Great White Ink
Gasp. A day early, I finally finished the poster I’ve been working on all week. Ended with a white run that included all of the textual information for the 25th anniversary of a Christmas party held in Ft. Collins, CO. I was particularly pleased with the white ink, which is from a new vendor for me. Pricier than others that I’ve used, but with a much higher pigment content, yielding in a whiter white. Check out the closeup photo after the jump.
The printing passes were as follows:
1. Starburst background printed in translucent white, which is a mixing ink that acts very much like a varnish when printed alone.
2. Hand & string, printed in black ink. Illustration solicited from my friend Jesse Miller, a fantastic multimedia artist living in Seattle… check out the rest of his work.
Blessed Ornament
Third pass on the Spike and Mad John Xmas Poster. Changed the inking schema on the fly, as the metallic red I planned turned out to be way too reflective for the dark Charcoal Brown coverstock, especially since the starburst background is very reflective itself. By changing to black, the ornament meshes better with the string element… Net up: text and trimming. Right after I get some sleep and listen to this.
One Big Hand
Here’s the second pass on the Spike & Mad John Xmas poster, printed amid much cursing and knucklebusting on a cloudy Boulder Tuesday. The stars were definitely not aligned when I printed this run. I’m pleased with the result, but I had to fight the press the whole way… the inking system just wouldn’t stay in alignment for more than ten impressions at a time.
Tomorrow: pass number three, after a morning consult with the manual and a search on the Vanderblog, a great resource for all things Vandercooky. And maybe some magic, voodoo, or simple pleas to the universe to let this one go smoothly.
Starburst
In progress: the first pass on the 2009 Spike & Mad John Xmas party poster. Man, that’s getting to be a mouthful. Commemorative poster for the 25th consecutive Christmas party hosted and attended by a super group of friends who attended Colorado State University in the mid-to-late ’80’s.
Humbling Moments
Like when someone of Evan Hecox’s caliber asks for some letterpress printed business cards. Which he did, and I had to slap myself to make sure it wasn’t some self-promotional dream I was having. Nope. He’d finished designing a new logo for himself, and wanted some tactile, letterpress cards in a variety of colorways to match the fresh new colors on his website.
Crazy Xmas Card
Letterpress printed holiday cards have become more and more common at yr local stationers and online stores. This project is the card I printed for my family last year, which I designed as an interactive quiz/bingo game. Why bingo? ‘Cause it’s fun, that’s why. Lisa and I have written these whimsical quizzes several times over the past 15 years to reconnect and, in a nontraditional way, let friends and family know what we’re up to. And I felt it was time to move the quiz into the realm of the tactile.
At least it’s not a fruitcake…
I just finished printing these letterpress printed holiday cards, with super tight registration on Lettra Fluorescent white coverstock. While the color palette is certainly traditional, and though it uses one of the common holiday images (poinsettias), I tried to make this composition a unique take on the theme. I used overprinting and a loose illustrative style in combination with stitch-like linework to allow ample light into the composition, while the third ink color, a nice bright lime green, gives the card a nice cheeriness. Throw in a couple of birds for whimsy and call it done.
Well Rounded
Here’s a photo of the postcard I wrote about a couple days ago, a map of the British Virgin Islands. The round corners finish the piece off nicely, I think. Now if I can just get myself to this neck of the woods someday…
Destination: Lesser Antilles
Just a few production shots of a quick job that I picked up on Etsy’s Alchemy service (which is, to describe it simply, a service through Etsy where potential customers can post items they’d like to have produced by Etsy sellers. They include a brief description, a timeline, and a price they’re willing to pay; sellers, then, bid on the jobs, communicating directly with the customer through the Alchemy interface). These simple cards are going to be used as save the date postcards for an upcoming wedding. Printed on Crane’s Lettra Pearl White, they have the nice added feature of rounded corners to help create an authentic travel vibe.
Under the Pins
From a recently-completed wedding invitaton suite designed by Lincoln Young at Swell Creative in Denver. This image shows the save the date under the gate in my Rosback perforator, an oldschool perforating device that punches round pinholes rather than cutting dashed lines. It takes some determined setup, but the results are very cool and add a perfect retro vibe to the printed page.