Her knocked out type was built up with extra stroke wight so that we could flood the press with a LOT of ink and by the time the letters started to fill in they were back to their “normal” weights. Serifed typography is a lot harder to work with and isn’t recommend (especially when small). If you want to knock out of a flood color area (knock-out meaning that the type is white or image area is white with ink surrounding it) then stick to imagery or typography that can be bulked with a stroke or two – that extra padding will make a huge difference in how your print turns out.

Another advantage to flooding with Vanessa’s cards was the selection of a lighter ink value for her cards. Lighter colors usually flood more evenly. The reason behind this is that all inks are transparent. With transparent inks, large coverage areas, and a textured paper can often have the flecks and texturing show through, lending a “salty” look to the pieces being printed. The darker the ink color, the more evident the salty look. While the press can be run with a double strike (run through the press twice) you can run into registration problems and more waste. You can also set up your press to ink the forme twice before printing, however this can be time consuming and add to your labor costs as well.

Ultimately if you are considering a flood or large inked up area, know that there will be variables. Letterpress is much different than offset in that way. Stay tuned for the other half of flood printing where we’ll go over paper selection if printing a flood!

Letterpress printed on 220# lettra paper, 2/1 pantone inks, trimmed to 2×3.5″ – For a set of your own, get an estimate, we’d love to work with you! If you have questions about a file, you can also email it over and we would be happy to advise.

Letterpress QR code business cards, printed on Legion Eco-rag 220# with registration black ink.

Edge painted in black ink, sized at 2.5×2.5″ – you can read the full write up on the letterpress project at FPO (UnderConsideration). So excited!!

Want some of these rad cards for yourself? Contact us for an estimate (they are quite well priced)!

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!

This was a 4 piece wedding suite for Jessica. We wanted to create variation between pieces but still have them tie together. Pool and black are her wedding colors, and she wanted an old-world feel to the invites.

Edge painted with a matching saturated pool, to set off her 1/8″ black border from the front of the invite. These were also packed in pool envelopes for the outer envelope, and black rsvp envelopes.

The invitation was printed on Lettra 220# with a full bleed damask pattern overlaid with registration black ink. The typography used was a pairing of Adobe Garamond as well as P22′s Zaner Pro.

The reception card was sized 4×6″, 1 color (black obviously) and printed on 110# lettra. We pulled out the damask pattern and changed the layout a little to create variety. I feel like I’m looking at some awesome black velvet when I see these stunning cards!

The RSVP card was a 3.5×5″ card printed on 110# lettra. The black border and simple dotted line were repeated in this card, but ultimately it was left with more negative space so as not to crowd the important information of making a meal selection.

If you are interested in a stunning wedding suite of your own, we do custom designs for all our suites. You can contact us to request an estimate for letterpress invitations and if you place your order by Feb 15th we’ll knock off 10% of your final invitation invoice as a Valentine’s Treat!

These were printed for my borther-in-law and his fiance for their wedding next week. We are so excited for them both, they’ve been waiting a long time for each other! These were printed on our new house paper (in the 220# stock) Legion Eco Rag. I LOVE it SOOO much better than the Lettra 220# paper. All I can say to describe this paper is, plush, pillowy and take a BEAUTIFUL impression. There are so many things that make this paper (in my opinion) better than the lettra. It’s soft – has a beautiful texture, and CUTS SO MUCH BETTER. My blade on my cutter dulls pretty quick with the lettra, but this stuff is like a hot knife through butter. There were some curling issues I think because it’s manufactured in a humid area, and we are a very dry climate, however by the time it was trimmed down and printed, and then trimmed to final size they were flat as sheet metal.

The typography they selected was an unlikely pairing, however after seeing it all printed out, I was really surprised at how they turned out. I think in the end the paring of Bernhard Modern with Raniscript was a great transition of bold to thin, with similar axis characteristics and stem extenders. What do you think?

