and paired with an orangish/papaya edge paint. Sets start at $99 and go up from there if you want custom add-ins like an edge paint or calling card sleeves.

  • December8th

    1 Comment

    Calligraphy Calling Card, 57

    Posted in: business cards, Calligraphy, Calling Cards, Edge Painting

    These calling cards shipped out recently and were done in the Spencerian Script Calligraphy. I love seeing all the different names that we do for calling cards. They feel sort of like a fingerprint. While the design is the same between cards, they all still feel so unique because of the nuances of the flourishes and swashes within the lettering. I think in another life I would have loved to be a calligrapher, such a beautiful art that I have so much respect for!

    These were letterpress printed on 110# lettra paper, with Gravely/Cement ink and a red edge-paint. A great way to still get letterpress cards if you are on a budget, these are one of my favorite products to produce! Get a set here for the new year or gift them for the holidays.

  • November29th

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    BLACK FRIDAY, letterpress Tuesday

    Posted in: Business, Business Papers, Calling Cards, Edge Painting

    Never one to follow tradition, I received a lovely email from a colleague yesterday morning wondering if I’d hold my Cyber Monday promotions and instead launch them on Tuesday as part of a Letterpress Tuesday promotion – specifically showcasing letterpress artisans and their holiday goodies on sale. I of course opted out of Cyber Monday and am happy to announce that for the next 24 hours (YES, RIGHT NOW) you can get 25% off ANYTHING in our online shop until midnight tonight (MST).

    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.

  • November17th

    3 Comments

    Black Ink, neon teal edge paint

    Posted in: business cards, Calling Cards, Edge Painting

    These cards remind me of Breakfast at Tiffany’s – you? I could just see Miss Hepburn carting these beauties around to all her parties!

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