Search Results for: "a fine press"

Travel-Inspired Letterpress Business Cards from A Fine Press

Matthew from A Fine Press sent over the fabulous business identity and stationery that he recently designed for wedding photographer Karen Ard.  Karen loved the idea of incorporating a wax seal (such a great detail!) and doing something travel-inspired, so Matthew came up with an identity inspired by Southern California surf culture and business cards inspired by luggage tags.  The entire suite was letterpress printed on kraft paper in soft and beachy colors.  So lovely!

From Matthew: Karen was particularly drawn to the idea of a wax seal to bring her business stationery together.  She approached me with the idea of doing a travel-inspired visual identity and stationery suite that maintained a nod to her SoCal location.

For inspiration, we drew heavily from postage and postmarks from around the world.  We loved the idea of using the circle of a postmark as our starting point.  A friend’s surf video got me thinking about all the great surf-culture branding out there and the image of a hibiscus blossom on a longboard provided us with a clear direction.

Karen wanted colors to reflect the beach and had suggested we start with seaglass colors.  From there, we settled on teal, with brown as a second color along with cream and kraft-substrates.  For a typeface, we went with the Deco-styled Aviano Sans, which I found extremely evocative of vintage travel.

The print pieces were done on French Paper’s Muscletone Kraft with PopTone Whip Cream envelopes.  In addition to Karen’s official colors, I printed her 1-color logo in transparent white on her thank you cards to make it pop while keeping it neutral in color.  Her luggage tag-inspired business cards were printed with her handwriting filling in the important details.

Thank you so much Matthew!

Photo Credits: Karen Ard

Letterpress Illustrated Business Cards from A Fine Press

How adorable are these business cards from A Fine Press for author and illustrator Fred Koehler?  Matthew from A Fine Press letterpress printed the three-color design on Crane’s 110# florescent white Lettra paper.  I love the way the soft fields of color mix with the illustration outline, and the illustration itself is just so sweet.

 

From Matthew: Fred attended SCWBI in New York last month and wanted to bring a card that reflected the children’s book he was working on.  The gray is a halftone with some subtle shading around the outlines and in Jr.’s skin tone.  The shading and skintone went down so well, I almost thought adding the outlines would ruin it, but they really made it pop!  These were hand-fed on my Chandler & Price – the registration was a bear!

Thanks Matthew!

Photo Credits: A Fine Press

Marcus + Jillian’s Whimsical Kraft Paper Letterpress Wedding Invitations

I love the whimsical design elements and natural color palette in these kraft paper wedding invitations, sent over by Matthew from A Fine Press.  Designed by Laura Helm of Ashton Events, the invitation features hand drawn illustrations and hand lettering – all letterpress printed in soft white and gold by Matthew – and accompanied by navy and lavender envelopes for a fun pop of color.

From Matthew: We did a tone-on-tone theme for these invitations, using a transparent white ink for the return address, a shimmery lavender ink for the RSVP envelopes, and white and gold inks for the invitation and RSVP.  The whole invitation was printed on French Paper (Muscletone 140# kraft paper, Construction nightshift blue A7 envelopes, and Pop-Tone grapesicle 4-bar envelopes).

This is a great example of the compatibility between letterpress printing and  hand-drawn illustrations.  Laura created the illustrations in black ink on white paper, at which point they were scanned and sent for platemaking. 

Thanks Matthew!

Design: Ashton Events

Letterpress Printing: A Fine Press

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Matthew R Photography

p.s. Don’t forget to enter the save the date giveaway from Delphine!  Check out details right here!

Business Card Ideas and Inspiration #6

As promised, I’m back with a couple more stunning business card designs!  First up, Matthew from A Fine Press created these lovely, rustic business cards for Amanda K Photography…

Rustic-Letterpress-Tree-Photographer-Business-Cards

From Matthew:  Amanda brought me the branding that the amazing Jane Johnson did for her and asked me to help her realize this beautiful branding as a show-stopping business card.  These are printed on both sides in two colors on Crane’s 220# Flourescent White Lettra.  There’s a little bit of saltiness in the ink of the tree that, in my mind, brings just the right amount of rustic texture.

Rustic-Letterpress-Business-Cards

Rustic-Letterpress-Tree-Chandelier-Photographer-Business-Cards

Photo Credit: Matthew Wengard | A Fine Press

Next up, Carrie from studioSavvy sent over her super-fabulous business cards.  I’m loving the crisp black and white of the layered paper stocks (more on that below) and the mix of complementary icons used by Carrie and her business partner…

Black-White-Letterpress-Business-Cards

From Carrie: The cards were printed on a privately-owned letterpress by a friend of a friend.  We used 92# Reich Savoy for the top and bottom layers, and I had him sandwich in a 100# cover sheet of French Paper’s pop-tone in black licorice.  Overall there are 8 cards involving 4 complimentary sets of icons for my business partner and me.

Black-White-Letterpress-Business-Cards

Black-White-Letterpress-Business-Cards

Photo Credit: studioSavvy

Thanks Matthew and Carrie!

*A Fine Press is one of my fabulous sponsors; for more on my editorial policies, please click here.

Clayton’s Elegant Letterpress Thank You Cards

Matthew from A Fine Press recently created these amazing thank you cards for photographer Clayton Austin, and from the beautiful letterpress to the stitching details to the elegant wax seal these cards are seriously a work of art.  I’m particularly loving the simple bird illustrations that make an appearance in a few different spots throughout the card.

Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards

From Matthew:  We had the paper handmade with full deckled edges by Porridge Papers in their classic ecotan and a custom rust/brown.  They did the letterpress work in a matching rust and deep brown, and a blind pass for the front.  I hand-dyed the muslin to match the dark brown ink and stamped one of Clayton’s classic birds in a brown ink that, quite fortuitously, came out in a rust color almost identical to the front of the envelope.  The birds on the front piece were laser cut – one at a time – by Image Creations.

Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards-Detail Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards-Detail

Thanks goes to my wife for allowing me to borrow her (modern) Singer to bind the entire card.  Clayton and I vacillated between a zig-zag stitch and long, straight stitch for the bindery and have settled on a long, straight stitch for the remainder of the the cards to keep things simple and understated.

Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards-Wax-Seal Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards-Singer-Sewing-Machine

Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards-Zig-Zag-Stitching Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards-Bird-Detail

I had a custom wax seal made with another of Clayton’s birds and sealed each with Atelier Gargoyle’s Espresso Brown sealing wax.  These were early attempts; it takes a while to get used to the way this wax sets.  The key is a cool seal with a vapor barrier on it (when I completed the run, I kept the seal on an ice cube and dabbed it on a damp rag before each impression – the results were remarkable).

Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards Letterpress-Thank-You-Cards-Sewing-Machine-Detail

From the paper to finish work, this was truly a hand-made project.  The paper was hand-made and printed one-by-one.  The bindery was completed at my dining room table one at a time.  It was great to work with a client like Clayton, who places so much value on process and craft.

Such gorgeous cards!  You can check out more of Matthew’s awesome work right here!

{image credits: clayton austin}

*A Fine Press is one of my fabulous sponsors; for more on my editorial policies, please click here.