Minnesota Monthly’s annual Best of the Cities issue hit newsstands in October, and we are thrilled that Lunalux got the nod for Best Personalized Stationery. The blurb about our shop (on page 55, if you have your issue handy) highlights Stationery Saturdays, the occasional event that gives customers the rare opportunity to procure personalized letterpress-printed stationery for the bargain-basement price of $29. We’re honored that the magazine staff included us in the list of the Twin Cities’ best stuff, and the good company makes us blush; who doesn’t want to be in the same list as La Belle Vie, B.T. McElrath’s Salty Dog chocolate bar, and the Walker Art Center’s gift shop? If your interest in Stationery Saturday is piqued, you’ll be glad to know there are two more scheduled for this year: November 28 and December 19. Click here to read more about the event.

As a graphic designer, it can be enlightening to revisit old projects. Preferences, skills, habits and trends can shift dramatically over years, so looking at stationery or invitations we created on 2003 can be both fun and traumatic. Sometimes a printed piece will withstand the test of time quite well, but other times I cringe a bit at old work – What was I thinking? Why didn’t I do it different, smarter, prettier? So when a long-time friend of the studio came in last fall to ask us to reprint cards we’d designed five years earlier, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I still really like what we created for her.

Gail has been a regular customer since we worked on custom-designed letterpress-printed business cards for her back in 2003. We created a logo with her initials, and used that logo on business cards. The composition was unique, and we printed on cotton watercolor paper so the cards felt very luxurious. Last fall, as she prepared to relocate her business office, she asked us to update the cards and create matching letterhead and envelopes as well. She still loved her old cards, but asked me to experiment with new layouts and fonts. After looking at an array of nice ideas, we came to the conclusion that the five-year-old layout was the best of the bunch (Jenni pats herself on the back). We switched up the font and the paper, and brightened the ink color a bit, but it looks remarkably similar to the original. The cards, along with the new monarch letterhead and envelope, are all printed on high-quality natural white papers in a punchy green. We even printed a small stack of business cards in red ink, because Gail really liked the color but didn’t think it was quite right for the whole system.

The history of this project makes me extra-proud that this design has won an award! We submitted Gail’s stationery to Mohawk Paper’s quarterly Strathmore Letterhead Design contest, and for the the second quarter in a row, we were awarded the bronze prize (Jenni pats herself on the back again). You can see Gail’s stationery, along with the quarter’s other winners, at the Mohawk website.

Lunalux has again been recognized by Mohawk Fine Papers for excellence in letterhead design. The business stationery system we created for Mahogany Bay has garnered us the bronze prize in the mill’s 3rd Quarter 2008 Strathmore Letterhead Contest. This is the second time work from Lunalux has been tapped in this contest; we also received the gold prize in the 4th Quarter 2007 contest (and, subsequently, the grand prize for all of 2007) for the identity system we created for Post- Luxury Accessories. Mahogany Bay restores vintage watercraft – think wooden Chris Craft speedboats from the 1940s. Working with a business that appreciates the value of craftsmanship and fine detail, it was a pleasure help build their visual identity. You can learn more about Mahogany Bay on their website.

Over the years, we’ve worked with many businesses, large and small, on everything from simple business cards to complex stationery suites – read more about our past projects in our blog archive. View our winning work, along with other winners from this and past quarters, at the Mohawk website.

With environmental issues more in the forefront of our minds than ever before, green practices are increasingly a factor in corporate promotion and branding. So much so, it’s hard to tell who’s really nice to the planet, and who’s just faking it. So I was interested in this story on www.ethicalcorp.com, which identifies a dozen companies who are moving in the right direction, for reals. We were particularly happy to see that Mohawk Fine Papers, the company behind some of our favorite and most-often-used stocks (Strathmore, Mohawk SuperFine, and Via) was given the nod.

All of this makes me extra-pleased to have just won another prize from Mohawk, for entering their Strathmore Letterhead Contest for the third quarter of 2008. I sent in samples of the Mahogany Bay business stationery suite that we printed this past January. It’s a pretty big system, including letterhead, envelopes, buckslip notecards for the president and the founder, and business cards for four different people in the company. All printed on Strathmore writing natural white papers. Classy! I haven’t been tapped (yet!) for my design skills this time around – they’ve awarded me a fat iTunes gift card for being one of the first 25 entries for the quarter. So I guess I am finally being rewarded for my stellar time management skills!

James came into Lunalux as he was preparing to leave a full-time job to launch his own public relations firm. He needed business cards to help establish his new brand. We bounced around a few logo ideas, settling on a superball. Toothy 100% cotton Lettra paper would be the base, with all information set in simple Times New Roman. After considerable debate over color trends, we chose a vibrant orange for the logo. And we were off to the presses.

We finished the Engine Innovations project just in time for James’ first official event. When he picked up his cards (raves all around, natch), he paid his bill and gave me a crsip $1 bill. Just days into his new venture, he’d received his first check, and was giving 20 one-dollar bits of it to people who helped him with the launch. As tips go, this is the smallest I’ve ever received, but also the most prized. I’m saving this as a reminder that we do good work, and poeple appreciate it. On my worst days, I might feel like a glorified desktop publisher; but on my best days I am really more of a paper therapist.

Many of our clients are navigating serious transitions, such as preparing for their first baby, facing a milestone birthday or diving into a new career. Whether we’re working together on formal invitations, or simple calling cards, or a show-stopping business stationery suite, the process of deciding what goes on the paper makes people think very carefully, and in a new way, about their crossroads and how to articulate it. The subtle implications of color schemes, paper textures and punctuation elicit unexpected visceral responses. The weight of the world suddenly hangs on a hyphen – or is that an en-dash?

It’s not always that heavy, of course. Sometimes people come in, they order something pretty, we make it, they pay for it, and everyone’s happy. Ultimately that last part – everyone’s happy – is what we care about the most. But when we have the opportunity to help someone clarify their vision and move forward with confidence, there’s extra gratification in that.