We’ve continued to help Abby develop her brand with A6 notes, and now with elements to customize her blog where a majority of her current portfolio lies. Based in the DC area, Abby has a great eye and really captures her subjects beautifully. With the blog she had indicated wanting to take her brand in a softer direction, as she is currently working back into offering traditional film services along with her digital photography services. We were looking for a perfect meld of subtleness, but with her trademark hot pink still peeking through. Drop by Abby’s blog and see the design along with her beautiful work. Elements we worked on were blog background, with a vertical tiled pattern, as well as her masthead. We also did a little tweaking with some css and html to make it all fit together seamlessly. If you are looking for some budget friendly options to dress up your portfolio or blog we are offering starter blog branding services as well as fully implementing a custom WordPress blog designed to fit your branding. See our shop for the starter blog branding package or get an estimate for a fully decked out WordPress site customized down to the last image, icon and typographic nuance.

Stephanie is no exception to being a fun client to work with. I have really enjoyed developing her brand and here are RI proofs for you to peruse! Option 1 (above) was loosely based off of Stephanie’s current logo. We liked the signature that she had in there and wanted to explore some alternate and more fluid handwriting to continue to develop her current brand but take it to the next level. In reading her brief with her high end demographic and desire for a clean and modern/sophisticated brand we wanted to convey a Nicole Miller type look – something high fashion meets sophisticated casual. The color schemes here are a mix of lattes/greys and blush. We felt that in keeping the color palette neutral, it lent a more timeless aspect to her brand and helped soften the bold strokes of her name + juxtapose it with the light typeface of the “photography”.

Option 2 (above) is most definitely modern and clean. We explored an abstract camera lens with a rectangle backdrop. Symbolizing the movement of the lens capturing the moment in time. We felt that the mark could be used concurrently with the typography, or that the two could be used on their own as well – pending the application and use. Again we explored the blush/grey neutral, however also presented an option in black as we felt that black is often underestimated especially in the photography market. Right now everyone is going for bright and saturated colors, but everything will always cycle back to black.

This design strays a little from the clean look however we felt that by it’s organization and simplicity that it still reflected the modern Stephanie was going for. The biggest part of this option is the concept that reflected what she had indicated in her brief about the love she likes to capture in her clients sessions and the type of relationships she hopes to have with them. The care and devotion she put into her work was what we really wanted to focus on in this design and felt that it captured what she was describing for us regarding Steph’s client relationships.

This branding was developed as part of a branding starter pack from Dingbat Press.
All proofs + designs © 2010 Dingbat Press.

Option 1: We wanted to explore a hint of organic that tied in the N with leaf imagery. The Double N implies bringing light out of dark. Instead of a shadow we wanted a second implication that you are finding a more pure solution for energy in homes. We have separated nature and tek by color to differentiate between the two words but still have the logo not feel discombobulated.

Option 2: This is a more literal logo symbolizing the home and nature elements. The tree ideally would be blind impressed if it was letterpress printed. It provides a subtle second look to the logo and ties in the heirarchal importance of your services. We also wanted a tree that embodied energy and felt that the leaves radiating out could also represent the sun’s rays and help providing a look for the energy.

Option 3: This option utilizes a logo mark that can be used with the logo and typography or as a logo symbol on its own. We liked the leaf morphing into the plug and wanted it to create a double meaning, graphically representing green energy, and typographically, as the letter “e” within the logo. A third implication is that the “e” can also ask whether or not it’s referring to energy or just a stand alone logo.

To request and estimate for custom letterpress business cards or letterpress CD/DVD sleeves (we’ll help you with branding too if you’d like) then start here to get a super speedy quote from us!

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!

Letterpress printed as registration black, and with a blind impression on 110# paper.

We took the shape of the windows and softened them up creating a frame around Kim’s invitation typography. She was looking for a whimsical script typeface, and blind impression of a pattern that flooded the rest of the invite. The final printed piece: 2/0 letterpress printed on 220#/600GSM paper. Paired with pool envelopes and matching dark pool ink.

Photographed by Geri – she’s been working for me since December and has quite the eye for photography. Stop by her blog and say Hi, will ya! She’s fabulous. For an engagement Snowing Hearts photo shoot or you can see her San Francisco trip City by the Bay photos that are amazing too!

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.

While I can’t take credit for the lovely design of these, they sure were fun to print! This card was so awesome to see come off oress because it required really tight registration. I printed the blind impresstion first, followed by the pale blue background and dotted rules, and lastly overlaid the charcoal color. I was quite impressed with the blind impression stripes. I had no idea they’d pack a punch like this. Really cool in the end, thanks Toni for designing these great cards and letting me print them!