Posted: April 26th, 2013 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 100c, blu raspberry, bright white, calendar, California, custom letterpress, diecut, four inks, french, Letterpress, mohawk, pivot interiors | Comments Off
Pivot Interiors once again embraced their California heritage when designing their 2013 desktop calendar that we produced for them. In 2012 they featured classic California architecture and this year they showcased some of the golden state’s most notable cultural treasures.
All of the monthly pages were run at the same time on one large press sheet, which helps keep some costs down (we only had to set up and wash up each color once), but can also cause some challenges on press. As sheets are run through the press over and over, the paper can begin to warp, wreaking havoc on registration. Taking the time to properly trap all of the artwork in the prepress stage and watching the amount of impression while on press can help quell this.
The pages and outer folding wrap were printed on one of our large cylinder presses with four inks on Mohawk Via Vellum Bright White 100# cover. The desktop stand was letterpress printed with one ink on a custom duplexed stock comprised of Mohawk Bright White 100# cover and French Poptone Blu Raspberry 100# cover. After printing the stand was custom diecut and hand assembled.
Posted: April 5th, 2013 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 100% PCW, 130, custom letterpress, Design, Letterpress, minneapolis, mohawk, mohawk options, Poster, posters, Studio On Fire Products, summertime, three inks | Comments Off
Sure, it’s technically only spring and there may still be snow on the ground (okay, there is for sure still snow on the ground), but our thoughts have turned dreamily to the hazy days of summer. Inspired by our favorite parts of the season, this poster is hand illustrated and letterpress printed with three inks.
Printed on Mohawk Options 130# cover (a 100% post consumer waste sheet), the poster measures out to final size of 13″ x 20.” It’s available for purchase in our online store, so go ahead and “get some fun!”
Posted: December 7th, 2012 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: brilliance, calendar, custom duplex, custom letterpress, decorated paper, Design, diecut, four inks, hand assemble, holographic, Letterpress, letterpress calendar, milkweed, mohawk, store, Studio On Fire Products, varnish, via | Comments Off
Rolling into our store just in the nick of time for Christmas (so would that be in the Saint Nick of time?) is our annual Studio On Fire Letterpress Calendar.
Each year our studio picks a theme, a color palette, and paper stocks before recruiting crush-worthy illustrators to join us in creating custom art for each month. We claimed the January and July pages for ourselves before inviting Brian Gunderson, the Jolby dudes, John Malta, Sasha Prood, and Karolin Schnoor to round out our cast of contributors for 2013.
Artists were given the theme of Lucky Number 13 and asked to interpret it at will, resulting in a multitude of superstitious icons and ironic illustrations. We designed the tri fold outer wrap by stealing bits and pieces from the monthly illustrations, collaging them in a long strip to be trimmed off the press sheet and later used for packaging.
The calendar pages and outer wrap were letterpress printed with four inks all together on a large 26 x 20 size press sheet of Mohawk Milkweed 160C. After printing the individual months were trimmed down to a finished size of 3.25 x 5 inches.
To make the stand we first duplexed Mohawk Via Vellum Safety Yellow 80C to Decorated Paper Brilliance 12pt Tinsel Holographic to create a thick custom stock. After imprinting the stands with a tonal letterpress varnish they were custom diecut and hand assembled with the holographic stock on the inside (allowing a hint of holographic stock to peek out when the support of the stand is kicked out on your desk).
As a special bonus we are offering free DOMESTIC USA shipping on the 2013 calendars thru December 16. Enter coupon code FREESHIP (all caps, one word) in your cart.
If you’re curious, previous years can be viewed on our site: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.
Posted: July 26th, 2012 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 130c, beckett, bright white, brown, Business Cards, champagne, concept, crane lettra, custom duplex, custom letterpress, Design, duplex, edge coloring, finessence photography, finishing, flo white, Letterpress, mahogany, mohawk, photo folio, photography business cards, studio on fire design, teal, tonal, velcro closure | Comments Off
A husband and wife photography team, Finessence Photography had just adopted a new moniker and was looking for a fresh look when they approached us to handle their rebrand and produce their print collateral. While we spend a lot of time (happily) printing for other designers, it’s always a treat for us to act as the design firm behind a project that hits our pressroom.
For the business cards we created a custom stock, duplexing Crane Lettra Flo White 110C and Beckett Concept Mohagany 130C. The rich mahogany stock was a great way for us to counterbalance the ultra-feminine flourish filled “F” we created for the main logo with something a little more masculine. A custom brown ink was mixed to match the mahogany stock for the crisp letterpress printed type sandwiched between two bands of a sculptural teal pattern. We were also able to use one of our favorite finishing techniques, giving the slightly undersized cards a splash of teal edge coloring.
