The Dingbat’s Agenda

  • August17th

    Step 1: Framing, Insulation & Drywall

    Posted in: Business, Studio Remodel

    So as soon as it was decided, I have been dreaming about IKEA, the new studio, and SPACE with high ceilings. Sorry to shout, but I really was! Now, no project can be started without good measure of neglected children. One day while hanging drywall, this was the status of Brian’s missing Coke.

    The great American Baby

    Baby Charlie, knows his logos, and when he sees that red Coke can he starts screaming hysterically until he gets it in his paws. Thankfully, there was only one can of Coke available that day.

    West > North Wall

    Here is the west wall of the garage, and the north (right). Where the wall is, there used to be a garage door.

    After trying to photoshop this all together, I’ve decided I need to invest in a wide-angle lens for my Canon xSi. That west window was put in when we built the house, and the north windows were ordered to match the rest of our house, wood interior/steel exterior with grids. Click on the photo to zoom if you are so inclined.

    West & North Wall, Drywall texture

    I’m lucky enough to have one sexy husband who not only is the best fly fishing guide ever, but he also is quite the handy-man. He framed it out, insulated, and set the drywall. Saving me a ton of cash on labor! My sister-in-law’s brother (that’s a run-on for sure) did the electrical, and a handsome young man Jeff who is dating one of my employees Kenz, did the drywall seaming and taping.

  • June15th

    Registration on Press w/ Jenica

    Posted in: letterpress technique

    The Dingbat internship has been a blast! I’m learning so much and I’ve really enjoyed it. Here’s one of my recent insights to letterpress printing:

    Registration is an important part of every job that is run through the press. It’s the process of aligning the paper and printing plate to create a print that looks just as it was designed to look from the digital proofs. Basically, it’s making sure that the print comes out straight.

    The press prints only one color at a time. So, multi-color jobs are run through the press multiple times using separate printing plates for each run. For example this two-color job for the Tall Cello Man went through the press twice, first for the blue and then for the gray, and required two plates, one for everything printed in blue and one for everything printed in gray. To make sure registration is perfect, we use guide and crop marks which are printed in the same place on both plates. The paper and plate are then lined up so that the marks of the second plate lay directly over the marks of the first after the paper is run through the press.

    Sometimes the first couple runs will yield a print that’s a tad askew, but after adjusting the plate or the alignment of the paper as it enters the press, we get it spot on.

  • June14th

    The plate order

    Posted in: Business

    I order my photo-polymer plates from Boxcar Press. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to run my business from this rural plat of earth here in Idaho. There’s just something so majestic about working on concept and design for a client and getting to know them. The revising of endless rounds of proofs to make everything perfect – some may think this is beyond their patience level but to me it’s SO awesome to see everything progress and take on life.

    Just like my babies growing up too fast, it feels like jobs that go through the studio are birthed with lots of hard work, and then they grow with help and lastly they are printed with care and shipped off to a new home and to start a new life.

    I have these folders in my email client that I use to organize my jobs that are open. There are folders for each round of revisions that a client will fall into – in addition there are folders for estimates, invoiced clients, ticket phases, plates, press, finishing, and completed. Every week I’m getting plate orders from Boxcar and their customer service and attention to detail never ceases to amaze me. I haven’t yet had an order that hasn’t failed to meet my expectations, to which I am grateful for. Below is an order that came late last week. There are about 5 jobs on this plate that will all print early this week and will finish out and ship near the end of the week/early next week. I love getting my skinny brown packages and inspecting the plates and proofs, something beautiful to behold and why I  can hardly wait to get on press!

    Letterpress Plates & Proofs

  • March22nd

    Pantone Matching System

    Posted in: Business, business cards

    Blogging from sunny Palm Springs this week, it’s spring break and inventory time so I won’t be responding to emails but you’ll continue to get scheduled blog posts throughout the week! I’ll be back to business next week and will get to emails then. It’s our first real vacation in about 5 years, I can hardly stand it!

    Below is a job that recently shipped which utilized the Pantone matching system. Inks are quite unique in that they are transparent. So when mixing colors, one has to factor in the tint of the paper, the coverage of the design and the impression of the plates when printing via letterpress.

    Matching-Pantone-Numbers

    This card, for example, utilized extra packing on the nest mark because there is more coverage than the typography. When printing I didn’t want the ink to flood out of the type and look messy, and then have the nest look more light in value and transparent. With this particular card I packed certain areas on the press with a little more tympan (press packing) to make the color more saturated on the nest so that it would be consistent with the typography on the card – without flooding the press with ink and creating an over-inked mess. As with all hand-printed letterpress, there will be slight variation in value between some prints but consistency is key with inking between impressions and runs to keep the deck printed as close as possible to the initial color match.

  • March11th

    Copyright and Copycats

    Posted in: Business

    This issue I think is ever present in the design world today, especially with wedding invitations. Often I have clients come to me wanting a bid for copying another letterpress studio’s work.

    A hard thing is that many presses have similar design styles and use the same stock illustration (hello Dover) which I myself use on occasion. Be aware of your competition and be familiar with other presses so when someone comes to you, you know who they are trying to rip-off (emulate) and then offer custom design as an alternative. My usual lingo is this and it usually doesn’t send clients running:

    The kind rebuff:

    Hi ____,

    As a fine letterpress printer I value the copyrights associated with this design and feel it a conflict of interest to re-produce said design. These are beautiful invitations (business cards/logo/blog design, etc.) and they give me a good idea as to the look and feel of the event and/or piece you are trying to produce!

    I generally employ a non-compete policy in that I choose not to replicate other designer’s work due to copyright and licensing infringement. I’d be happy to work with you on custom invitations though and we can use those images as a starting point for inspiration, let me know if that’s something you are interested in…

    In saying this, I’m not reprimanding someone for wanting to rip another designer/printer off and am confident enough in my design skills that I know I can come up with something unique that will satisfy my client in the end. By the end of the design phase we are light-years away from the initial design presented (not that it’s better but it suits the clients needs without losing one’s design ethics and integrity).

    After having a lengthy discussion on Twitter regarding who’s responsibility it is to educate: we concluded that it falls into a lot of different categories – do we educate our clients, our interns, through mentoring – our children? Or are some people just born with integrity/ethics and others not? Whatever the situation is, I’m putting it out there that to YOU MY CLIENTS, I won’t copy another’s work. I want to make it work for you and am happy to customize for you – I’m confident that we can come up with a stunning solution!

    TO MY DESIGNER FRIENDS and those that read for inspiration:

    If you want to use this wording please be my guest as I want others to respect my designs as I try to respect theirs! You have worked hard to come up with your style, and your collections – protect them without driving your clients out the door :)

    Lastly, If someone comes to me with camera ready artwork, I make them sign a release stating that they have permission to use said file, and that I’m not responsible for printing said file. If it does indeed infringe on copyright of someone else, at least I’m not liable – I’m just acting as printer in those situations!

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