Evolving Island (EI – www.evolvingisland.com) asked us to print letterpress business cards for several of their divisions in the Cayman Islands. These cards are double sided with two colors (black/gray) on the back and three colors on the front on thick 600gsm cotton paper. In order to make each division stand out while keeping consistent with the EI brand, the logo for each card was printed in a unique color.

Since each color is printed as a separate pass through the press, adding multiple colors to your business cards can quickly add up. Thankfully there are some ways you can make this more economical. The first and most obvious is to order more cards – either more per person or more of the same design for a group of people. A lot of time and cost is associated with file preparation and press set up, so printing more cards naturally costs less.

Second, if you’re printing multiple sets for different people or divisions, the more overlap between the designs the lower the cost. For these cards, the back and part of the front of the cards were repeated regardless of the division. Even though the EI logo on the front was printed in a different color for each division, the same plate was used and therefor only the ink color had to be changed, meaning less setup time.

If you’re in the process of putting together a letterpress project, the best way to get started is to send us an email … hopefully we can make it easier for you.

Classic doesn’t mean boring as these business cards demonstrate. Sometimes, a simple design can go much further than any number of colors or wacky designs, especially if your job is all about creating sophisticated spaces. Caroline Myers used a repeating geometric pattern as the main element of her cards. Based on a quatrefoil design, the background was printed using transparent white ink to add accent to the details.

While the cotton paper we use is already textured, adding a background pattern to these cards gives them a unique visual and tactile appeal. The use of black for the text contrasts the quatrefoil pattern nicely which is broken up by two bands that run across the width of the card. The last element of these cards are the rounded corners which ties in the round shapes that inspired the background design. What better business card for an interior designer than one that is both elegant and timeless.

Quite often we get clients who want a large solid color printed on their business cards. While some solids can work with letterpress (it depends on the design), sometimes its just best to go another way. These cards we recently printed for Jacob Pierce are a perfect example. The front of the cards had an normal amount of coverage so using letterpress wasn’t an issue, however Jacob wanted the entire back of his cards to be flooded with black ink.

Since there was no white on the back to show the impression, we decided to screen print the back of the card. Screen printing puts down quite a bit of ink so the black is completely opaque, which is more difficult with letterpress. The best part is that the texture of the cotton paper shows through the screen printing so both sides of the cards have the same texture.

We also edge painted these cards with a bright hot pink color to match the front. From any angle these card really stand out.

Jacob made use of quite a few fonts on his cards, the most interesting was the sketch font used in his email and phone number above. Since we letterpress print from polymer and magnesium plates, we can print any design (and font) you have on your computer.

In our opinion letterpress pieces look best when the text is kept to a minimum and the beauty of the texture and impression is front and center. But sometimes wedding invitations may need to include several inserts such as a reception card, directions & map, registry, accommodations etc…  At Dolce Press we have come up with a solution and are now offering letterpress printed invitation booklets.

These booklets are the perfect solution for destination weddings as well as save the dates. You can include information on places to stay and other travel details so your guests can be prepared well in advance. When planning a destination wedding, the more time you give your guests the better, especially if they are going to be traveling out of the country.

We printed this new booklet design for Leah and Zeb in three colors (chartreuse, charcoal, and blind). The pages are cascaded so that the tab for each page is easily read when the invite is closed. Each page is creased which allows the individual cotton pages to easily bend. Creasing is especially important when folding cotton paper, without the crease the paper would crack and bend in the wrong place.

The finishing touch to these invitation booklets is the perforated reply card which was done in a postcard style.  All your guest have to do is tear off and mail.  Simple and easy! (Don’t forget about the cute rivets in the matching chartruese color holding the neat little booklet together)

Take a peek at these business cards we designed for Cheryl (Child Photographer) of Little Footprint Photography. We picked a typeface that was a good mix of playful and professional. The cards were printed on a pure 100% cotton stock that has a slight texture. To make the cards pop, the text was printed in silver metallic ink. While letterpress printing metallic ink on matte stock doesn’t give the same shiny luster as on coated stock, it does give it a slight shimmer, which is subtle enough to catch your eye and make you take a second look at the card.

