The word of the day is “cartouche.”
My first official letterpress project was for a wedding invitation set for a bride and groom that had wanted a theme that was a little bit vintage, elegant, and simple. The bride had seen what I had done for the McAllister wedding invites, and decided that a similar theme was right for them. I am a big fan of vintage cartouche, so I was happy to oblige. I actually credit one of my old professors at Cal State Long Beach, Jim Van Eimeren, for teaching me such a lovely word.
A cartouche (pronounced “kartoosh”), as defined by Google and Wikipedia, is a rounded, convex surface, usually surrounded with carved ornamental scrollwork, for receiving a painted or low-relief decoration. It was an insignia worn or carried by royalty and nobility, each one unique and served as a nameplate or emblem.
Because of its nice compact size, I decided to print the RSVP card first. The challenge was to take a single photopolymer plate and cut it up to print up three colors.
Here is a fresh piece of uncut polymer plate reflecting my RSVP card design.
The plate was then chopped and separated for each color to be printed. After printing orange ink on 150 cards, I proceeded with printing the green ink.
At last, I was finally ready to print the 3rd color, the cartouche. Even though the ink dries up fairly fast, I let the cards sit on drying racks just to be on the safe side.
This is how the final RSVP card turned out. Maeden and Derwyn’s color palette is a combo I have never used before. It actually turned out quite lovely.
After a big sigh of relief that the first piece was finally done, I was off to continue that entire process all over again on the remaining pieces of the invitation set, namely the invitation envelope, ceremony card, rsvp envelope, directions, and entourage.
I have yet to print up their program and giveaways to complete this job. I’ll post those photos once the entire job is completed.
