June brings to mind two big holidays: Father’s Day and graduation season. So if you’re looking to honor the dad or the grad in your life with a little hand-written love, Lunalux has just the cards for you. Our studio store is stocked with a great selection of designs from some of our favorite card lines, including Hello Lucky, La Familia Green, Cribnotes, Spark, and Egg Press. On the grad side, we’re most pleased to introduce the newest addition to our wholesale line. Everyone’s favorite heavy metal hand gesture is paired with the triumphant declaration: “School’s out for summer! School’s out forever!” Letterpress-printed with black and purple inks on bright-white wove-finish Strathmore cover, paired with a purple envelope. This card rocks! But if you prefer a more sentimental approach to such milestones, this Kierkegaard card might be more your speed. We first printed this a few years ago as a New Year mailing to our loyal customers, but we’ve since come to love it as an encouraging bit of wisdom to someone who’s facing big life decisions (hello, graduates!). It’s letterpress-printed in black, cornflower blue and mermaid green on hefty suede-like ecru card stock. For the father figures in your life, we also have a handsome assortment of cards to consider. Our faves are pictures below: the newest Fathers Day card from Lunalux featuring a vintage border, and the #1 Dad mug design from Cribnotes up in Canada (needle nose pliers not included). All these cards and more are available now at the Lunalux studio store – visit our store page for hours, directions, etc.

We’re hearing lots of buzz lately about playwright Tony Kushner and the three-stage celebration of his work that’s running at the Guthrie Theater right now. If you were one of the lucky ducks who attended last Friday’s world premiere of The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, you were gifted a commemorative bookmark as you left the theater. We know because we printed them. The design was inspired by artwork being used to promote the play. We letterpress-printed vibrant orange and green inks on lemon-yellow railroad board (think super-thick construction paper) for a colorful but slightly industrial look. If you missed the opening-night give away, you may be able to purchase one of the bookmarks in the theater’s gift shop. This is such a great idea for a business promotion, or a wedding favor – unique, tactile, functional, something the recipient is sure to hang on to.

We worked on a similar project for the Guthrie Theater last November – click here to read about the bookmark giveaway we printed for opening night of the C.S. Lewis play Shadowlands. It’s an honor to work with such a prestigious institution, and we’re glad that our olde-timey bookish ways can occasionally fit in with the workings of a modern arts powerhouse. We’re thrilled that our friends at the theater so liked the first bookmark that they came back for more. That’s really the biggest compliment of all, customers so satisfied that they choose to work with us again.

We started working with Kate and Nick late last year, when they ordered a bunch Lunalux quote postcards to use as their save-the-date announcements. They got in touch with us again a few months later, excited to work on custom-designed invitations for their Big Day. With little direction aside from “We like glads,” we developed a few different concepts for the New York couple to consider. The winning design features a bunch of gladiolus in full bloom, exploding from the base of the invitation. The vibrant violet and green inks, letterpress-printed in natural white wove-finish card stock, are ideal for a summery wedding. The full set also included RSVP postcards and matching thank-you cards. Click on the photo above for a larger view.

The postcard they used for their save-the-dates featured a quote by poet James Tate. This design was originally created as a Valentine’s Day promotional postcard back in 2006, but all these years later, we still adore the lovey text unexpectedly paired with an image of an old rooster weather vain. The ruby red and cyan blue inks really pop off the bright white card stock. It’s gratifying to know that it was re-purposed as a wedding mailer, and think it was upstaged only by the invitations that followed!

Click here to read more about our graphic design and printing services. Or browse our blog archives to see other recent wedding stationery projects.

Got a sweet tooth and a heart of gold? Lunalux can satisfy both this week! We’re hosting a bake sale on Thursday May 7 to raise money for breast cancer research. We’ll have tons of home-made muffins, bars, cookies, cupcakes and breads available for your purchasing pleasure, 10a.m.-6p.m. The best part is that 100% of the money we raise will be donated the the local affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a national organization that funds breast cancer research and outreach to breast cancer patients and survivors. Our bake sale is one of dozens of bake sales happening across the nation this week, organized by Bake for Hope. A big thank-you to all the friends, family members and business associates who have agreed to donate baked goods. Our first donation (pumpkin muffins and banana chocolate chip bread – both vegan!) was delivered to the studio today, and we’re expecting visits from a couple dozen more volunteer bakers over the next 36 hours. With your help, we’re hoping to raise a nice chunk of change!

Because we can’t do anything around here without printing something, we decided to make commemorative letterpress-printed posters for the event. A few will be posted around the neighborhood to drum up traffic for the sale, and each baker who donates baked goods is receiving a signed and numbered poster as well. If there are any left over, we’ll be selling them at the bake sale to raise additional funds for the cause. These posters measure 10×18 inches and were printed in pink and chocolate inks, using antique wood type and our Vandercook proof press.

Last week we waved goodbye to Carrie Phillips. She interned here for nearly a year, after earning her degree in graphic design from the University of Minnesota in the spring of 2008. This week she’s headed to Seattle, where we hope she has great adventures! We’ve been enjoying the play-by-play of her Westward road trip, you can follow along too on her blog. Carrie came in for her final shift last Thursday, to finish the fifth in her series of haiku posters. We love the green and yellow inks on the buttery yellow felt-finish cover – the color scheme is perfect for this on-the-verge-of-spring time of year.

Carrie started her haiku series in November. Each of the five limited-edition posters is set in assorted vintage wood type. She printed them on the Vandercook and used a fun inking technique: a different ink color was applied at each end of the cylinder, so the inks mix together during the printing process. She’s pictured here with the very first haiku, which is still my favorite. All five haiku posters are for sale at the Lunalux studio store, for just $10 each.