#wrench vs. #mustache

We’re happy to reveal two designs created by Giuseppe Salerno (@beppeartz) of Resistenza for our June TypeCard celebrating Father’s Day (June 19th). Stoked doesn’t begin to describe how we feel about these, but we have a problem … we like them both so much we can’t pick one, so we’re putting the vote to you!

Voting will be open for 1 week at the end of which we’ll announce the winner. Post a comment below or online with the shortlink (http://goo.gl/QfD3S) and use the hashtag #wrench or #mustache to place your vote.

As a thanks for voting we’ll pick 5 random votes to win a free Father’s Day TypeCard.

We ♥ instagram.

We love sharing designs, ink, machines, and anything else we come across in our print-crazed lives. We just hit 900 followers and to celebrate we’re announcing a special giveaway. To mark the next milestone – 1000 followers – we’re going to give away 4 sets of 250 LETTERPRESS business cards (do the math, that’s 1000 free cards!).

Here’s how to enter to win:

1. Follow us on Instagram (http://www.gramfeed.com/dolcepress)
2. Post a photo of your business card design and tag us in the comments (@dolcepress) with the hashtag #freeletterpress

We’ll pick a winner once we hit the 1000 mark. Here are the guidelines for the design:

1. The design should be 1-color (no 6-color designs please).
2. The layout should be 3.5″ x 2″ or smaller.
3. The default color is black. (If the 4 designs picked agree on a unique color we’ll mix a custom ink)

If you’ve got questions about the contest or your design post them in the comments below.

“Mothers are the necessity of invention.”

We’re happy to share with you our newest TypeCard for the month of May. Letterpress printed in purple on 110lb. lettra and then duplexed to create a 220lb card, these cards will ship with every order during May. The front of the card features a quote by Bill Watterson (author of Calvin & Hobbes), and the back is printed with a small purple peony. We hope that everyone enjoys them and Happy Mother’s Day!

Stay tuned next month for an awesome hand lettered type card! More details coming soon …

We’re happy to announce (somewhat belatedly) the winner of our April TypeCard Design Contest, Evan Sittler of Evan Sittler Designs. We were overwhelmed by all of the submissions and the wide range of designs from cards celebrating Easter and Passover, to Sorry Charlie Day (April 6th) and Titanic Remembrance Day (April 15th). Evan’s winning design honors Scrabble Day which is celebrated on April 13th. Did you know that scrabble was originally developed in 1938 by Alfred Butts? Evan would, he got a degree in game development before he stumbled down the graphic design path!

Keep your eyes peeled for these TypeCards with your order when it ships in April, we’ll be posting photos of the printing and finished pieces over the next few days. As the winner of the contest, Evan will get a big stack of his design printed for FREE. As a special thanks to everyone who submitted a design, we’ll be sending out thank you cards with copies of some of our past letterpress TypeCards. If you submitted a design, you should receive an email with all of the details.

We’re always open to suggestions for new TypeCards or contests so feel free to post your thoughts in the comments below.

So three months have gone by and we’ve introduced three very different monthly Type Cards. April’s card is going to be even better! That’s because today we’re announcing a contest that will allow you to submit your own design. Here’s how it works: We’re going to be accepting submissions starting today and through March 26th, 2012. At the end of the submission period we’ll share the top designs and let   everyone decide the winner.

What’s at stake: The winner will have their design letterpress printed and shipped with every order we send out during the month of April (free advertising?). They’ll also receive 75 prints of the design and one of each of our previous Type Cards (that’s the printed FREE part).

Design Guidelines: The Type Card is meant to celebrate new/unique typefaces so we want to see how you’ll use type to highlight one of April’s holidays. Here’s a list of holidays this month: April 2012 Holidays. The most popular holidays include Easter, Passover, and Income Tax day. Some of the more odd holidays are Eight Track Tape Day, Barbershop Quartet Day, and my personal favorite National Cheese-ball day. The design should be no larger than 4″ x 4″ and 1-color (any Pantone color you like).

How do I submit: Please email all entries to submissions@dolcepress.com. For printing, we’ll need your file in vector format (preferably in Illustrator or PDF). Feel free to send us a short description of the design with your submission.

