etsy, funky print studio story, hot foil save the date, hot foil tags, letterpress, letterpress business cards, letterpress calling cards, letterpress cards, letterpress save the dates cards, letterpress stationery, letterpress tags

Latest letterpress and hot foil printing projects. Bonus, exciting news!

We’ve been working like crazy lately and i figured i should share some of our latest letterpress and hot foil printing projects. Since there were quite a lot of them, i just had to pick somehow and it wasn’t easy. That’s because i really loved working on each of these projects! I loved the artwork (a bit of self-praise here, as some of them are designed by me) and i loved the end result. The best part of all is that our clients were happy with them too and that’s really the best feeling you could have regarding your own business.

So without further ado, let’s get started!

letterpress business cards

It really doesn’t matter what Pantone says, grey is definitely the color for letterpress. We’ve had so many projects in grey ink even from our very beginning about 2 years ago! Even now, the projects i’m presenting now are most of them printed in grey ink… You can’t deny the power of grey! Well these letterpress cards above rocked grey ink! gold foil tags

This time around we have gold hot foil tags. My personal favorite combinations for hot foil printing are the ones that use darker colored card stock; i feel like the shiny metallic foil stands out a lot more. However, it highly depends on the design too. And if it’s a simple, minimal design such as the one above, then it works wonders on our Snow White card stock as well!

letterpress hang tags

I was totally in love with the color combination of these tags and the design as well! Using 2 ink colors on small tags is not that popular, although seeing how these cuties turned out, i definitely think it should!letterpress square tags

Getting back to the grey area, the letterpress square hang tags above and the rectangular ones underneath are both printed in grey ink on our puffy Wild card stock. I love using this card stock for designs that have thin elements or thin fonts. Since it has 35% cotton in it, this card stock allows a deeper indentation. letterpress rectangular tags letterpress round cards

The design for the letterpress round cards cards above is absolutely beautiful (no, sadly, i wasn’t the one who created it)! Using grey papier mache for round cards is actually quite popular in our little studio. I never would have thought, actually…  copper hot foil save the dates

Finally, i am proud to say that the design for the copper hot foil save the dates above is created by me and is has gotten really popular! See what i was saying before with the combination of hot foil printing and darker colored card stock? We used a dark grey card stock (of course, back to grey again!) and copper hot foil.

Well, these are only a few of the letterpress and hot foil printing projects we’ve been working on lately, but you can see more of them on our Instagram.

And finally, i did mention something about some good news, right? Well, i am happy to say that starting tomorrow, we’ll have a special sale offer for our letterpress and hot foil printing projects!! So stay tuned and find out how you’ll be able to get custom letterpress or hot foil printed business cards, hang tags, wedding stationery, business stationery or any other type of card at a far better offer than usual!!

The Funky Studio Team wishes you, as always, a colorful day!

letterpress printing process hot foil business cards
funky print studio story, letterpress

About letterpress printing process, products and services. Tips and tricks

Letterpress is a printing technique dating back to the mid XVth century. Even though nowadays digital printing is commonly used as the main method for printing, letterpress is seeing a rebirth because of its unique feel, texture and visual effects. However, this revival, as opposed to letterpress’ use back in the day, is seen in fine arts, stationery, special events etc.

letterpress printing processHow does letterpress work?

The process back in the day followed a very strict, detailed, meticulous and precise routine: individual metal letters of various fonts and sizes were carefully arranged and put together to form the text to be printed; after that, ink was applied thoroughly over the letters and then they’d be ready to be printed by applying pressure. As an alternative to the individual metal letters, nowadays photopolymer plates are used, though there still are artisans using the old ways. At the same time, as an alternative to the hand-operated letterpress machines, automated letterpress printing machines are used.

Tips for creating a letterpress-friendly design:

  • avoid using fonts that are too thin or have fine details. During the printing process such details can be lost, so it is best to consider not using them.
  • avoid using more than 2 or 3 ink colors. Adding another color actually means starting the whole printing process all over again; each color gets its own plate and printing time, therefore, the price is surely influenced by the number of colors to be printed. Also, avoid overlapping the colors.
  • avoid using transparency, shadows, gradients etc. These can not be reproduced in letterpress printing. It’s either the color evenly spread or no color at all.
  • image files can not be used in letterpress and hot foil printing. So no, Photoshop files are not ok as they are image files. The designs used in letterpress and hot foil have to be vector files, grouped and converted to curves. That means you must use a program that creates vector files and the most common ones are Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator (.cdr and .ai files).
  • NO: .psd, .jpeg, .png etc. The design file has to be either .cdr or .ai or vector based .pdf.

Why is letterpress printing more expensive than digital printing?

Despite the use of polymer plates and automated printing machines, letterpress is still a highly complex and time consuming process. Setting up the machine alone takes a lot of attention and patience. Each color in a design gets its own plate and each plate requires a new machine set-up, washing and inking. The thick card stock used for letterpress printing is also not your regular card as well.

Why choose letterpress?

