Lunalux letterpress stationery » Newsletter

Stationery Saturday: little folded notes

Jenni — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:29:19 +0000

This weekend we’re hosting another Stationery Saturday at our Loring Park studio. If you haven’t made it to one of these personalized-stationery-while-you-wait events, this is a great one to start with! For this mid-summer Stationery Saturday we’ve designed refreshing little folded note cards. Simple, modern icons are pre-printed on bright white 3.5-by-5-inch folded cards. We’re offering four options: teal duck, tangerine owl, honey bee, and lavender fleur – you can choose your favorite, or a combination of multiple designs. We’ll use 10-point-Clarendon type to set the name or phrase of your choice (up to 20 characters/spaces), and letterpress-print the cards in cool gray ink. You can watch while we make the magic happen on our printing press, or spend some time shopping in the shop or strolling in Loring Park while we take care of your order. The cost? Just $29 for 10 cards. We think these petite notes are ideal for August correspondence: “A note from the lake…” “You host a mean cook-out.” “Looking forward to our trip to the State Fair.” Splurge on yourself, or get some as a sweet treat for the paper hound in your life. As always, we’ll have coffee and homemade cookies too. Check out our Stationery Saturday page for all the deets. And we hope you’ll help us spread the word – you can invite all the stationery hoarders you know using the event listing on the Lunalux Facebook page. Click on the images below for larger views of this weekend’s designs.

Stationery Saturday: icon letter sheets

Jenni — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:59:19 +0000

We’re looking forward to another busy Stationery Saturday this weekend. What will we be printing, you ask? Personalized letter sheets! June 19, customers can choose from four designs: gold fleur de lis, silver moon, red book and blue ship. Pick your favorite or a combination of all four; we’ll print 10 sheets while you wait, for a measly $29. Depending on when you show up, the waiting might be 10 minutes or it might be an hour. You can use this time to learn a little about letterpress (follow us through the steps of pulling the type, setting up the printing form and running our antique press) or do a little shopping while we do the dirty work. We have lots of clever Father’s Day and Graduation cards in stock, and we just received a shipment of Field Notes notebooks that we think are going to fly off the shelves! You might even duck outside for a lap around Loring Park, or stroll down our recently revitalized cobblestone alley.

We are thrilled that Stationery Saturday has been growing in popularity over recent months. In June, we actually ran out of the two most popular designs with a couple of hours to spare in the day. So for maximum selection, you should think about coming earlier than later. As always, we’ll have coffee and homemade cookies for you to nibble. We hope you can stop by! And if you have any Paper Addict friends, be sure to tell them about it too (you can even invite them to the event on Facebook).

Visit our Stationery Saturdays page for more details about the event; to see a schedule of dates for the rest of 2010; and to see what we’ve got planned for next time. Special thanks to letoilemagazine.com for featuring Stationery Saturday in this week’s roundup of the best sales and retail events in the Twin Cities.

Stationery Saturday: botanical silhouettes

Jenni — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:21:15 +0000

This weekend, we’re personalizing pretty floral notecards for Stationery Saturday. We’ve pre-printed three botanical silhouette designs, and shoppers can select their favorite to be letterpress-printed with the name or phrase of their choice. We’ll wrap it up with ribbon and a classy Lunalux tag when we’re done, so it’s ready for gifting. The cost is just $29.00 for 10 cards and matching monarch envelopes. Could you ask for a better last-minute Mother’s Day present? The May 8 Stationery Saturday runs 11a.m.-6p.m. If you want to help us spread the word, you can use the Stationery Saturday event listing on the Lunalux Facebook page to invite your friends.

If you’re curious about the ins and outs of letterpress printing, Stationery Saturday is a great opportunity to see how the process works. We encourage visitors, wether they’re buying personalized notecards or not, to look over our shoulder and ask a bunch of questions as we set the lead type (that’s 18-point Caslon italic) and run the press (that’s a 10-by-15 Heidelberg Windmill). Or you can shop for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards while we print your order, it only takes 15 minutes or so. We’ll also have complimentary home-made cookies and fresh coffee on hand. For more details about Stationery Saturday, including a list of dates scheduled for the rest of the year, visit our Stationery Saturdays page.