After completing the business cards we proceeded to create a photo folio and gift certificate to round out their set of presentation materials. The structure of the photo folio is a call back to the flimsy paper sleeves drugstore prints used to come in, but this version is a bit fancier. A custom steel rule die line was created, which included an interior diecut to hold the business card, letterpress printed with two inks, hand assembled and kept closed with a velcro closure.
We’re also pretty proud to say this system was a winner in the 2010 FPO Awards.
Posted: June 26th, 2012 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 160c, 320c, blind, custom duplex, custom letterpress, duplex, ivory, Letterpress, mohawk, mohawk loop, overprinting, smooth, two inks, Wedding, wedding suite | Comments Off
This suite, designed for Lindsay and Ben by their good friend Nicolas Carbonaro, is a great example of how to utilize overprinting inks. Since letterpress inks are not opaque, with the exception of metallics, a third color is created wherever two colors overlap–and in this instance, creating a great visual metaphor for love.
Another thing to note is the heavy ink coverage throughout the suite, so we required acknowledgment of our solid areas disclaimer before we proceeded into production. Printed with two inks, along with a blind pass, on Mohwak Loop Ivory Smooth 160c, the cards were duplexed after printing to create a hefty 320c stock.
Oh So Beautiful Paper also featured these, be sure to pop over to check out some additional pictures of the complete suite.
Posted: February 6th, 2012 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: bright white, calendar, Client Focus, custom duplex, diecut, four inks, hand assemble, Letterpress, loop, mohawk, pivot interiors, thai gold | Comments Off
Using the format we designed for our Studio On Fire calendars, the marketing team over at Pivot Interiors designed this 2012 calendar in celebration of their expansion into southern California. Created as a tribute to California architecture, this was used as a gift for their clients and was a great way for them to showcase their ties to the architectural and design communities. The beautifully detailed illustrations required us to keep a critical eye on the registration while on press and we’re thrilled with how tight the prints came out.
The interior pages and outer wrap were printed together on one press sheet using four inks on Mohawk Via Vellum Bright White 100C. The stand was printed with one ink on a custom duplexed paper made of Mohawk Via Vellum Bright Wht 100C and Mohawk Loop Vellum Thai Gold 100C before being diecut and hand assembled.
Posted: March 12th, 2011 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 280lbC, 3ply, black, Business Cards, cards, cougar, coupon, cylinder, edge color, edge tip, edges, heavy, Heidelberg, impression, ink, Invitations (non wedding), large press sheet, Letterpress, metallic, mohawk, red, show through, silver, skull, solid, thick, thickness, tonal, triple, triplex, wausau | Comments Off
This is a letterpress card designed by Jessica Raley at Bantam Design for Squarespace. They are busy handing them out at SXSW Music Festival in Austin this weekend.
And they took some time to print, seven passes through the press to be exact. Due to the card volume, we printed them on larger 13 x 20 press sheet 15up. They are printed on two paper stocks. Side one on Wausau Royal Complements Eclipse Black, printed with black, varnish, dark silver, light silver. Side two is Mohawk Via Scarlet Red printed with varnish, black and light silver. To hide impression show through we pasted them together after printing, adding thickness and rigidity with another 100lb cover sheet in the middle. The final three ply paper thickness is 280lbC. We trimmed the sheets down and edge colored them in a metallic silver.
Also check out the striking Squarespace business cards we’ve posted about previously.
Posted: March 8th, 2011 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 220lb, 320lb, antique vellum, bahamas, blue, business card, Business Cards, david copperfield, Digital, heavy, husk, ink, islan, Letterpress, loop, luxury, mohawk, musha cay, oversized, recycled, sand, sandy, textural, thick, thickness, thump factor, tonal | Comments Off
Sometimes when you run an island in the Bahamas, you’ll need a business card that reflects the surrounding beauty. This textural business card was designed by island director Cathy Daly for Musha Cay, David Copperfield’s lush 700 acre tropical retreat.
These cards were letterpress printed in three colors on an appropriately sandy colored Mohawk Loop Antique Vellum Husk, custom pasted to a 220lb weight. Note how the island seal is printed in with just tonal transparent white ink. After the letterpress printing, these sheets were pasted back to back with digitally printed sheets (with the island beach image) for a 320lbC final weight. Those sheets were trimmed into oversize 4 x 2 inch business cards and edge colored in a matching blue. 
