We were as excited to print this collateral for Swiss CosmoLabs latest venture, Renouve, as much as we wanted to try it out. It’s the worlds first anti-aging hand sanitizing lotion! We’ve tried it and its awesome, but not as cool as the print work we did for them. The collateral included letterhead, envelopes, mailing labels, business cards, and promo postcards. We used a mix of 1-color offset and foil stamping on all of the pieces, and added a full color photo on the back of the promo cards. To add an extra pop we also edge colored the cards to match the same offset ink.

1-color letterpress tags printed on Arturo 600gsm stock

We recently finished these swing tags (the Aussie term for hang tags) for Casey Tanswell. If you spend a majority of your day around paper, you take special notice of the stock that almost everything is printed on like menus, hang tags, and letters. Paper isn’t always the first consideration when it comes to designing but it’s an important one that affects the print quality, impression, and overall look.

The hang tags were printed on Arturo 600gsm white stock in a medium gray ink. The tags were die-cut to their final size and to punch a small hole at the top of the tag for ribbon. For more information on swing tags, stickers, trouser tags and more email us (contact@dolcepress.com).

A black and white design accented with red edge coloring.

These letterpress invitations were for the Martin & Jorg Annual Christmas Party in Norway. We stumbled across them in our sample room and had forgot how nice the bright red edge was. The invites were printed on handmade cotton paper that was about 620gsm using neutral black ink. The line on the invite was left so that each piece could be filled in with the recipients name, a personal touch. After printing, each invite was edge colored in a bright red.

A large embossing die and counter used for the certificates.

We had the pleasure of creating letterpress certificates for Alyce Hoggan for the Kynamatrix Research Network, a non-profit focused on accelerating scientific research. We’ve worked with Alyce before, through Motivara – a Redmond, WA based graphic design firm. We took some photos of the embossing dies and the finished piece to give everyone insight into the production. Check out all of the photos after the break.

Here’s the assembled certificate. The finished size of the piece was 9″ x 16″ and had a final thickness of 0.42″ (220# lettra). Using the design supplied by Alyce, we letterpress printed the text using a Pantone Warm Gray 4U ink. Because of the size, these were printed on one of the Vandercooks. The cylinder press produces a nice clean/crisp impression that is uniform throughout the piece. Following letterpress, we mounted the embossing die and counter in our 12×18 Craftsman and embossed them.

In this photo you can see the fiberglass counter on the left and the magnesium die on the right. The counter is referred to as the male and the magnesium the female … (insert joke here)!

For most projects that involve embossing we use 1/4″ magnesium. Depending on the detail of the die, brass or copper might be a better fight but, they also cost more. Since the font was large with smooth lines, magnesium was the perfect choice. We always use a professional counter, they produce much better results than homemade ones made with epoxy.

We have a steel base that we use to mount magnesium to but this die was so large it didn’t fit. So, we had to fabricate our own base out of HDF (MDF’s heavy set in-law). We laminated several sheets together to get to the right thickness. You can see the HDF base in photo above (top-right).

Here’s a closeup of the emboss. It’s the perfect compliment to letterpress.

The word innovation spans the center of the certificate. One thing to be careful of when embossing is cracking on the paper. It’s especially tough with cotton paper. Embossing does mark the back of the sheet and while we minimized bruising for the letterpress portion there is still a faint bump.

The finished look of the certificates is very clean and simple. To keep everything clean, Alyce asked us to laminate an unprinted sheet of 110# lettra to the back side to create a 220# stock. We couldn’t have embossed a 220# sheet anyway … way too thick. The one problem with this is that once embossed you can’t trim them on a paper cutter (the pressure would eradicate the emboss). Once laminated we hand trimmed each piece to the final size.

 The letterpress text contains a description of each of the projects the grant awardees worked on. These certificate alone would make you want to apply for a research grant, right?

Because the foundation awards grants every year, we hold on to the die for future orders. This helps as the die/counter are a significant portion of the cost. You can check out some of our other embossing work here: Aeris Aviation, Joseph Vetrone, Brownfield Development Team.

If you’ve got questions about embossing or want to discuss a project involving it, feel free to contact us (contact@dolcepress.com) for more information.

Custom print for Future Mentors. It’s not everyday you get a certificate!

Today we have something special to share. We had the pleasure to work with Brian St. John to produce a really cool letterpress certificate. The certificates were for Future Mentors, a scholarship based charitable organization that focuses on helping young adults reach their full potential. It’s through the scholarships and events they provide that FM can ignite student’s passions and create great opportunities for them. Make sure to check out the photos after the jump … 

The certificates were printed on Crane’s Lettra 110# pearl white stock. We custom mixed by hand two ink for printing, an orange-red for the overlapping circles pattern and a medium gray color for the text of the certificate. In order to achieve a nice solid and impression across the full piece, we printed these on a Vandercook Universal III using photopolymer plates.

