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    Screen Printing Solids
    May 31, 2009

    Smart Penguin Letterpress Cards - Whole Set

    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.

    Smart Penguin Letterpress Cards - Edge Painting

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

    Smart Penguin Letterpress Cards - Front Closeup

    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.

    Smart Penguin Letterpress Cards - Edge Painting Closeup Smart Penguin Letterpress Cards - Front

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    Bookmark | Comments (10) Category: Business Cards | By Alexandra at 11:12 pm

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    • http://thehivedesign.blogspot.com/ Laurie

      These look great! I love the details that you put into them.

    • Sean

      Very interesting, do you screen print one at a time, or print a large sheet, cut, and then letterpress? Very nice!

    • http://www.dolcepress.com Alexandra

      Thanks! You can do it either way depending on the design, but for these cards we screen printed larger sheets and letterpress printed the front and then cut them down to size prior to edge painting. The end result was really amazing.

    • http://www.print-n-ink.co.za/ Mandy | Print n Ink

      This is my first visit to this blog and its just fantastic, These have to be the most detailed business card that I have seen in a long time I just love the color and detail, look forward to coming back again

    • http://www.flatprinter.com/ flatbed printer

      This is my first visit to this blog and its just fantastic, These have to be the most detailed business card that I have seen in a long time I just love the color and detail, look forward to coming back again

    • Alan

      Hi Dolce, what gsm do you estimate these business cards to be?

      • http://www.dolcepress.com Alexandra

        These business cards were printed on our special 600gsm cotton paper, works really well with edge painting.

    • http://nicismynickname.wordpress.com Nic

      I am just noticing people using edge coloring more and more and I’ve never knew about it! Can you tell me how the process works??

      • http://www.dolcepress.com Alexandra

        Hi Nic, Thanks for reading the blog. It took us a while to perfect this technique so unfortunately we are keeping this method proprietary. You might want to check out a local college or university that offers printmaking and see if they offer any classes. Thanks and good luck.

    • Pingback: Your Business Card Sucks » Jacob Pierce

    Dolce Press :: Blog is a letterpress printing resource providing designers and printers with news, updates, and how-to articles on letterpress printing and Dolce Press. Written by Alexandra Daley, the blog covers topics such as letterpress suppliers, troubleshooting, new products (social stationery, wedding invitations, baby announcements, imprintables, and greeting cards), and other topics of interest. Dolce Press is a small letterpress print shop located in Central New York (Ithaca, NY) that offers a variety of services and products including letterpress printing, offset lithography, embossing, engraving, embellishments, stationery, invitations, announcements, imprintables, and more. If you have comments, suggestions, or questions please contact us by phone (516.353.9284) or email (contact@dolcepress.com).
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