If you like letterpress and edge coloring then you’ll be a fan of these card we printed for Nurture Athletics, founded by Jennifer Landis. Jennifer worked with Cainkade, a creative agency based in NYC. The cards are well rounded using just about every trick from offset printing, to foil stamping, letterpress, edge coloring and duplexing! Check out all of the photos after the break.

The business cards were double sided but we started with sheets of 110lb lettra in fluorescent white. I tried my hardest to recreate the nurture logo with Jennifer’s cards above, I think that was a failed experiment!

The front of the card was printed with a flood of green-blue ink. Normally we try to match a colored paper if the client wants a full flood, but the stock didn’t exist so we printed the solid on an offset press to get a pantone color match. The nurture logo was foil stamped in a flat green pigment foil 1 shade darker than the paper for contrast.

The back of the card was left white and foil stamped using the same green pigment foil for the nurture logo. We letterpress printed the contact information in three colors: black, fluorescent green, and dark green (to match the foil).

The edge coloring was done after duplexing the sheets to create a 220lb stock. The finished cards were edged in a fluorescent green to match the light green ink used on the card. The finished piece is a great example of what different techniques can offer to a design without any one process overwhelming it.

Email us (contact@dolcepress.com) for more information on all of the different techniques and embellishments we offer.

Ecru white duplexed business cards with yellow edge coloring.

Barry Freeman (portfolio) is a California based photographer whose business cards we’re featuring on the blog today. As a photographer barry wanted to reference what he does in the design in an abstract way. While the original cards were designed on black stock, we worked with him to change the design and make it work on white stock. See more photos after the break.

Some quick 3D photos above of Barry’s cards (Front on top / Back on bottom).

We printed the cards on 110lb Ecru White Lettra, which was the perfect match to the yellow ink color Barry wanted to use. As with most double sided cards, we letterpress printed each side on 110lb stock separately.

Once the printing was done, we duplexed the sheets and edge colored the cards in yellow to match the yellow ink. The yellow edges is perfect at highlighting the ecru colored stock.

If you’re working on a business card and want to know how to incorporate edge coloring, email us (contact@dolcepress.com) for more information and pricing.

Add a pop of color to your card!

If you’re reading this you might be asking yourself, “what’s edge coloring?” It’s a special process we developed several year ago to add color to the edges of cards. Edge coloring has become a very popular finishing technique for business cards, wedding invitations, and social stationery. We we’re busy photographing print work this week and thought it would be the perfect time to highlight the process. More photos of colored edges after the break.

We’ve blogged a lot of cards with edge coloring and no matter how many times we do it, every card just looks that much better with colored sides. Above are cards for CFDesigner, AtMedia, and Joanne Hoerle. Below is a photo of bright green edges on french paper for cards we printed for Homer Liwag.

Edge coloring is a finishing technique applied to cards after printing. We can edge cards in any color, even metallic gold and silver. Edge coloring works best on thick stock which is why we recommend it only for 220lb or equivalent stock.

A popular choice with edge coloring is duplexing, a lot of these examples show either duplexed 110lb sheets or duplexing with French Paper or another colored stock.

If you’re interested in using edge coloring on your wedding invitations or business cards, email us (contact@dolcepress.com) for more information and samples. There’s no short supply of business cards to blog (see below).

We photographed some great cards for SightForStyle this morning, which were designed by Craig Leontowicz. We’re not stranger to Craig’s work, he designed cards for Tonic that we printed a while back (Hot Pink Business Cards). You can check out his portfolio on cargo collective here: cargocollective.com/leontowicz. The design for these cards took a different approach, they wanted to mix a modern and antique look

The cards used a mix of foil and letterpress and also a mix of stock, lettra and muscletone, to achieve the mix of modern and vintage looks for the cards.

The back of the cards was printed on Frewnch Paper’s Muscletone Black. The logo was foil stamped with gold metallic foil. The benefit of foil over letterpress is the wide range of metallic colors and special foils available. The metallic gold foil is shinny where metallic gold letterpress is flat with a slight shimmer.

The back of the cards was printed on Crane’s 110lb Lettra in an Ecru White color. The logo was also foil stamped in metallic gold and the text was printed as a light gray. After printing each side, the separate stock was duplexed to create a 250lb business card (black on the front, white on the back).

If you’re interested in mixing foil stamping and letterpress, email us at contact@dolcepress.com for more information and samples.

Nothing is more indulgent than a letterpress coupon. Today we’ve got a project we printed for Network Redux, a web hosting and data service provider based in Portland, OR. These cards were designed by Rhonda Spencer, a designer at freshfruit creative - a creative agency also based in Portland. We spoke to Network Redux before posting these and they said the promo code is still in effect: NetworkRedux2011 – which is good for a $50 service credit. Check out more photos after the break. 

The cards were printed on 110lb pearl white cotton stock in black and blue ink. We printed them 6-up on the Vandercook because of the solid coverage of the blue. We had to strike a balance between ink coverage to get a nice solid blue and keep the small text in the knockout clean and easy to read.

The final cards are 3″ square and the white text knockout is raised creating a faux-embossed effect.