We’ll be updating everyone as the contest proceeds so check back frequently. We’re really excited about the contest and look forward to sharing all of the amazing designs. Now stop reading this and get to work on your design!

A letterpress coaster celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

We recently finished printing our third type card and wanted to share the photos of their production. In case you don’t know what our type cards are, they’re a monthly letterpress edition that celebrates a special day (This month is St. Patrick’s Day) using a unique typeface(s). Our last two cards celebrated Valentine’s Day and The New Year. Check out all of the photos after the break …

Who doesn’t love a good ink mix? We picked what we thought was the perfect shamrock green ink (PMS 355U), which included Pantone Green and Yellow bases with a hint of Pantone Black. The coasters were printed on 110lb Lettra in Fluorescent White on a Universal III Vandercook and die-cut on a 12×18 Craftsman C&P.

The design got started when we came across a unique typeface in Lewis Day’s Alphabets Old and New. We were excited to discover that type designer Nick Curtis (MyFonts – Creative Characters Interview) had converted the typeface into a digital font known as Ye Olde Block NF. We mixed in some celtic elements and knots and a few shamrocks for good luck and a letterpress coaster was born.

Place your order from today through March 31st to pickup one of these coasters when your order ships. We’ve got a special announcement for next month’s type card so stay tuned later this week for more details.

A closeup of the wax seal, ribbon, and A7 box the invites were shipped in.

Yesterday we posted tons of photos of Joe & Melissa’s wedding invitation suite (Letterpress Monogram Wedding Invites) and today we’ve got photos from their special day including some shots of the assembled invitations. The photos were taken and edited by Stephanie Baker of Stephanie Baker Photography. The wedding took place in August at the Rivermill in French Camp, CA.The bride and groom wanted a “classic aesthetic, injected with pops of color” – make sure to take note of the cyan bridesmaids dresses, colorful bouquets and centerpieces. Read more about their special day and see some gorgeous photos after the break …

Here’s what Joe & Melissa had to say about their invitations:

Invites often times get overlooked as a key detail that really sets the tone for the guests on the Big Day. Knowing this, I wanted our guests to receive the invites with the notion that their presence was our present! In doing research, I came across Dolce Press’ flickr feed and was instantly sold on the beauty and appreciation of detail that comes with letterpress. I am a furniture designer by day, so I thoroughly enjoyed working through the creative process with Alex leading up to the final result of our invites. Safe to say, they were a major hit with all 160 of our guests!–so much so, we received letters back with our response cards asking who had made them! Also the program fans were a godsend for our guests, given the day of our wedding was a warm 85 degrees! 

It was really fun to work Joe & Melissa! We were so happy to be able to help them kick off the celebration on the right foot. See all of the gorgeous photos from their wedding below:

This year we introduced a monthly print that highlights new and unique fonts. Last month’s card celebrated the New Year (Happy New Year Letterpress Card), and this month we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day. For the entire month of February, when your order ships, we’ll include one of these cards.

We used three different fonts for the design but the HeartBeats font was where it all started. Who doesn’t remember those tiny heart candies as a kid!

One of the best parts of the HeartBeats font is the knockout of each letter. A knockout like this creates what we call a faux-emboss, by giving the appearance of raised text. We’re in love with Appetite because of all great ligature glyphs that come with it and Singela is great unique hand written font. All of the fonts were found on the MyFonts website.

The card is 3″ square and was letterpress printed on cotton paper scraps with PMS Red 032 U ink.

Stay tuned for next month’s letterpress card! If you’ve got ideas for the card or a favorite font, share them below in the comments.

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.

The new year comes with a special treat from your friends at Dolce Press. We love new fonts but don’t always get to try them out. Starting January we’re going to be including special prints with each order. These prints will feature different fonts we love that might spark your creativity! This month’s card celebrates the New Year with three great fonts: Dusty Circus, Snob, Carolyna Pro Black.

Place your order now and we’ll include this limited edition card when your cards or invitations ship. Stay tuned for next month’s card!