Lunalux letterpress stationery » Custom Work

Design + Print: Minneapolis skyline invitations

Jenni — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:32:35 +0000

We created these skyline invitations last spring for a couple who was planning a downtown wedding. When they asked about the possibility of including an image of Minneapolis on the invitations, we had just finished printing notecards featuring a modified photograph of our downtown skyline (the cards were featured in our blog last March). So it was a breeze to translate this into a sophisticated urban invitation suite. The skyline and invitation text were letterpress-printed in sepia ink on 110# natural white Strathmore wove-finish cover. We created matching smaller cards for the hotel information and RSVP.

You can read more about our recent wedding invitation projects in our blog archive. If you’re thinking about custom letterpress-printed wedding invitations for your big day, click here for general information about our design and printing services.

Design + Print: custom holiday photo cards

Jenni — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:38:40 +0000

Each year, a few clients come to Lunlux for custom holiday cards. In recent years, we’ve seen a strong trend towards flat cards to accommodate photographs – a format we’re thrilled to work with! These cards can pack a lot of personality, and are typically less expensive than folded greeting cards. As these examples illustrate, we work closely with our clients to create cards suited to their specific photo, tailoring the design to uncommon sizes or drawing inspiration from the snapshot’s theme or color scheme. All the custom holiday cards shown were designed and letterpress-printed in our Loring Park studio, and our crafty customers took care of photo reproduction and mounting. Though we will, with the magic of a glue stick, mount the photos for you.

Because everything we do is custom, we’re adept at catering to unique specifics. Whether you want to incorporate text you’ve written (Mrs. Rasley wrote the charming prose on her and Ron’s star-studded monarch flat), use your favorite font (the snow-flakey card, below left, uses Bernhard Modern, the same font we used years ago on this couple’s wedding stationery), or see your family photo’s colors reflected in our printed work (on the buckslip below with orange wood-type-style lettering, the ink matches the trim on the tot’s jersey), we’re up for the challenge.

All the cards shown here were printed on Strathmore Writing wove-finish bristol cover, which feels very substantial but isn’t too expensive. But we work with a wide variety of stocks, from plush cotton to earthy recycled to vibrant colors. If you’d like to learn more about our custom design and printing services, you can browse our blog archives or visit the custom page of our website. And there’s still a bit of time for holiday or New Year cards this year. Get in touch with Jenni at our studio (our contact page has all the vitals) to schedule a consultation.

Design + Print: Yellow-Edged Business Cards

Jenni — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:06:01 +0000

Hannah came to Lunalux over the summer in search of cards for her new business. Another designer had created a few logo variations that she liked; we made minor adjustments to optimize their look for letterpress printing, and incorporated the logo into business cards and correspondence cards. Hannah was really drawn to the colorful work on display in our shop, but it was important to her that the cards would be taken seriously by corporate contacts in the insurance business – the chunky Copperplate lettering in the logo and the clear communication of her contact information served this end well. But she didn’t want to cards to be boring or stuffy. The sunny yellow ink and modest but playful dots at the bottom of the cards brightened things up a bit and reflect her warm, vivacious personality. Initially she just planned to get business cards; by the end of the design process, she’d added notecards and envelopes to the order too.

The HDH Alliance business cards and notecards are letterpress-printed on bright white 130# Strathmore wove-finish bristol cover. HDH loved the idea of adding yellow edging to the cards, but with an eye on the bottom line, she decided to opt out. We were eager to see what it would look like, though, so we edged a little stack for her as a gift, and kept a stack for our samples too. Up to now, we’ve only done painted edges on much thicker card stock, so we were happy to see that the effect is still stunning on cards of this thickness. It’s relatively subtle on a single card, but seeing a stack of them with their perfect golden edges, they look delicious!

You can read about other personality-filled business stationery projects we’ve done in our blog archive; it you’re thinking about business cards or stationery for your self, you’ll find general information about our design and printing processes on the custom section of our website.

