visualchemist

I got a call from my good friends over at Roxy. They were in need of 750 holiday cards printed up: 2/1 + envelopes and needed them out asap. I was in the middle of printing up Maeden and Derwyn’s wedding invitations, but I was happy to accept the job. Once things got going and I did the math, I realized I was in for a rough week. For these holiday cards alone, I was about to crank my left arm and pull my trusty little Pilot’s lever over 3,000 times in the span of several days. Lucky for me, Lieutenant Price had decent rollers and was up for printing the job.

On a dark and stormy evening, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, with friends awaiting my arrival at home, I made the trek out to Vernon, where I ordered and picked up the lot of parent sheets of Crane Lettra. 100% cotton. The good stuff.

This is what Lt. Price looks like all covered up in metallic gold ink and ready to go. After printing up 750 of the gold on the front panel, then the red tracks, and finally the inside text, it was then time to get these bad boys to the bindery for one last step… scoring on a Heidelberg.

3,000+ cranks later…

I would have scored these myself, but this run was a bit large for me. I got help with scoring from Ed, over at Afana Printing, up in Signal Hill. In case you were curious, here’s what scoring on a Heidi looks and sounds like.

Holiday card artwork provided by Roxy.

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.