Round I for custom letterpress business cards for the fabulous Maylin Brito who photographs infants and really captures everything innocent, pure and peaceful about babies! Her idea was to create a mark or icon out of an acorn because out of small seeds come great trees. Can’t wait to see where we go with this on the next round of proofs.

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!

These Wall Envy letterpress cards shipped ages ago, but yet again I found them while archiving my photos. Vickie was really inspirational to work with. She knew exactly what she wanted and was great about providing the client brief to help direct me into the direction we should go. She an her hubby are a great photography team with killer modern taste. Right now I’m working on helping them re-brand their website and blog and all I can say is AWESOME! If you need more than just business cards, please just contact me for pricing. I’m reasonable and really love helping you get the bigger picture together with all your design elements in a row.

Letterpress printed business cards, 1/1 on 110# paper. 2.5×2.5″ Square cards with 1/4″ rounded corners.

Adam deals in rare books and manuscripts. He was looking for letterpress business cards along the line of something simple and one color. Here’s what I came up with for the first round:

After narrowing these mod wedding invititations down from the round I proofs and punching color to a brighter scheme, we explored some typeface options. This next round we looked at Memoir and Handsome Pro Classic along with illustration that gave a little more cirque d soleil and 60s vibe. The bride still can’t decide whether to have the layout done by a calligrapher so I tried to reflect in type as close as possible to what style she was going for.

The bride also wanted to explore incorporating a peony motif into one of the designs so here’s what we came up with on that regard. I can’t wait to see where these go for the final piece. They are going to be simply stunning when plated and printed letterpress.

These were inspired from the Beatles LOVE album and promo book for a truly mod wedding invite. The bride is looking for bright colors and handwritten typography. We established the layout first and are now on the hunt for the perfect calligrapher/handwritten touch on the first design.

The second has potential to be done in a calligrapher’s hand as well but I’m really imagining the potential of Buttermilk by Jessica Hische with the knockout and framed impression over the couple’s names…

The last option I revisited the hand-drawn mod swirly stuff (what would you call that – flourishes) with a more minimalist typographic treatment. It’s hard not to go overboard sometimes on these designs because I have to remember that the letterpress will change the whole dimension of the piece when printed. I tend to err on the less side in the design phases. We’ll see what the bride has to say!

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!

Internet has been sketchy all week as I’ve been traveling and making connections with buyers ;) – thus blog world has been scarce this week for me so I thought I’d send over some eye candy for the weekend. (yes I’m a slacker, i don’t often get scheduled posts up)

I know you’ve been waiting patiently for these. Here’s the final printed piece from Wendy’s business cards – click to see proofs and brief. Wendy was a doll to work with and I’m really happy with how they turned out. I finally purchased a corner rounder as well and Wendy was the lucky first recipient of the corner rounding option!

As I was talking to my mom this week about what orders were coming through the studio, she asked me why I loved business cards so much. As I got thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that I liked the challenge that each client presented to me in trying to represent themselves on a business card. I don’t like to offer cookie-cutter designs for business cards for the fact that I feel that it is more fun to work with my clients to create a unique piece. In turn, they get something that is all their own. My pricing is a little more than some competition and a little less than others but what I think sometimes people miss when they are looking at the bottom line is what they are getting in the package. All orders that come through the studio have the option (and it’s built into the price) to get a custom design for their cards. That’s like free branding on a business card scale to all of my clients! Thanks again Wendy for being such a great customer!

To see the most recent posts on other cards I’ve branded and printed via letterpress please click on.

Here’s another from RI for Kirstin. She sent over an inspiration board indicating a lot of things she wanted to incorporate into her wedding. As you can see, lots of blues and whites.

She also had a pretty mod/organic mix going on with the great art deco illustrations and balloons/circle theme. Wanting to try out some scandinavian folk art too as it runs in her ancestry, this round focused on the scandinavian tree of life with some wispy grasses incorporated. They typongraphy reflected the art deco/art nouveau time period in trying to keep an organic look and feel.