Design + Print: Orange wedding invitations

Jenni — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:50:18 +0000

This project wrapped up months ago. But in honor of the spectacular fall weather we’re enjoying here in Minnesota (in November?!?!), this autumnal-colored wedding invitation gets the spotlight today. Nicole & Mike came to Lunalux over the summer in search of invitations for their September wedding at the University of Minnesota’s Weisman Art Museum. After a browse through our sample books, they zeroed in on a very graphic invitation suite we created a few years ago; they loved the design but wanted to update the color scheme and explore different typeface options. Considering their plans to marry in a modern art museum, the bold color choice was no surprise: orange and taupe on pearl white cards. The type was a harder nut to crack; we must have looked at their names in two dozen different fonts, ranging from formal script to chunky slab-serifs. This calligraphy-inspired lettering beat them all. The text and a flowering branch is printed in bright orange, over a taupe silhouette of that same branch. The 6.25-inch-square invitations and matching RSVP postcards and thank-you flats were all printed on 100% cotton Lettra cover, and paired with a vibrant orange envelopes. We’re especially pleased with the RSVP card, and the way the branch silhouette separates the mailing address from the rest of the card.

It’s a great pleasure for us to create unique custom wedding stationery, weather that means modifying an invitation we’ve already printed, or dreaming up something new. It’s a treat to help couples imagine the invitation of their dreams, and then bring it into being for them! You can read more about other custom wedding invitations we’ve created in our blog archive, or click on over to the custom wedding stationery page for general information about our process and pricing.

Design + Print: Wondrous perforated invitations

Jenni — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:07:44 +0000

Last week we were asked to create invitations for the opening night of Thom Pham’s Wondrous Azian Kitchen, a much-anticipated new restaurant in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. Sometimes when clients approach us to turn around jobs in a matter of days, we simply can’t accommodate them because we’re so busy. In this instance, we were lucky enough to have a little wiggle room in our production schedule, so this invite went from concept to finished product in just 48 hours. Chris from Twincy, the agency that helped Pham concept and promote his new venture, asked us to incorporate the rooster graphic, use perforation somehow in the design, and find typographic inspiration in the restaurant’s high-profile neon sign. And here’s what we came up with. The buckslip invite measures 3.875 by 9.25 inches, and fits into a vibrant red open-end #10 envelope. The invites were printed in blazing red and orange inks in 130# bright white bristol cover, and we used our ancient step-down perforating machine to create the pin-hole perforation for the tear-off ticket.

In-house calligrapher, at your service

Jenni — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:30:57 +0000

Helen & Erik live on the east coast, but they discovered Lunalux while visiting Erik’s family in Minneapolis. Erik gets credit for designing their wedding invitation suite, including the fantastic tree illustration. I suggested a few minor edits to the text and the layout, but my main contribution was calligraphy on the invitations and envelopes. The hand-written names are letterpress-printed along with the rest of the invitation text; I wrote the bride and groom’s names over and over again, until each curve was just right, then scanned the best versions and dropped them into the layout like a graphic. The full set – wedding invitation, rehearsal dinner invitation & response card – was letterpress-printed in black ink on pearl white 100% cotton Lettra 110# cover, with matching invitation and response envelopes. When all the work of printing and trimming was finished, I set to the hefty task of hand-addressing the envelopes too, so the mailing address matches the text on the invitations themselves.

I have worked at my penmanship for many years, so it’s a great honor for me to share it with my clients. I have addressed a few wedding invitations in my time, and have occasionally incorporated my handwriting into greeting card designs, but this is the first time that my lettering has been letterpress-printed on an invitation. And it was such a thrill to see the finished product! Since this project was completed a few months ago, I have taken on a few other exciting hand-lettering projects – I look forward to featuring them here in our blog in the coming weeks.

Curious about our letterpress-printed wedding stationery? Click here to read more about our design and printing services. You might also enjoy browsing through our blog archives, where we’ve featured many of our favorite wedding projects.

Design + Print: edged business cards

Jenni — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:35:07 +0000

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.