The finished piece measures 8″ x 10″. The orange overlapping circle pattern was printed first and the grey text was done second. The cotton paper provides a nice clean impression, which is what separates letterpress apart from other printing techniques.

The Future Mentors logo is displayed prominently at the top of the certificate. The logo reproduces beautifully, the thin lines of the arrow and the strokes of the text highlight the impression.

People seem to love overlapping circles as we’ve used them on so many business cards in the past (e.g. Justin Belcher). The one thing about creating a bordered pattern is that it makes proper cutting all the more critical. Not only do they need to be trimmed to the right size but also even from side to side.

One thing to keep in mind when designing for letterpress is that text and strokes print with a nice impression and crisp look more so than full solids or larger areas of coverage. Compare the look of the circle pattern to the text shown in the photos above.

We have a wide range of equipment in the studio to handle almost any design, but think that there is something so beautiful about letterpress type on paper. Keep It Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.) … did we just call you stupid? No, we just didn’t have our coffee yet and are a bit cranky, but the rule still applies!

If you’d like to make a donation to the Future Mentors – Pay It Forward Program, visit the contribute portion of their website. We think what they’re doing is really great. If it helps, think of the donation as an investment in a great letterpress piece!

We’ve worked with several 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organizations and appreciate all that they do to improve our society. If you’ve got a special project you need a quote for, we’d be happy to speak with you.

Corporate Invitations for Care Cloud – Practice Management Software

Get your head out of  into the cloud and take a good look at these invitations we recently printed for CareCloud. So what is CareCloud? The engineers and creatives behind the scenes have developed a healthcare ecosystem that provides doctors with the tools they need to build and sustain a great practice. We printed these invitations for a private event they were hosting to introduce CareCloud to physicians. Instead of letterpress, they opted for foil stamping to create a unique finish.

We foiled two pieces as part of the invitation set: the A9 invite and matching envelope. A9 seems like the perfect size for a corporate invitation with dimensions of 5 3/4″ x 8 3/4″. While A7 (5×7) is traditional for weddings, there usually is quite a bit more information for corporate invites so A9 works great. We used Rising’s Museum Board (2-ply) for the stock and WNP for the envelopes. Photos of the envelopes are first:

Here’s the CareCloud logo. You can see what it looks like printed on the envelopes in a single color.

Foil stamping or any printing method for that matter is trickier on pre-converted envelopes because of the differences in thickness. We hot foil stamped the envelopes on the front and flap using a black metallic foil. The logo looks great foiled.

Letterpress printing on stock usually doesn’t create a shiny finish but with foil, creating that effect is a breeze. As these photos show, black foil looks amazing on black paper. The next piece was the invitation:

There is something elegant and classic about silver metallic foil on black paper. Besides the fact that the image just pops off the paper, the silver foil catches light at different angles just like letterpress printing. For the silver we used a foil with a shinny metallic finish.

Don’t want a shiny finish? Then a matte foil is the perfect choice. There are so many different foils it can be dizzying to flip through the sample books.

While small type isn’t best for foil stamping, if you need to use small text make sure to pick a plain clean font. Script and embellished fonts may not reproduce properly at small sizes (less than 10pts),  the counters will fill in and the foil will bleed.

The design and layout that CareCloud supplied was perfect. They also took advantage of the shiny finish through the use of the bold letters in the “Cloud” Experience.

How does foil work? The process is really cool. It involves a heated base, a metal magnesium plate, and a foil pull setup on your press to advance the foil with each impression.

The plate is heated to an ideal temperature and the press closes with the foil sandwiched between the plate and paper. As the plate squeezes the foil and paper, the heat allows the foil to release from the roll like an iron-on graphic.

I want a heavy impression with my foil, will I get it? Ideally no. To get a great clean foil print you need a good mix of hard packing (in the press) and a slight impression into the stock (if its thick like this black board). Good foil stamping is about maintaining a delicate balance between impression and temperature.

Too much impression and the foil will bleed and fill in the counters of small type. Too little impression and the foil won’t print evenly especially in larger solids.

This photo is perfect to show the impression depth achieved with foil stamping.

Got a special event or release party coming up and need great invitations?

Contact us to get started, we’d be happy to help!

Letterpress pieces mix gold and blind printing with metallic gold edges.

To celebrate the weekend we wanted to share business cards and gift certificates we recently printed for Mike Rubendall of Kings Avenue Tattoo. Mike and the whole team at Kings Avenue are really talented but don’t take our word for it, see some recent tattoo work on their blog. Check out all of the pieces we did for Mike after the break!

If you look at Mike’s work it easy to see that he’s an artist and so it was really easy to work with him to nail down a design for both pieces that fit his vision. The set of letterpress pieces included a doubled sided business card and a gift certificate, both on 220lb Ecru Lettra, and a string-and-button #10 envelope.