Letterpress printed products are high quality and luxurious; they are special, they provide an exquisite visual and tactile experience that will make it difficult for the receiver to throw them away. In this era of technology when all you need to get contact information is a mobile phone and we even started sending wedding invitations through emails, paper is indeed losing ground. However, letterpress printing came to show that a tangible, physical object will surely leave a lasting impression that will definitely be beneficial on the long term.

letterpress printing process hot foil business cardsWhat does Funky Print Studio offer?

Funky Print Studio is a family-owned and operated letterpress and hot foil atelier based in Bucharest, Romania. Our services include:

  • letterpress printing (we print on an Original Heidelberg Platen windmill from circa 1960) – edge painting, rounded corners, blind impression, emboss (as opposed to deboss = letterpress printing); we also make our own polymer plates in house
  • hot foil printing – various foil colors
  • die cutting – cutting card stock in whatever shape and size using custom dies
  • finishing processes – cutting, folding, perforating, drilling

We do our very best to revive antique machinery and printing processes in order to create impressive details that will be treasured for a long time.

appreciating letterpress
letterpress

Appreciating Letterpress Art and Other Traditional Printing Methods

Although the modern era led publications to shift to digital mediums, traditional printing is still kept alive in many parts of the world. Letterpress remains an effective channel to spread news or information and an instrument in making crafts like packaging material and business cards.

There are people though, who are truly passionate in letterpress printing that they have turned it into a form of art. There are exhibits and museums around the world dedicated to the printing press and everything that’s connected to it.

appreciating letterpressThe Museum of Printing is one, which recently settled into its new and improved venue in Haverhill, Massachusetts. What They Think specified that the museum currently displays more than 50 tons of printing equipment and over 6,000 books on display.

It’s just a portion of the grandeur of the printing age, and yet it’s already hard to grasp what you can see and experience in this single museum. Among the most notable items are printing equipment from the Civil War period as well as vintage printers and scanners.

Elsewhere, the Virgil Getto Hall Art Gallery in Western Nevada College (WNC) at Fallon City is more focused on letterpress art as it acknowledges the works of people who enjoy letterpress printing. The WNC website mentioned that the exhibit, titled “Words + Images: Broadsides from the Black Rock Press,” will be on display until October 26.

More than 30 broadsides made using letterpress processes and tools such as handset type and relief plates are lined up along the halls of the gallery. There’s no admission fee to encourage more visitors and spread the dedication of writers and printers.

One of Nevada’s respected writers, Robert Laxalt, is featured through quotations included on the broadsides. Book artists, printmakers, and students also assisted in making the exhibit happen.

Truly, letterpress and printing were, and still are, significant instruments in the progress of society. Without them, reading your broadsheet while having your coffee in the morning wouldn’t be possible, and that’s just among the simplest forms of their value. Everyone, from the average person to the greatest historical figures should know their importance.

appreciating letterpressEven the great Renaissance man was keen on letterpress work. It’s a fact that Leonardo da Vinci is now immortalised through his artworks, numerous films such as Leonardo da Vinci: The Genius in Milan and games like Da Vinci Diamonds which incorporates the artist’s artworks as slot symbols. Aside from his paintings, however, the man was also a prolific inventor, and one of his creations was a letterpress machine which Trib Live described as a favourite in exhibits that recognise his brilliant inventions.

In short, all the books you’ve read, posters you’ve seen, and other printed material you’ve encountered can trace their origins to the traditional methods of printing. You might’ve not known the meaning of the word appreciation without books like dictionaries that you or your teachers have read. Thus, it only seems fair to direct at least a little appreciation to the art of printing.

letterpress cards
etsy, funky box studio, funky print studio story, letterpress, rant

Funky Studio updates. What have we been doing lately?

It was about time i put together a Funky Studio updates post. Even though i promised myself i’d blog as much as possible this year, we’re quite busy lately. I’m over the top happy to say that our Free Shipping letterpress in February promotion has a lot to do with our busy schedule.

funky studio updatesWe’re currently working on a bunch of different letterpress projects and each one has something special: lovely letterpress wedding invitations with two ink colors, round letterpress business cards, custom designs for some business cards and on top of all these, we’re also making about 1000 different boxes for our packaging shop. All in all, we’re working hard, so we definitely needed a Funky Studio updates post!

Moreover, we’re also preparing for something big: expanding our little studio’s activity again! We first began with our boxes and paper supplies, were thrilled to throw ourselves into the letterpress world and now, finally, the time has come for the ultimate upgrade: hot foil printing! Although we haven’t officially introduced hot foil as part of our services yet, we’ve already had our first project using this kind of printing and we’re ecstatic! We’re also reminded of our letterpress beginnings: just like it happened now, we took on a letterpress project before even opening our website or shop! Well, stay tuned! Hot foil printing will soon be available in our shop, even though, of course, we can already take orders, so please contact us at office@funkyprintstudio.com if you’d be interested!

The Funky Studio team wishes you, as always, a colorful day!

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