Design + Print: Personal Stationery for all personalities

Jenni — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:49:10 +0000

One of the best parts of my job is that it affords me the opportunity to meet and work with wonderful people. In a recent week, we printed personal stationery for two new customers who I had great fun working with. The clients and their projects couldn’t have been more different! First we worked on notecards for Tim, a priest turned copywriter who was on the cusp of returning to work in the church again. Though our interactions were relatively brief, it was a treat to talk with him, and we think he’s been converted to a loyal Lunalux fan. His new correspondence cards feature the crest of the Episcopal church, letterpress-printed in black ink on hefty kid-finish cotton cover, trimmed to a generous 5×7 inches (plenty of room for musings spiritual and otherwise). When he picked up the finished product, we were tickled to see him looking so sharp in his new black and white uniform.

Next we moved on to personal stationery for Elle, another new friend of the studio. Elle has been on our mailing list for years, but we just started getting to know her in recent months when she’s come in for Stationery Saturdays. We were delighted when she asked us to create custom thankyou notes for her. While Tim’s crested cards are somewhat sophisticated, this gal needed something colorful and sweet to match her big personality. “Grazie mille” (“thanks a million” Italian-style), her favorite expression of gratitude, is letterpress-printed across the top of these 4.25×5.5 flats, with her name at the bottom. We looked at a few different decorative fonts for this simple design, but settled on Suburban because Elle loved the look of the double-Ls.

Are you dreaming of the perfect personal stationery? We’d love to make something special for you! You can read about other clients we’ve worked with in our blog archives, or click here for some general information about our custom design and printing services.

Stationery Saturday: A6 Icon notecards

Jenni — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:09:50 +0000

This weekend, Lunalux hosts another Stationery Saturday. We’ll have the press inked up and ready to roll from 11a.m. to 6p.m. on Saturday March 27, and we’ll be imprinting icon notecards all day long. You can watch for a mini letterpress tutorial as we set your lead type and run your cards through the Heidelberg Windmill, or do a little shopping while we do the dirty work. Clients will have three designs to choose from: black scissors, aqua pointer or red book. The name or phrase of your choice will be set in 18-point Goudy Old Style, and letterpress-printed in dark gray ink. The 4.5×6.25-inch cards are 130# bright white wove-finish bristol cover, and will be paired with matching white A6 square-flap envelopes. As always, it’s just $29 for 10 cards & envelopes. You’ll find more details about Stationery Saturday, and a schedule of upcoming dates, on the Stationery Saturday page.

Design + Print: mod floral invitation

Jenni — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:29:23 +0000

This blustery winter weather is bringing me down. So I’ve been self-administering a little paper therapy, sifting through stacks of summery samples to lift my spirits. The most effective treatment thus far? Adrienne and Matthew’s vibrant fuchsia and tangerine wedding stationery. This was such a big project for us, I’m not sure why it didn’t make the blog before now. Were we too busy to write? Did we get distracted by pretty shiny objects? Hard to say! But I’m happy to share it with you now, mid-blizzard. We started working with the bride and groom last May. When they first visited Lunalux, they had specific ideas about what they wanted on their invitations (a funky little flower, and bold lettering with a strong emphasis on the date) but left the particulars of the design up to us. So it was great fun to experiment with different graphics, fonts and compositions. We explored a number of charming flowers, mostly culled from our vast library of clip art; so we were excited that they settled on this two-color image, a Lunlux original.

The wedding invitation, with its RSVP postcard and separate invitation for a pre-wedding cocktail reception, incorporates the mod flower and bold sans serif typography. Everything is letterpress-printed in bright pink and orangey-yellow inks on fluorescent white 100% cotton Lettra cover. The face of the stark white envelope was punched up with a little flower as well. The couple also took advantage of our hand-addressing services, and we mixed a custom orange ink for the project – such a great way to introduce another color into the mix without splurging on three-color printing! As the big day rolled near, we created programs for the ceremony, and placecards (again, hand-lettered wtih custom-mixed ink) for their outdoor reception.

You can read about other recent design projects in our blog archive, or click here to learn more about our custom-designed letterpress-printed wedding stationery