The cover for Novum’s 11/11 issue, designed by Caroline Rauen & Max Kuehne of PaperLux, shows that with a little ingenuity, a solid printer & die maker and few extra bucks, you can create something really stunning. The cover was printed by Print Arena.
Friends With Benefits is a collaborative printmaking project run by Baltimore based illustrator and printer Erin Wallace. In their first edition, Piles, seven different artists contributed artwork that was then beautifully letterpress printed in two colors by Erin onto 5″x 7″ cards.
The seven artists are, Andrew Neyer, Sam Alden, Jen Mussari, John Chae, Jordan Bernier, Alyssa Nassner and Luke Pearson. Each collection will be printed in a limited edition of 100 sets and sold for $65.00 on the Friends With Benefits website.
This Hello Greeting Card by designer Beau Eaton is a beautiful use of a technology not usually used for “print.” The card, which says hello in many different languages, uses laser etching to create its image and is cut from the chip board that Eaton has received as protective packaging from his printers. This is a beautiful use of technology, mixed with some recycling to create a piece that is quite stunning.
Hoban Cards is a brilliant little printing service for truly affordable and elegantly designed calling cards run by Evan Calkins, a printer, designer & web developer living & working in Olympia, Washington. For only $75 you get 100 personalized cards, in any of the 7 designs, letterpress printed on 110lb 100% cotton paper with a 1902 Chandler & Price press. The entire process is done on the Hoban Cards website, pick your design, enter your information and pay through Paypal.
Check out the short video below by Don Vintage of Calkins and his press!
This has to be one of the coolest and most original iPad apps I’ve seen to date! The LetterMpress app, being developed by John Bonadies, puts the entire letterpress process onto the iPad, allowing you to create “lock-ups” and print your files on a virtual Vandercook press. You can then export these files for use in your designs. This is a really cool project that I hope gets more people interested in this amazing printing technology.
Be sure to support the project on Kickstarter!
LEGO Letterpress by Physical Fiction, Samuel Cox & Justin LaRosa, is a really fun letterpress technique that uses legos instead of photo polymer plates. Its the perfect marriage of pixel art and letterpress!
These woodblock printed vintage maps by Best Made Company are really awesome! They are currently sold out on there store but another set is on its way. They are all hand printed with giant woodblocks on vintage road maps sourced from flee markets and bazaars.
Studio On Fire is a hybrid design & letterpress workspace in Minneapolis, Minnesota run by Ben Levitz. They produce some of the most beautiful designs and prints I have ever seen, and serve as an inspiration not only to me, but to hundreds of other designers out there.
Ben has adapted the military rifle creed written by Major General W. H. Rupertus, USMC, to reflect his relationship with printing, something that he cannot live without.
We should all be as lucky to find what we love and be able to do it everyday.
You can see more of Studio On Fire’s work here, or follow their blog here.
Totally exited about the upcoming release of “LinoType: The Film” a film about the amazing type setting machine that revolutionized the printing industry. The film explores the rise and fall, and ultimate rebirth amoung printers hanging onto the craft of type setting. The Linotype type setting machine was invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler, more affectionately named The Second Gutenberg, in 1884 and was widely in use until the computer took over in the late 80′s.
I’ve never been so memorized while watching ink be made! The video is about The Printing Ink Company as captured by Vepo Studios.
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