original short: Lunalux from mn original on Vimeo.

Clear your calendars, pop some popcorn, and get ready to watch some letterpress action on your TV tonight. Twin Cities Public Television launched a new program last week called MN Original, which highlights the diverse arts community of our fair state. Tonight’s episode will include a segment about Lunalux! We spent a few hours filming with Mark Fischer and Chuck Olsen back in January, when the show was still just a glimmer in the production staff’s eye. So we’re excited to see what they’ve put together for broadcast. To whet your appetite, they’ve created this video short in which the sounds of our Heidelberg Windmill mingle with the music of Savage Aural Hotbed. The show airs at 7:30 p.m. tonight (that’s Thursday, April 29) on TPT, and there are a few rebroadcasts scheduled throughout the coming week. The full episode will also be posted on the show’s website, mnoriginal.org

Lunalux owner Jenni Undis is featured in the latest edition of Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine, in the column People Who Do Cool Things. Look for the interview and a smattering of photos on page 60 of the February 2010 issue. The magazine is on newsstands now, and the story should be available on the MSP Magazine website sometime soon. But for now, you’ll just have to read it here. And in Small World News, the photos were taken by Stephanie Colgan, who we worked with back in 2007 on business stationery. Click here to read about the work we did for Stephanie.

Have you noticed that the Lunalux blog has been kinda quiet lately? Me too. The main reason: I took several weeks off from work in October because my mom passed away. I come from a great big family, so we all huddled together for a while to take care of each other. There is, indeed, strength in numbers! We all pitched in to help plan the funeral, too. My task: creating programs for the service. Late one night, with one of my brothers peeking over my shoulder, I did my best to create a quiet, beautiful design for my least favorite thing ever. After staring at the computer screen for an hour or two, we discovered a lovely coincidence: the lily of the valley image includes 10 individual flowers, one for each of my mom’s 10 kids. The next afternoon, we (and by “we” I mean 2 brothers, 1 sister and myself – we’re all printers) letterpress-printed the covers with green and gray inks on pearl white 100% cotton Lettra cover; the interior pages were modest photocopies, because there wasn’t time to do every element so fancy. The programs were bound with green double-faced satin ribbon. Extra program covers are doing double-duty as thank-you notes.

It feels a little weird– wrong, even – to blog about something so personal and sad. But I think it would feel even more weird to skip over this monumental project like it never happened. So here it is. And now we’re moving on to other things.

No trip to the Great Minnesota Get-together is complete without a tour of the Minnesota Newspaper Museum (I wrote about last year’s visit over here). Tucked away in the back corner of Heritage Square, itself in the back corner of the vast fair grounds, the museum offers visitors a peek at the past with its fully operational old-school print shop. This year I am proud to be volunteering at the museum. Monday August 25th and Monday September 1st, I’ll be spreading the good letterpress word from 2:30 to 8:00 p.m. I’ve signed up to run their platen press. I hope you’ll stop by to say hello! Hopefully, I’ll be standing near the front door, right where this dude is standing.

As the Minnesota Newspaper Museum celebrates the functional aspects of letterpress printing, a new exhibit at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in downtown Minneapolis explores the cultural significance of letterforms. Face the Nation: How National Identity Shaped Modern Typeface Design, 1900-1960 explores how the desire to reinforce, redefine or transcend national identities influenced typeface design around the world. There’s a small proof press in the gallery, and guests are invited to try their hand at printing – the picture to the left shows both a flyer for the exhibit and the print I made.

The exhibit includes type specimen books, exquisite prints, and artifacts from type design and manufacturing. Of particular interest is the signage, which explains how cultural issues have influenced type design in various countries and cultures. This exhibit is interesting and informative, and highly recommended! While you’re visiting MCBA, be sure to dart across Washington Avenue to visit the new location for CorAzoN, a great shop full of jewelry, clothes, home accessories, original artwork, and paper goods (including Lunalux cards, of course)

The Minnesota Newspaper Museum is located on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul. The museum will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., August 21-September 1, 2008. Face the Nation is on display through September 21, 2008. MCBA is located in the Open Book center at 1011 Washington Avenue South. Read more

Flying somewhere on Northwest Airlines this month? Be sure to look in the May 2008 issue of World Traveler, the NWA in-flight magazine, for a brief story on Lunalux. A three-page round-up of must-see shops and restaurants in the Twin Cities (pp. 33-35) includes a picture of Lunalux owner Jenni (that’s me!) and a write-up about our store. An excerpt: “Lunalux gives visitors the chance to see traditional presses in action while they peruse a wide variety of unique greeting cards, notebooks and wrapping paper. If you’re a die-hard letter devotee, this place is for you.” I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Click on the thumbnail image to the right to see the full story. And this is just the tip of the ice berg for us, media attention wise. You can read about more about the press we’ve been getting in our blog archive.