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.

I started to talk about the importance of branding and how letterpress can give your business cards a unique edge in the last post: Branding isn’t only for cows! Tweaking your design for letterpress will ensure that the final product has the right impact. Letterpress is a great way to communicate to your customers the quality and style of your brand which is why so many creative people print their business cards with us.

Another important aspect of your business card is the paper. While we can print on almost any surface (one of the many benefits of hand-fed printing), we use a cotton stock with a fluffy textured finish for most jobs since it provides the perfect medium for the impression. However when the project calls for it we have a wide selection of additional stocks that can be used such as the kraft stock shown above for the Sarah Powers Media business cards. We also used a kraft stock for the Isokon business cards we featured a while back in our What the Kraft? post.

The extra benefit of the kraft stock is that it’s made from 100% post consumer recycled content. We printed the cards in chartreuse and black ink which stood out pretty well over the kraft paper. We also rounder the corners to soften the look of the card.

So the question we have is: What paper do you like most?

Understanding how people perceive your company is an important part of running a successful business. Sometimes though, a logo or design that’s part of your brand isn’t always suited for letterpress and that’s where our expertise with design comes in handy. Inku wanted us to design new cards for his photography business (www.inkuphoto.com) using his logo. If you take a look at his blog you’ll notice that the logo has gradients and shadows which aren’t capable with letterpress, since each color is printed in a separate run on the press. We were able to render his logo in two colors and recreate the three-dimensionality of it using a heavier impression on the front of the card.

Using our extra-thick #220 cotton paper we were able to get a deeper impression than normal, which can be difficult when printing double sided cards. It’s important when designing your cards to take into account the overlap of the image on the front and back since this will affect the impression on the paper. If an overlapping design is unavoidable, we’ll make sure to print the back of the card first and then the front to ensure that the debossed image is preserved.

We also offset printed these gift certificates on shimmery pearl colored stardream paper to match the business cards. Although letterpress printing is what we specialize in, we do offer offset and screen printing on certain pieces as part of a whole project. So if you have any questions about your letterpress project, get in contact with us and we’d be happy to talk to you about your options.

Update: Want more information about this design, check out the Tangiers Save the Date in our wedding portfolio.

We love putting together new designs; the only problem is we never seem to have enough time to print them. So when we finally get a free moment we’re really excited to share our results with everyone.  We were able to snap a few photos of these new creations and we’ve decided to name them the Tangiers Save The Date. The blue dotted background looks really cool pressed into the paper … this is why we love letterpress so much!

The combination of the dots and Moroccan-inspired chartreuse frame gives the card a modern edge. Hopefully we’re not the only ones who think that these Save the Date cards are just so darn cute!

… and I was a photographer so I could use these cards!

Designing business cards for letterpress can be a challenging task. At its essence, any good design will provide a balance between information and style through the use of color, typography, and layout. With letterpress, its especially tough to balance all of these elements since its such a unique process but when you do get it right, you’ll know it.

We recently printed these business cards for Dave Richards, a photographer from Santa Monica, California. The colors on these cards really pop with cyan and black printed on both sides. The logo on the front and text on the back look great when printed together and since we used a thick cotton paper we were able to get a deep impression on both sides even though the designs overlap. Dave was also able to work cyan into the contact information on the front to break up the black text.

One thing to keep in mind when putting your design together is the number of colors (as each color is printed separately), single-sided or duplex printed, the amount of ink coverage, and the paper. When in doubt ask us, we’re happy to help!