We’re a Minnesota Original

Jenni — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:16:46 +0000

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

Hot off the press: a free poster for you

Jenni — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:40:04 +0000

It’s a beautiful spring day here in Loring Park. We spent the afternoon puttering around a quiet studio, doing a little of this and a little of that. Some valuable work got done today, but our favorite project was this off-the-cuff print, with TRUST YOUR GUT letterpress-printed in milky aqua ink on striped translucent sheets. We love the big fat letters printed in such a pale color, on ethereal paper. And we want you to have a copy to hang in your cube or on your fridge. Just stop by the Lunalux studio store on Saturday, April 10, between noon and 6p.m., and you can have your own copy. We’re happy to be here and think it will be more fun if you stop by.

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.

Stationery Saturday: Pocket Notebooks

Jenni — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:15:50 +0000

This week for Stationery Saturday, we’re printing pocket-sized matchbook-style notebooks. Hello, perfect Valentine’s Day present! You get your choice of red, blue or brown covers, imprinted with three lines of silver text (approximately 9 letters per line, max) – our samples show a first, middle and last name, but we’re counting on our customers to come up with clever wording such as nick-names, inside jokes, or sweet nothings. Finished notebooks will be staple-bound with 20 perforated pages. These three-by-five-inch notebooks fit in the tiniest of places, and are great for to-do list and notes on the go. You’ll get 6 personalized notebooks for $29, and additional notebooks with the same imprint are $4 each. You can watch as we run the Heidelberg Windmill for a one-on-one letterpress demonstration, or enjoy a cup of coffee and pick out a few Valentines while we do the dirty work.

Stationery Saturday runs 11a.m.-6p.m. on Saturday, February 13. Check the Stationery Saturday page for more details. If you can’t make it this weekend, plan ahead for the next event; we’ll be hosting another Stationery Saturday on March 27. Watch for pictures of next month’s design to be posted here in a few weeks.

Stationery Saturday: special holiday edition

Jenni — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:14:33 +0000

We have a great day planned for the final Stationery Saturday of the year! In addition to the regular stationery-while-you-wait plan, we’ll be showcasing the amazing hats of designer Amy Downs. With $29 personalized stationery, the unique winter caps, and our shoppe full holiday cards, wrapping paper, and all sorts of great gifts, we think Lunalux will be THE place for last-minute holiday cheer and shopping this Saturday!

We’re so excited that Amy Downs will be selling her hats at Lunalux. Amy had her own little shop in New York’s East Village for 20 years, so we’re very excited to be sharing her creations with our customers. You can read more about Amy and see some of her work on her website www.amydownshats.com. We’ll also have homemade Christmas cookies and freshly brewed coffee for your snacking enjoyment.

Stationery Saturday runs 11a.m.-6p.m. This week we’re printing stationery sheets with ornate vintage monograms. The 5.5 by 8.5-inch stationery sheets can be packed with your choice of white or brightly colored envelopes. At $29 for 10 personalized sheets and envelopes, we think this makes a very special holiday gift (or a little treat for yourself!). You’ll find more details about the event on the Stationery Saturdays page.

Bold gold monogram cards

Jenni — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:37:09 +0000

This weekend we’re hosting one of the year’s last Stationery Saturday events at the Lunalux studio. Saturday, November 28, 11a.m.-6p.m., we’ll use bold wood type to print gold monogrammed notecards. You can look over my shoulder as I set the type and run the antique letterpress, or do a little shopping while I do the heavy lifting. The cost: $29 for 10 cards with matching envelopes. We remodeled our shop back in early October and the shelves are full of tempting treats, so this is an ideal time to shop, even if monogrammed notecards aren’t on your list. We have a lovely selection of holiday cards; Moleskine datebooks and beautiful calendars; and tons of unique gifts and stocking stuffers too. So after the Thanksgiving roller coaster of turkey coma followed by Black Friday shopping adrenaline, we hope you’ll stop by Lunalux.

Click here for more details about Stationery Saturdays. Click here for more details about the Lunalux studio store, including hours and directions.

Right about the time that Thursday’s turkey coma wears off, after the adrenaline rush of Black Friday door-buster sales,

New website for us, new business cards for them

Jenni — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:00:09 +0000

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.