The business cards were the first part we designed. Mike supplied us with art work for his logo, which you can see below is the same logo he has on the front window of his Massapequa, NY location. Mike went with the Ecru colored stock because it was the closest to skin color. He also sketched out his name in a script font which we used on the back of the card along with his contact information.

photo courtesy of Kings Avenue Tattoo

We edge colored the business cards in a metallic gold to match the ink on the front and back. Because we used the 220lb stock, even a single card has a nice shimmer to it.

The business cards alone were cool enough , but Mike also wanted to create letterpress gift certificates. We used the same 220lb Ecru for the gift certificates and printed them in blind and black ink.

Writing on 600gsm Lettra can be a challenge, so to make it a bit easier we pressed in rectangles for each section (above). Once the paper is compressed in these areas, writing on theme is really easy, even with a ball point pen. We created a knockout of the $ in the amount section so it remains puffed up after being pressed.

We paired the letterpress certificates with a string and button #10 envelope in black. As an added touch we printed the Kings Avenue Tattoo logo on the front of the envelopes in black ink to add contrast. The #10 size is perfect to fit a notecard or a trifold letterhead, and we love the string button look.

The gift certificates wouldn’t be complete without some edge coloring. So thats exactly what we did, we added a metallic gold edge to match the business cards, making these some of the nicest certificates we’ve printed! To make each certificate unique we also numbered each one as shown in the photos below.

If you’re looking to have certificates or other collateral printed, email or call us in the studio and we’ll help you get started.

Lastly, if you’re looking for a tattoo check out Mike’s shop in Massapequa, NY or visit his new shop in Manhattan on Bowery St.

Take a look at some of the work from MSSU’s Art Department.

Yesterday we posted photos of the letterpress covers we printed for the MSSU Art Department Annual and today we wanted to show you some of the work from the inside of the book. We wanted to make sure everyone got highlighted in this post so we posted a bunch of photos after the break. Both the art work featured in the book and the design/layout were created collaboratively by the students and faculty.

The covers were letterpress printed in black ink on both sides. The inside pages were digitally printed to reduce production cost. A digital press will lay down all four process colors in one pass which allows you to achieve a wide range of colors at a low cost. The quality of digital printing has improved drastically in recent years and can achieve screens and quality equivalent to most offset printing.

The first section features the works of the students. Take a look at some of the creative and unique things they’ve done!

The second section of the books featured the work of the faculty.

Here is a photo of the staples used to bind the books. Construction of the books after printing included creasing of the covers, scoring of the inner pages, folding/collating, and saddle stitching. The production involved a lot of hand work to create 400 books, but it was well worth it. We love the way the books turned out!

Letterpress covers on kraft paper that are truly shockling!

We recently finished the production of 400 Annuals for the MSSU Art Department to celebrate the design work of their students and faculty. We’re going to be posting about these books today and tomorrow because of how big they are. There was just too much to photograph! Today’s post will focus on the letterpress covers and tomorrow we’ll highlight some of the cool work featured on the inside of the annual. Check out all of the photos after the break …

The covers for the Annual Booklet were printed on chipboard equal in thickness to 110lb. lettra (~ .022″ thick). The stock is perfect for letterpress as it takes ink and impression really well. The design for the cover was a collaboration of the entire class. The final size of the compiled book was 8″ x 16.5″.

Since the booklet cover was made from one long sheet of kraft paper, we were able to print the front and back in one pass on the Vandercook cylinder press. Both sides were printed from photopolymer plates. We made good use of the fountain to ensure the design had heavy coverage, we wanted it to look really bold against the kraft stock. The cylinder press is great because we can achieve a heavy impression even if the design has large coverage.

The booklets were finished with a crease along the middle to facilitate folding. We normally use a standard creasing matrix but because the booklet had over 20 pages, the finished books were about 1/4″ thick. We rigged our own creasing matrix from scraps of matte board and locked up several steel rules to achieve a 1/4″ crease. The booklets were bound with a saddle stich running along the spine.

We were really happy to be a part of this project and glad we could put the students designs on paper. Make sure to check back tomorrow for a post about the art work on the inside of the annuals!

What is better than picking up a piece of clothing or accessory with a letterpress tag?

We love seeing our print work whether its when people hand out business cards, when they’re used in portfolios, or as a hang tag. Rabbitneck + Dotty creates hand bags and small leather goods among other things, based in Brooklyn, NY.

Laura Tiffin-O’Rourk, principal of Rabbitneck + Dotty, sent us her business card and hang tag designs to print. Both pieces were letterpress printed, the business cards in black, and the hang tags in black, pink (PMS 226U), and caramel (PMS 4645U) ink colors.

The hang tags were printed on duplexed 220lb Lettra and cut down to 3.25″ x 1.25″. A 1/8″ hole was punched in the top middle of the tag. The tag design is simple, balanced, and bright.

The business cards were printed on 110lb Lettra and cut down to 3.5″ x 2″. What we think is neat about Laura’s design for the business cards is her mix and use of font styles (instead of using color) that emphasize and separate the different bits of information on the card.

Do you look at the tags you see on clothing and goods you buy?