printing stampede

After a few days of ordering paper and preparing plates, this weekend will be nonstop printing. I'm working on a corporate holiday card and several seasonal projects. I'll also be printing various items to sell at the Center For Book Arts' 32nd annual holiday sale on December 14-15th. For those readers in the NYC area, I hope you can stop by. It's a great organization and there will be a number of fantastic artists selling work. More on that later...

ex libris (part deux)

I finished printing the limited edition bookplates today, all in beautiful neutral inks. They'll be posted for sale on the Design*Sponge shop on December 1st. (I'll post a link when that happens) These were printed on Somerset Textured softwhite 250 gsm.

Holiday printing is in full swing, so I'm working on a number of different things right now. In addition to these bookplates, I printed a wedding and a set of calling cards this weekend. Next week is a large corporate holiday card job, with a lovely design submitted by the company art director. I'll post some pictures of that, permission permitting.

holidays with industries stationery

I'm so glad to be working with SoHo's Industries Stationery again this year. Last holiday season we collaborated on a line called "winter botanical", which was mostly clear inks printed on dark, rich papers. This year we decided to go with a very modern twist, printed in nice bright colors.

heart-stopping registration

Occasionally someone will ask me if letterpress printing is difficult. My typical response is something like, "No, but some jobs are more complicated than others." If the conversation continues, I always end up explaining the process of registration.

The wedding invitation I printed this weekend is a great example of the importance of accuracy when using two or more colors right up against one another. Since each color requires a separate run through the press, it's often a bit hair-raising to line them up perfectly. Katherine chose great ink colors here.

christmas ornaments

A very busy and productive weekend... I printed and delivered my final wedding order of November, and finished the christmas ornaments this morning. Then with the rest of my Sunday I posted them for sale on Etsy. I should be finished bookmarkers tomorrow or the next day.

happy accident

I spent most of today working on the christmas ornaments I mentioned the other day. I think they're a great use of the extra Cranes cardstock I bought from Shulman Paper. I'm going to continue working on these this weekend and open the "holiday shop" on the website soon. I'll be sure to post here when it goes up.

jasmin & john in futura

I finished these Save-the-Date cards last night and will send them out later this afternoon. I love this look, very simple and elegant. I'll be printing J&J's wedding invitations in early summer, using the same font with a different graphic/ink.

f train epiphany

Today was a lot of running around, gathering various materials for three projects I'm about to print. I had to go into manhattan to pick up some specialty paper for a custom party invitation, and on the F train back to the studio I realized that I had ordered too many sheets.

However, between the West 4th and York St stops I came up with a great Plan B. I've been wanting to offer a few limited edition items for the holidays, and this gives me the perfect opportunity. So with the extra paper I'm thinking of printing some double-sided christmas ornaments and maybe some special bookmarkers. Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner I'm going to try to get started this weekend. I'll be back with more on how that progresses...

a call from up north

Sometimes I am unsure about how certain designs and ideas will be received when I put them out there. I find that I get a lot of feedback on certain pieces, and then very little on others. When I originally found these vintage drawings of ladies' sports I felt like I had hit the jackpot, but I wasn't sure how relevant people would find them as greeting cards.

Last week I got a call from a diving coach in Massachusettes who wanted to use them to send words of encouragement to her team. What a nice sentiment...and a great reason to keep posting work, no matter how seemingly random.

outside design

One of the weddings I'm printing this weekend was designed entirely by the bride. It's a gorgeous layout, using only typeface and no graphic. This is my favorite type of project, because I love the chance to collaborate and get a fresh perspective. I've been lucky to work with some really great people.

This afternoon I'm working on compiling samples of all the jobs I've printed of third-party artwork. Leading the pack is this lovely wedding invitation designed by Missy Chimowitz of Fifty-Foot Girl.

attitude adjustment

These yellow and green inks are a nice departure from some of my recent projects. After a whole week of printing grey, black and clear, it was time to spruce up my desk and state of mind.

Today I'm sending off plates for two weddings, a custom birthday party invitation and some holiday gifts. I'll start on those next week, which leaves me the weekend to tidy up around here. The studio is still a little upside down from last weekend's now legendary business card job.

ex libris

Bookplates are finished and ready for delivery. The client chose a lovely steel grey ink on ivory card stock. Many of my recent projects have had dark or neutral inks - so I think I'll brighten things up today when I test some new plates. I'm thinking yellow or green...

stack mishap

Up until now I thought I had made just about every printing mistake possible, but I discovered a new one today. While running up ink on the rollers I foolishly left a stack of cardstock loose on the feedboard - and then managed to bump it directly down into the well beneath. The result was a whole stack of paper covered in oil, that's definitely a mistake I'll try not to make again.

Here are shots of an empty feedboard and a reminder from Heidelberg that, in almost all cases, its me who makes mistakes...not the machine.

bickham loveliness

This past week has been mostly layouts and typesetting, hence the lack of updates here. The weekend was busy with a mammoth business card job (3000 cards, all 3-color), and some more custom holiday printing. I'm loving this bickham font, which offers many alternatives for each individual letter (check out the different h's and w's below).

Bookplates will be done in the next day or two, so I'll be sure to post some shots of those when they're hot off the press.