The Dingbat's Agenda » pink

Pearls & Lace Proofs

Adrienne — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:22:52 +0000

Sorry guys and dolls, I CAN’T find my USB to the Canon. SO you are getting proofing week until I dig that thing up from the studio move.

Anne from Pearls & Lace provided a stunning logo. Sometimes I get projects that I just sit there and drool over because they are so beautiful. Anne’s logo was so great as a jumping off point for her business cards which will be 3/0 letterpress printed pretty darn soon!

We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with Anne and her great logo, and provide business card layouts and design that tied it all together for her. These will be going on press soon and I can hardly WAIT to see the finished piece.

What is your favorite?

Inspiration Home RI proofs

Adrienne — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:16:13 +0000

This was a RI option presented to the client, they wanted to explore flying pigs and boxwood wreaths for their identity for an amazing home interior design business. This project was collaborated on between myself, one of our freelancer’s Sarah and an employee Makayla and was a really unique concept to work on. Ultimately the client ended up going in a different direction, but I just couldn’t pass up showing you the flying pigs!

Dubbed Caesar Pig

Dubbed Vintage Pig

Dubbed Zodiac Pig

To request an estimate for branding and letterpress work,
please Get An Estimate as we’d LOVE to work with you!
All designs ©2010 Dingbat Press

Abby Jiu Photography: Final Cards

Adrienne — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:59:10 +0000

Hi everyone! If you are reading this via RSS, come visit to see the blog re-design! I can happily say that I am SO excited for a new launch and updated typography to the old dingbat. Over the next month I’ll be unrolling some new site features that will help with flow and navigation as well as your user experience over here. Thanks for your patience this last little while. I’m happy to put the drama behind me and get this all wrapped up!

Abby is a very talented photographer and asked us to refresh her brand as well as print her business collateral. We printed A6 2/0 notes on 110# paper, as well as matching printed envelopes along with her business cards and were involved in designing her client CD/DVD that a third-party manufactured for her.

These were some of the final designs presented for Abby before they went on press. She was going for a simple calligraphic swash to tie in her current logo and it’s typography. Sometimes I’ll work with another employee on a project to help them learn the process of design and how it ties into letterpress printing. My employee Makayla is awesome at creating pattern so with some art direction she was able to present a few concepts for Abby’s cards throughout the process. The patterns on the rear of this card specifically were put together by Makayla after briefing her on Abby’s goals for the project and getting feedback from previous rounds. In the end the card was a 2/1 business card, letterpress printed on 220# super thick paper. If you are looking for a great photographer in the DC area, click on Abby’s masthead below to link to her blog and view her work! Thanks Abby for being so great to work with!

Final Cards: KYD Designs

Adrienne — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:00:23 +0000

Note my wedding ring there in the corner – yep still missing. This is tragic!!! Send me remembrance vibes please! Anyways, these cards were a blast to design. Kenyatta is a great artist, so good at so many things. She had typography established and her logo and my job was to utilize those elements to create a one of a kind layout.

Above are the press matches to her specified Pantone numbers. These letterpress cards were a 2/1 color job, with 1/4″ rounded corners. Printed on 600GSM/220# paper these were super substantial upon being finished.

Don’t you just love these bright colors? I felt like I was being transported back into the 80′s. Thanks Kenyatta for being so fun to work with and for really letting me explore some wild options for this card. On another note, has anyone seen the trailer for TRON Legacy? This tells you I’m a nerd because I totally can’t wait to see it. These cards totally bring me back to the Tron days! Okay, I’ve said totally WAY too many times in this blog post. I’m a dork.

Real Wedding: Sarah + Jeff

Adrienne — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:00:31 +0000

Sarah came to me wanting a letterpress wedding suite that was bright, modern and sort of cirque de soleil looking for her invitations. To see her previous round 1 proofs and round 2 proofs click to link! Below is the final product. Curry and fuchsia were her colors of choice and they turned out totally awesome with the impression and reverse print band on the bottom of the invite creating a faux emboss.

Check out that close up! This was such a fun job to print and design. It really came together in the last design round and was so unexpected. Perfect for a fun summer wedding. Below is invitation/envelope, thank you note, and table card.

Business Cards: Sweetie’s Bakeshop Final

Adrienne — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:00:36 +0000

My mom is an amazing mother, and her food is what keeps me coming back home (and calling on the phone in desperate need of help at 5:30pm). When we talk about food in our house, my kids refer to grandma as the Chef. I’m just the cook. I count carbs, punch in the recipes on my iPhone for nutrition info, but grandma is the one who can take ordinary ingredients and turn them into a masterpiece. When I get to work with other people in the food business it reminds me of home, of my mom and all the love she puts into her food. These letterpress business cards were done for a passionate baker. Dulce of Sweetie’s Bakeshop makes really exquisite cookies and treats. I helped her work out her branding earlier and here is the final printed piece!

