Posted: November 29th, 2012 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 100c, 110c, blind, classic crest, custom invitations, eclipse black, Fame Retail, Invitations, Invitations (non wedding), Letterpress, letterpress invitations, minneapolis, neenah, open house, royal complements, silver ink, solar white, speakeasy, tonal varnish, wausau | Comments Off
The fine folks over at Fame Retail hold an annual open house for industry friends and clients, building the theme around the booze and munchies they plan on serving each year (you may remember these bingo cards and these fair themed beauties). This year, with a nod to 1920′s prohibition, their team created a speakeasy theme across a set of cards that included mustachioed gents, pin-curled ladies, icons of delicate linework, and plenty of liquor lingo.
The card set was comprised of two stocks, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110C and Wausau Royal Compelments Eclipse Black 100c. The white cards were letterpress printed with a blind (inkless) impression before we ran them through the press for a pass of black ink. Silver ink and a tonal letterpress varnish were used on the black cards.
To top it all off, these invites just won PaperSpecs Gallery’s Take Note Award. Be sure to check out the nice video posted on the PaperSpecs blog.
Posted: July 20th, 2012 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 200c, Business Cards, classic crest, craig duffney, custom business cards, die cut, gradient, Letterpress, letterpress printing, nara, neenah, round corners, solar white, split fountain | Comments Off
More and more clients are starting to request split fountain printing, where we put two ink colors on the same roller to acheive a gradient. Craig Duffney, a longtime friend of Studio On Fire, designed these cards for Nara, a web personalization tool. In this instance, the pink to purple split fountain is a direct callback to the gradient background of the Nara website. After two passes through the press and duplexing back to themselves, the cards were finished with a custom rounded corner diecut.
Letterpress printed on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 200C.
Posted: June 19th, 2012 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: Business Cards, classic crest, custom letterpress, Design, diecut, duplex, eclipse black, Letterpress, letterpress printing, silver, solar white, tonal, varnish, wausau | Comments Off
Utilizing their existing logo, we designed and produced these cards for Ilumini Photography Arts, a wedding and fine art photographer based out of Hawaii. After creating a type lockup for the contact information we designed a custom diecut that would elegantly frame the ornate “I” logo.
Letterpress printed with metallic silver ink on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110C and a tonal varnish on the Wausau Royal Complements Eclipse Black 100C, these stocks were duplexed after printing before receiving the final diecut.
Posted: March 2nd, 2012 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: after printing, AIGA, aiga mn, blue, custom duplex, custom letterpress, Design, design show, diecut, Eggshell, green, Invitations (non wedding), lettepress, minneapolis, neenah, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Eggshell, overprinting, solar white | Comments Off
We are very involved with the Minnesota chapter of AIGA and always try to enter their annual Design Show that comes around each spring. Last year we were honored to win the “People’s Choice” award (voted on by those who attended the show) for our Golden Rule Poster. As per tradition, the winner of the People’s Choice is asked to design the show materials for the following year–we gladly accepted the job.
Under direction of the AIGA MN Design Show committee we were challenged to make an interactive object in lieu of the usual poster. Charles Youel jumped into the project as writer and after several meetings, sketches and cups of coffee, we came up with an idea to send a pair of cards with punchouts that could be used to actually build something on your desk. We had to go through multiple rounds of prototyping to adjust the construction and functionality of the die, but we couldn’t be happier with the end result.
The set of cards (everyone receives two, for a total of 16 punchout pieces) were letterpress printed with two inks on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Eggshell 100c, custom duplexed after printing to make 200c. To achieve the our final product, every card was trimmed down and run through the press two more times after printing to diecut with two custom dies–one used to create the slits and one to cut the shapes. A custom envelope was also designed and produced before the whole set was sent over to Shapco for insertion and mailing.
Be sure to check out the hash tag #designshow on Twitter as people tweet their creations and enter AIGA MN’s 2012 Design Show–online entry opens March 5th!
Posted: May 13th, 2011 | Author: Beast Pieces | Filed under: 165lbC, bright, Business Cards, classic crest, edge color, edge tipping, Letterpress, neenah, shell sheets, solar white, spot color, thick, webb de vlam | Comments Off
This business card was designed by Webb de Vlam as part of their new identity launch. With design offices in both London and Chicago, they wanted a card that would surprise and delight clients and employees. The variety of bright accent color truly brings this project to life. The overlapping colors in the logo mark also create dimension by overprinting ink colors – a nice print interpretation of the online media logo.
The business cards are letterpress printed on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 165lb C with four spot Pantone colors. There are three spot gray colors common to all the cards – that was the easy part. What made things interesting were the ten additional accent colors that switch out on the logo and edges – each person in the company receiving a palette of four color versions.
There has definitely been a trend toward larger companies using letterpress printing in their identities. We manage business card projects for companies with one person, or several hundred employees. These type of projects are most effective when they are planned with shell sheets in mind. A shell is a sheet with multiple cards ganged up that has all the common colors and logo already printed. That way, when a new hire or reorder occurs, we have those sheets on hand and ready to imprint on future orders. Typically, this works best and is most cost effective when the variable information on a card is planned in only one color. We advise companies to think about their card needs inside the next 18-24 months when ordering shells. Contact us to establish a letterpress business card production plan for your company.