If you’re working on a letterpress project, send us an email (contact@dolcepress.com) for more information, samples, and a quote.

Tight registration doesn’t begin to explain it.

Today we’ve got letterpress business cards we printed for Marcia Schneider. Marcia worked with designer Jeff Silva to create a card that represented her style and work in an elegant and modern way. Something unique about Marcia was her 36 year relationship and commitment to the San Francisco public library and community before her recent retirement. See more photos of the cards after the break.

The cards were printed on 110lb Crane’s Lettra in pearl white in two colors (medium gray / light blue). The front of the card required a steady feed and a good printer’s loop to keep an eye on the register of the gray inside the blue M logo.

Jeff and Marcia thought it was important to include a visual identifier to the design of the business card without being too literal — since Marcia is still undecided regarding future plans. A book was the perfect choice, its a universal symbol for the library but still a subtle design element. To integrate a book into the design, Jeff created the monogram – M for Marcia – out of two overlapping books, which represents her connection to the library and the community simultaneously.

Once the printing was finished on each side, the individual sheets of 110lb stock were duplexed together, cut down, and we rounded the corners with an 1/8″ corner radius. The final card measures 2″ x 2″.

If you’re interested in custom letterpress business cards, email us (contact@d0lcepress.com) for more information and pricing.

Today we’re posting business cards we recently printed for Chantale Fontaine, an interior designer based in Montreal, Québec, Canada (Her company is CFDesigner). She worked with Maxime of Maxetbert, a graphic design studio also in Québec. They wanted to combine a contemporary look mixed with a classic high-end finish (that’s where the letterpress came in). The cards turned out great with a good mix of color and a touch of edge coloring to add pop.

The card was printed on 110# white cotton stock and then duplexed to create a 220lb card. Chantale really focuses on the details of a design and is often said to have that “un petit plus” touch (it means ‘a little more’ for the non-french speaking readers). We actually did two renditions of the cards, the front started out as a blind press with a touch of transparent white but there wasn’t enough contrast so the color was changed to medium gray.

The back of the card continues from the front with the CFD logo and contact information. To add a touch of contrast Chantale’s name was printed in a custom purple color. Because the cards were duplexed, the impression from the front doesn’t affect the back (and vice versa).

 Kraft stock helps give this card a rugged look.

Hank, creator and author behind without baggage, came to us a while back to get new business cards designed and printed. Without Baggage is a unique travel blog, Hank doesn’t review hotel rooms, use words like intoxicating, or infuse his writing with clichés. His philosophy is traveling with as little as possible (or without baggage), which gives him freedom to explore and experience new things. If you’re planning a trip, I definitely suggest checking the travelogue out especially all of the great photos.

Hank worked with Andy, one of our designers, to create a unique card. They worked through several designs and revisions and came up with a card that reflects what Hank does.

We used a super thick kraft stock for Hank’s cards, even thicker than 600gsm lettra. The best part about the paper is that it’s 100% post-consumer recycled! Because the stock comes pre-duplexed we opted for a design with very little coverage on the back (to avoid bruising).

The cards were cut down to the standard US size (3.5″ x 2″).

If you’re interested in design and printing of custom business cards, email us (contact@dolcepress.com) for more information and a quote. To speak with one of our designers call the studio at 631-319-6639.

A simple business card with edge coloring.

Joanne contacted us to print new business cards for her – she’s a graphic designer in Nashville, TN. My desk was covered in paper this morning (not the fun kind!) so I stuck the cards on the tree and started shooting, it was a nice change of pace. The cards were designed by Joanne with a simple flower embellishing the text layout.

The cards were printed on 220# lettra in two colors: black and light green. We used one of our hand fed C&P’s, an 8×12 OS, to print the cards.

It’s always nice to slow down every once and a while and work on a hand fed platten press (from running the ink up, to setting up the guides, and feeding each piece of paper).

We printed the green first – we like to run light colors first because cleanup is easier. Once we finished printing, we cut them down and colored the edges in a light green to match the flower.

For more information on custom business cards and other stationery, email us at contact@dolcepress.com.

Silver metallic ink printed on French’s Muscletone Black.

After seeing the cards we printed for Lynn Biddle of Silver Leaf Studio, Mikael emailed us to get a new set of cards printed. Mikael is a swedish photographer / filmmaker, you can check out some of his work here: Mikael Norrman Photographer. Silver ink on black paper is always a nice look and a great alternative to silver foil.

Mikael submitted the finished design to us. We used French Paper’s Muscletone in 140# black, a paper that takes a nice impression. We printed the cards with PMS 877 (silver metallic ink), which has really good contrast on any colored stock.

The logo Mikael uses is a stylized shutter, shown at the top of the card. As an added touch, he put the contact information in a knockout on the bottom, helping to tie in the hand-written typeface used in his logo.

Check out these 3D photos:

We can’t print any color on black paper. Silver, black, and clear work best with letterpress printing. If you want to print other colors on dark paper, foil stamping is a great alternative.

If you’ve got a project that involves colored paper and have questions, email us at contact@dolcepress.com for help.