The Dingbat's Agenda » grey

Letterpress & Digital Printing

Adrienne — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:01:35 +0000

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!

Tangerine Tango, 2012 Color of the year

Adrienne — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:15:22 +0000

I’m just slightly infatuated with pantone, if you haven’t noticed. And this year the 2012 color of the year is Tangerine Tango! I love how the yellows are being infiltrated by the oranges now.

This was a wedding suite for a November wedding for Preeya. First off, she was SO fabulous to work with and had the most amazing mood board. (See at the bottom).

She was right on the money regarding color trends and the design was so fun to develop with her.

The suite was printed on 110# cotton paper, 2 inks, paired with gravel envelopes and dark gravel ink. Pieces included Invitation, Directions, Details and RSVP cards for the letterpress pieces, and then place cards and menu for digital pieces for the day of events. To price out an invitation suite like Preeya’s head over to the shop and customize your letterpress suite to your heart’s content!

Geek-awesome Valentine’s!

Adrienne — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:42:56 +0000

For the Jedi or Treekie love of your life, don’t miss getting one of these this Valentine’s Day! Letterpress printed on Arturo’s blush, mint and blue papers. Sized as an A2 card, blank interior and matching envelope.

Tiny Twiggette, 1/1 letterpress business cards

Adrienne — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:31:04 +0000

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!

2012 Holiday Greeting Cards

Adrienne — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:20:00 +0000

In addition to our holiday greeting cards that we launched last year, we’ve updated our New Year’s cards to 2012 and added a Dove Peace card. Get yours before the year is out for your holiday greetings. Sized at 5.5″ Square and paired with matching Square envelopes. You can order in sets of 12, 25, 50 and 100 (price discounts on larger quantities ;) and customizable with an interior greeting!

Minimalist Calling Card, 3

Adrienne — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:18:14 +0000

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.

Making pigs fly since 1984

Adrienne — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:54:14 +0000

I have to say, I have some awesome brothers. Both of which I love dearly! Matt, the little brother, worked for Dingbat last year before he started grad school and if you remember he did a few great posts on business Friday. As a thank you, these were supposed to be at NSS last year for him to hand out but they got lost in a shipping snafu and then buried for a few months back at the studio. I finally was able to find them and dig them out as well as photograph them and get them sent off to their rightful owner.

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)!

Autumn, Calligraphy Calling Cards

Adrienne — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:39:08 +0000

Calling cards never get old for me. Seeing the calligraphy by Kathryn of Della Carta is magical every time it shows up in my inbox.

These were letterpress printed on 110# luxe white paper in gravel ink with papaya edge painting.

Sold in sets of 50, this is a great way to get into a set of calling cards without the investment of meeting the press minimum of 250 cards for a custom print order. Get an estimate here, these are always a big hit for gifts for the holidays and turn around super quick!

Smudge of Ink, 6

Adrienne — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:24:55 +0000

All weekend I’ve been working on Evelyn’s Halloween costume. While all the girls are going to be Rapunzel this year I convinced her that we could make an incredible bird costume and she could be Jewel from the movie Rio. I’ve been pinning a lot of ideas for her costume but the big challenge was how to tackle the wings. I’ve been scouting all over flicker and pinterest for photos of angel wings, and bird wings as stage props or costumes no only to see how they are made but how the feathers are arranged. This is one of my favorite images so far, aren’t the colors awesome? I especially love that yellow lipstick.

Original image blogged by McQueen’s World of Fashion.

To download the swatch ASE for importing into Adobe Applications click here. To import the swatch book click your Swatches Palette > toggle More Options > Open Swatch Library > Other Library > click the .ASE that you want to import. From there the Pantone swatches will load in a new palette with the remainder of your tool bar.

Smudge of Ink, 5

Adrienne — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:04:33 +0000

Another Pinterest find, this also has a really awesome recipe for pesto on the source link below. Have you ever seen easter egg radishes? I might just have to try it out tonight!

Original image from Whitney in Chicago who also has an awesome Green Garlic Pesto recipe that is to die for!

Smudge of Ink, 4

Adrienne — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:42:49 +0000

As soon as I saw these baskets on Pinterest I thought how have I never thought of this before? While these baskets are ultimately hung on the wall, I want a stack of freshly painted baskets stacked like this on my kitchen table. For looks, and maybe they can hold some fruit every once in awhile!

