Photographer Josh Hackney came to Lunlaux with an existing logo for his business, and asked us to develop a memorable tag/business card. We agreed right away that the composition should be very simple, and the wow factor would come from the use of  luxurious materials. So we printed these jumbo cards (they’re 2.5×3.5 inches, instead of the standard 2×3.5 inch business card format) on super-thick 220# Lettra cotton cover. The perfect shade of pale blue-green ink (we decided to call it Sea Glass) looks dreamy on the slightly textured bright white stock. The card is so thick that when you hold it in your hand, you can’t help but really pay attention, to turn it over and study the way the type bites into the paper. It’s in that moment that the best detail catches your eye: painted edges. We’ve only recently started to offer edging service, and this is our favorite deployment of the process yet. Edging works best on the thickest of stocks, where you can really see the color. The cards were gorgeous before we did the edging; the last little touch of color really outs it over the edge though! We drilled tiny holes in most of the cards, so they could be attached to his new bags with lovely grosgrain ribbon, but some were left intact to be used as business cards. The business stationery package was rounded out with correspondence cards and coordinating envelopes.

Are you considering adding a little letterpress to your business collateral collection? You can read more abut our design and letterpress services for business stationery in the custom section of our website. You can also browse our blog archives to read about other business stationery projects we’ve worked on in the past.

I’ve worked with Lucas Saugen in a variety of ways over the past four years. As a rollergirl, I’ve submitted to his photographer’s gaze in various derby-related photo shoots. And he availed himself of our services a couple years ago when we printed his bare-bones business cards, which he rubber-stamped with his trademark red star. So I was happy to see Lucas at our doorstop this spring, on the hunt for ideas. He wanted swag to promote his photography business. Something useful, small, unique. The winning concept: matchbook-style notebooks. He restricted his creativity to our pre-existing notebook covers (over-runs from a wholesale project), composing around blue cardstock that had already been cut and scored to fold down to a 3.5×5-inch notebook. We sourced lovely and affordable stock for the interior pages: Strathmore elements lined 70# text, with its super-smooth surface. His logo and business contact information is letterpress-printed in red ink. We assembled the books for him too, binding about 20 micro-perforated sheets into each cover with our heavy-duty step-down stapler.
If you want to see some of Lucas’s work head to Pizza Lucé in downtown Minneapolis; his beautiful, eerie urban landscapes are on exhibit there through the end of August 2009. Or check out his work on his website: www.saugenphotography.com.

Since we quietly launched our website redesign on April 19, we’ve been enjoying a steady stream of compliments regarding the new look. If you haven’t taken the time to click around a bit, we hope you do – there’s lots of good stuff to see and read here! The site was redesigned by our friends at Dragonfly Networks, and we were happy to return the favor by creating remarkable business cards for them. In addition to letterpress-printing their basic contact information in navy ink, we also ran the cards through the Heidelberg a second time to print a dragonfly wing with no ink. We love the juxtaposition of the structured block of text with the curvy, organic wing. The cards are printed on soft 100% cotton Lettra cover, which takes the deep letterpress impression so perfectly, and trimmed to an unusual size (1.625×3.5 inches, rather than the standard 2×3.5), which makes them stand out even more. We can’t say “thank-you” enough to Mark and Nick at Dragonfly Networks for giving our website a dramatic and much-needed face-lift. They built a custom WordPress theme for us, full of hand-coded bells and whistles like drop-down menus on the top navigation, and dynamic sidebar content. They translated our napkin sketches and off-hand suggestions into a real hum-dinger of a site. We’re still discovering and ironing out the occasional kink, but overall we’re pleased as punch!

More recently, we printed similar calling cards for a client who’s on the prowl for a new job. Jenn supplied the design, we just did the heavy lifting (i.e. printing). Normally the Lunalux blog features projects we designed in-house, because that’s what we most like to do. But these cards turned out so great, and fit so perfectly into this blog post, we couldn’t resist sharing. Like the wing on the Dragonly cards, Jenn’s initials are printed without any ink. And we used Lettra cover again. Click on the image to the right to view a larger picture of the cards, along with the photopolymer plates we used to print them. If you’re thinking about getting new business cards or calling cards, you can read more about our design and printing services by clicking here.

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.

If you dine at Nick and Eddie (right next door to Lunalux) your meal will be served on a large white plate decorated with the restaurant’s name in black. That simple dinner plate was the inspiration for the design of their gift certificates, which we made this winter. We letterpress-printed the text in black ink and blind-embossed the plate image on super-soft bright white stock, because we wanted to create a really striking texture. Opening the card reveals standard gift-certificate fare: to/from/amount blanks, the restaurant’s location and hours, and the certificate’s unique number (forgers beware!). Imagine if you received a card like this, tucked inside a deep red envelope – we think the gift certificate itself is so beautiful, it’s almost a present even if you couldn’t redeem it for fancy food!

We printed business cards to match, too. The typesetting mimics the gold and black lettering on the restaurant’s big front window. Like the gift certificates, the cards are printed on 100% cotton Lettra cover. Simple, urban and luxurious. And while we’re tooting our own horn, we’ll give some love to our neighbors too. We love Nick and Eddie because it always feels like there’s something happening there, whether we’re enjoying a raucous Saturday-night burlesque show or reading the new City Pages at the bar on a quiet Wednesday. This newest kid on the block has brought some much-needed energy to the neighborhood! And now that our favorite chef Steven Brown is working there, we love it even more.

Click here to learn more about our custom business card and business stationery offerings, or browse our blog archives to read about other recent business stationery projects.