The closeup photo really shows the shimmer of the silver ink. We printed a small footprint (shown above to the right) as a blind deboss (no ink) and if you look really close at these cards you can even see the individual toes!

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There’s a world of difference between letterpress and embossing! People often interchange these terms, but in fact they’re complete opposites. We’re always blogging about our letterpress projects, but Dolce Press is about more than just pressing images into paper. We also can press images out of the paper, commonly referred to as embossing. Take a look at these pictures of one of our embossed pieces. Just like letterpress, embossing is another way to add dimension to a flat piece. More of our embossed work is sure to come, so stay tuned!

Check out these cool letterpress business cards we recently printed for Matthew Miller of  Studio Lab. Matthew has a great design aesthetic which you can see in these cards and if you don’t believe us take a look at his website for pictures of the clean and modern spaces he has designed. These cards take full advantage of the letterpress process using a combination of red and gray ink with a blind deboss triangular background. The Studio Lab logo looks great when pressed into the cotton paper. We really love the font he used, all of the little circles that make up the letters creates a unique effect.

The background pattern is blind debossed into the paper, an effect we’ve used before on cards such as Tina Chang and Penelope Jones. We get a lot of people asking about these “special” textured papers, they’re quite often surprised to find out that the pattern is actually a custom design that has been pressed into the paper. Our house cotton stock does have a slight texture which becomes smooth when pressed. The texture of the cotton paper helps to provide a nice contrast to the pressed designs, which is why these background patterns look so cool.

We print a lot of letterpress business cards and have found that more often than not people choose letterpress because of how unique it is, because they want their business cards to stand out. While almost any printing process from thermography, to engraving, and even offset are unique, people seem nostalgic about letterpress and the effect that imparts on the paper.

We really enjoy talking to people about their work, in fact talking to clients occupies so much of our day that we’re usually burning the midnight oil just to keep up. A lot of our clients are referrals; friends, family, and total strangers of previous clients who asked: “Who did your business cards?” This is the impression (no pun intended) that great business cards have on people. A great business card is something people keep and show to other people, ultimately your business card should work for you, not the other way around.

We printed these three-color (light blue/gray and blind) business cards for Jason Knight and his coworkers at Stage Right Enterprises. Jason wanted his contact information to stand out on the card so we printed his logo in a blind-deboss, after all what they do is behind the scenes. Instead of doing a traditional blind impression, we knocked out his logo to create an embossed effect on the paper. Accomplishing this effect does take more time but it definitely looks cool and feels even cooler.

If you’re interested in keeping up-to-date with what we’re working on, our letterpress blog is a good place to start. For those people who like to know what we’re doing every minute of the day, follow us on twitter: @dolcepress.

We recently printed these letterpress invitations for Michelle & Dustin who are getting married in Maine this June. One look at the invite Dustin designed and you can tell that the bride & groom have style. From the bold design to the blue and yellow colors we were amazed with how great the whole set came out. The abstract starfish really pops (especially the little circles) and the lines that swirl out make for an interesting effect when debossed into the paper.

We really like the layout of their names and the use of the blue heart on both the invite and envelope. The RSVP postcard means that everyone from the recipient to the postal carrier and mail sorters will get to enjoy the great design. I just hope that they all make it back to Dustin & Michelle! The use of RSVP postcards has been very popular recently.

We’re so lucky to work with such talented designers! Whether you’ve got your own design or are interested in one of ours, we LOVE printing letterpress invitations because we love how special they are to you.

Update: For some really stunning pictures and more information on the Sand Dollar wedding set, visit our portfolio.

This unique wedding invitation set designed by Jina (our awesome freelance graphic designer) is really amazing – perfect for your wedding by the sea. She was able to capture the essence of the ocean through the sand dollar, sea horse, antique maps, and more! The invitation set includes quite a number of pieces from the invite with a real sand dollar to an RSVP card, registry card, printed vellum layer, travel information and wedding events cards, and an invitation box with ribbon and custom sticker. It was hard to get all of the pieces to fit into one shot!

The RSVP card is double sided with an antique map on one side and the reply information on the other. A custom reply postcard is something we’ve been doing for a while but has been a popular choice among brides this wedding season. For more information on this design or any others in our portfolio, give us a call. We’d be happy to talk to you about the custom design process.