If you are interested in a sample pack of letterpress business cards from previously printed jobs or would like to request and estimate I’d love to work with you!

Process: Little Miss Emma

Adrienne — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:00:03 +0000

Emma had a great logo already established but we needed to adapt it for letterpress. Often gray-scale imagery either has to be bitmapped in Photoshop, or a line-screen needs to be created. Sometimes it works – like for Sandra Suy’s cards – however this cupcake, being multiple colors and of more minute detail, wouldn’t benefit from a line-screen print. Above is the process in taking Emma’s logo and breaking it into basic shapes with light and shadow that would print better for letterpress. The cupcake was re-drawn in Adobe Illustrator, the white areas were bulked up so the ink wouldn’t bleed in while printing, and there were one and two color options presented for the cupcake in her business card layout. Below, the final printed piece!

Proofs: Sweetie’s Bakeshop

Adrienne — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:00:49 +0000

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!

Real Business: Kerri McConnell

Adrienne — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:00:13 +0000

These letterpress business cards were for the fabulous Kerri McConnell who is another really fun and incredible photographer. Man I love you photographers! Kerri was looking for something, fun, fresh and modern (as you’ll note in her by-line). She was really drawn to the coach logo, something with a little vintage flair with a hint of modern clean lines and typography.

We utilized Bernhard Fashion and Estilo to give it an updated typographic vibe with a hint of Art Deco. Kerri’s old website had a lot of pink and she didn’t want to stray from that color as it’s one of her favorites. In the end we came up with a great registration black and pink design utilizing polka dots and a double-stroke border reminiscent of one of the old Coach logos. Thanks Kerri for being such a doll to work with, these were a really fun project for me to design and print!

Printed via letterprses on Lettra 110#/300GSM paper with 1/4″ rounded corners, 2 ink colors. Custom designed, you can get a sample set for yourself here to see all the different cards I’ve done and then contact me for an estimate for some for yourself!

When You Know, Pink Print!

Adrienne — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:00:23 +0000

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!

Signature Dingbat, Pink Princess

Adrienne — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:00:32 +0000

These were for my sister-in-law for her birthday. She is so amazing, beautiful and always naturally commands attention in a room. With grace and poise, she is a great example of hard work, diligence and most of all she’s a fabulous mom. I’m hard pressed to find another family with so many great in-laws, Happy Birthday Heather!

Mod Wedding Proofs

Adrienne — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:00:53 +0000

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!

Pink Calligraphy Calling Card

Adrienne — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:00:19 +0000

These letterpress calling cards were printed a few months back for Joy, but I wanted to print an option in blossom to see if there would be value issues with the lighter pink ink and the small type. I haven’t printed with light pink too much so it was a fun experiment to work on and I look forward to offering it to you from here on out!

Get yourself a set of 50 letterpressed calling cards by Dingbat Press.

Calligraphy on this card by: Kathryn of Della Carta
Other Calligraphers I also love that would do a fabulous name for your calling card:
Lisa Ridgely (Pen & Ink) | Emilie Friday | K is for Calligraphy

HTML Valentine!

Adrienne — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:14:42 +0000

Add one of these Be.MINE letterpress cards to your stash by entering the Letterpress Valentine’s Giveaway below!

These came about with all the html and CSS coding I’ve been doing on some new surprises. I thought it would be great to show some love to all those programmer nerds in our lives! You can get a single Be.MINE card in the shop or try to win one with the other goods in the giveaway linked to above! Printed as a 2 color/blank interior 4Bar letterpress folded card. Paired with a matching 4Bar envelope in blossom.

Love notes, GIVEAWAY!

Adrienne — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:36:58 +0000

Valentine’s is rounding the corner in about a month. If you need help trying to plan a surprise for your significant other (like me) then these letterpress LOVElies might get the ideas brewing:

So since it’s been ages since I’ve hosted a giveaway, here’s a special treat for you! I’ll be posting different letterpress Valentine’s product over the next few days and if you enter to win, the best TWO (2) comment/entries will get a whole set of everything below!

The GOODS:

1 set of Valentine’s mini notes and mini-lopes. (set of 4, 2 of each pattern)
1 When You Know Print
1 Set of Love 2×6″ Tags
+more…

TO WIN:
I can’t get a baby-sitter (I don’t trust teenagers with diabetic children, we’ve had issues in the past) – so I need ideas for a surprise night in for my hubby! He is amazing and I really want to do something special/fun for him. COMMENT WITH YOUR IDEA, MAYBE I’LL CHOOSE YOU (be clean, please)! I don’t know if any guys read here, but speak-up, your opinion counts!

Contest ends Friday January 15th, winners will be announced sometime that weekend!