Original image from Better Life Bags.

Evelyn, Frankie, Georgia & Hazel

Adrienne — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 07:14:41 +0000

I’m a push-over for vintage names – the less used the better. When I was pregnant with Evelyn back in 2007 I really loved the name Hazel. Then Julia Roberts had to name her baby Hazel. I was over ruled as well on Hazel because all my in-laws were joking about her being called Hazelnut Berry.

Apparently my husband was sometimes called blueberry (I can’t remember why). People are SO smart…or at least they think they are! After Hazel was ruled out, I defaulted to my next favorite, Evelyn, and the minute she was born she was my sweet Evelyn Marie.

In a world of perfect pregnancies, painless labors, mental stability and anti-aging bodies – I would love to have a few more babies. Wouldn’t it be so cute to have a little Frankie and Georgie (Francis and Georgia) running around the house making a wild rukus?

Usually I’m not a fan of the boy name for girl thing but I think Frankie and Georgie have got to be the cutest twist on a vintage name (and that would continue our unintended alphabet of names in the family : Adrienne, Brian, Charlie, David, Evelyn)

What are some of your favorite vintage names? Do you even like vintage names? Available with the rest of the alphabet in the Etsy shop, check out the rest of the letters. They’d be great for first names or last names!

A is for…

Adrienne — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:47:05 +0000

When ever you look at typography or monograms do you immediately go for your “letter”? I think the letter A has to be my favorite (obviously) – whimsical and fancy, these letterpress monogram notes are hard not to keep all to myself. If you remember back in May, these were debuted at National Stationery Show and were a HUGE hit! Due to our unexpected and complicated summer it took a lot longer to get these beauties shipped out to our new stores! The last of the packages have finally shipped just in time for holiday buying and are now available in the shop as well.

Ready to score a letter “A” set for yourself for FREE? Leave a comment with your favorite “A” name, or the “A” name of someone you’d gift this to. Tweet for an extra entry with the hashtag #BestAName and a random winner will be selected and announced Tuesday morning 9/20. Or if you are ready to buy, head on over and grab a set for the perfect holiday gift! I can’t wait to show you the others – stay tuned…

Printed on 110# cotton paper, scored and folded – blank interior. Sold as a set of 6 notes, letterpress printed in gold and silver ink & paired with matching metallic envelopes. Packed in a silver box and finished with 1″ grosgrain ribbon – ready for gift giving!

update!! And the winner is : Lorraine!

Stephanie Reinish, extending a brand

Adrienne — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:19:01 +0000

Hello! I feel like I’m back from the dead! I’ll spare you the gory and boring details and save it for business Friday. For now, it’s back to blogging and FINALLY back to work! You may remember Stephanie’s RI proofs for a branding project that I blogged about here. Part of making a brand work for a business is being able to expand it from the logo into the rest of the business collateral, be it business cards, packaging, promo pieces or website – how you extend your logo into an identity of yourself and brand extension of the initial concept will help make your business stand out from your competition. In Stephanie’s case it was extending her branding into business cards (her website is an awesome execution of brand extension as well).

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?

Letterpress paper experiment!

Adrienne — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:00:33 +0000

We buy almost all our house papers from Legion (letterpresspaper.com) – there are so many, and in varying weights and finishes that it just works when we want something special. Before National Stationery Show, Josh from Legion approached me about a project for his business cards for the show. He wanted the luxury of letterpress but printed on as many papers as possible so when handing out his cards, he could have an assortment of the papers that Legion offers and also show how the printing varies from stock to stock.

This is the first time I’d been approached about printing a full run on multiple papers. At first I was nervous but the more I thought about it, I realized it would be a great opportunity to print on papers that I don’t usually order on a regular basis (as well as try some brand-new sheets out).

Above are the initial proofs for Josh. We went with blind impression (indicated as a relief in grey) and the signature Legion green. I love reversing out imagery and logos because of the great “faux” emboss that is created. These cards were no exception to that really cool look. Stay tuned tomorrow for a list of some of the papers we got to print these on, as well as how we managed to make it work while running it all on the windmill!