After being enamored with Jessica Morrisy’s business cards and Sweetie’s Bakeshop proofs, Jenn wanted an adaptation for her letterpress wedding invites. Going for a light/dark combo, the next round will explore some brown in replacement of the light blue. Latte maybe? I can’t wait to see how these turn out!

If you are interested in an estimate for wedding invitations contact me and fill out the form, I’d love to work with you!

In following yesterday’s SpudNut post, I felt it suiting to show these business card design proofs that were done awhile ago for Sweetie’s Bakeshop. Delicious and delicate, these cards were really fun to design. With this specific design we needed to make sure the pool color was light enough in value so as not to pose any problems with the pink over-print. Value can sometimes be an issue in letterpress printing (and offset too) because inks are transparent by nature so there can be show-through which needs to be accounted for when presenting designs. Thankfully the client was more than flexible with the color so we could make sure there was perfection in print quality and color hue. Can’t wait to show you the finished product!

Remember these East Bay holiday cards? Well, Grace contacted me wanting a letterpress fine art print done with the same design. Thankfully with photo-polymer plates I was able to just whip out the scissors and trim the holiday greeting off the plate and meet her request. Initially I wanted to do this as a portrait print, however in the end the landscape orientation just suited so much better. This is the only decent photo I got after about 50 different variations. I’ve decided that shooting prints are a lot harder than smaller stationery pieces. Enjoy!

Sold signed and numbered. Edition of 8, available as Letterpress Bay Bridge Print, 8×10 in the shop now! Letterpress printed on Fabriano for a beautiful crisp impression. 3 colors, red/silver/pool. Measuring 8×10″ and ships in a chipboard mailer for protection.  Sold UN-framed.

This was a custom When You Know heart print for Kara who is getting hitched this year! I hope she had a great Valentine’s Day. Brian surprised me and took me out (even though I had a big night in planned for us) with his dad baby-sitting the kids. A few diabetic emergencies later and the prognosis is that we seemed to have survived the weekend. Great job hubby for making me feel like one in a million despite my paranoid tendencies and crazy blood glucose readings with our little guy. In the end we got lots of snuggling Saturday night with all the kids and got to sleep in Sunday!

I’ve been holding out on posting these letterpress biz cards because they are just SO cool, and I didn’t know how to do the write up. I think they are one of my favorite to date on the blind impression scale. If you saw the proofs for Jessica’s two sister photography businesses you’ll know that there were two sets of cards produced.  One for her family clients and the other for her goddess clients. You’ll notice on her proofs that there was a light grey outline of her logo on the blue/grey samples. That translates well to a beautiful blind impression. This was the first time I outlined a logo instead of silhouetting it. The outlined impression around and the patten ended up looking sort of quilted because the paper pillowed around the perimeter as well as on the interior. Check it out!

I feel really blessed to have had the opportunity to work with Laura. I thought having three kids was a lot of work, but this woman is so inspiring, with 5 adorable children of her own, it’s amazing talking to her, looking at her incredible photography work and learning from her and her great strength! Check out Laura Reaux Photography to see more of what I’m talking about!

The nest was an initial exploration to tie in the natural and organic feel to her brand but to help expand it. In the end we just really liked where the tree was going. Check back soon for the final printed piece!

Another set of Signature Dingbat letterpress A6 notes. These were super fun because the client was ordering them for a gift and decided to mix up ink and envelope. Generally people choose matching ink/envelope combos with the envelope printed in a hue darker. This lovely lady made it fun for me because she wanted a contrasting envelope and then ink color the same on both the card and envelope. Printed on 110# Lettra in an A6 size, these are perfect as a bridesmaid gift, mother-of-the-bride gift, or for anyone in your bridal party!

Yet another fabulous photographer, Jessica Morrisy had me create not just one custom business card, but two for her two sister companies. She already had her logo, so I created layouts and pulled elements from the brand to add texture and content to her designs.

The first card is for her main business, the second for her boudoir photography clients.

Jessica was really great to work with, as she already had a good idea about what she was looking for so things went quick on the design end. I like how the direction from Jessica indicated that both of these be similar, yet still have their own feel to each brand. It was a little more challenging to keep them in harmony with each other. Check back soon for photos of the final printed piece!

I’ve had a few emails requesting to see the design proofs on Jessica’s cards so without carrying on much further here they are!

These card designs started as something more kinetic. From the beginning, the cards were going to have a blind impression and it was a matter of how to convey it best for Jessica’s brand and for the letterpress business cards. In the end she decided to simplify and focus specifically on her logo and contact info. To see the final letterpres printed cards and tags feel free to check it out!

These letterpress business cards and business gift tags were shipped over the holidays to another amazing photographer, Jessica Johnston. We went through a fair amount of proofs, and interestingly enough, round after round, more and more got eliminated from the card. I always try to consider using less in a design, as one of my professors once told me, “Take your favorite thing from your artwork/design or proof and eliminate it. It will become a better piece by doing so.”

I can’t tell you how many times that still rings true. I think part of being a designer is realizing how to humble yourself or your work. Many times when I am stuck, it’s because I think the design is perfect with that one little element. So often though when eliminating that specific element, I’ve just taken away my biggest crutch and can move on to a better and more refined design. Not all designs are subject to beautiful negative space and tasteful minimalism, however I think this piece pulls it off well.

Cards printed on 110# Lettra with 1/4″ rounded corners in tinted warm cyan with a blind impression.
Tags printed on 220# Lettra with 1/4″ rounded corners – same inks as cards. Punched with a 3/16″ hole, paired with matching 1/8″ ribbon. Get your own letterpress business cards here!

So I missed posting yesterday, too much letterpress jobs going out the door! To make up for it though,  I’ve got lots of free gift tag and place card goodies (personal use) for download this holiday season. Click on the image to be directed to my flickr stream where you can download the original image file direct to your desktop – there’s more after the jump so head on over and get some goods!

The original file is letter (8.5×11″) saved at 300% so just scale to size when printing out at home or the local print-shop and have fun! Cards measure 2×3.5″ when trimmed.

As a little gift to you, I’ll have surprises all week for you to download and prepare for the holidays! Free printable goodie #1, Dingbat Gift-wrap :) Click on the images to be taken to my Flickr stream where you can download the large image file by clicking on the images below:

The original file is tabloid (11×17″) saved at 200% so just scale to size when printing out at home or the local print-shop and have fun!

These letterpress moving announcements shipped out recently to one of my favorite clients, Sarah. When she came to me wanting some moving announcements, she had an idea in mind and then I went to the drawing board and came up with some options.

Her main concept was to have some sparrows in flight and wanted the wording “We’ve migrated” on there. SO cute! Since she had recently had a baby and had some custom letterpress announcements printed we wanted to keep a similar feel to this piece yet still have it be a fun project. Printed in navy ink on Arturo 240GSM paper with deckle edge, interior and exterior with printed envelopes, I’m sure they’ve migrated all over Australia by now to announce their move.