We’re thrilled to see two cards from our shop included in the Survival Kit feature in Metro Magazine. When they sent an intern over earlier this fall to pick up a few cards for a photo shoot, we weren’t sure how they’d be used. But if you pick up the November issue of the magazine, you’ll find us on page 72, just inside the back cover. Our “You’re Pretty” card, letterpress-printed here in our Minneapolis studio, is pictured along with a clever birthday card from the Chicago letterpress studio a. favorite design. We’re down in the corner, between the McDonald’s chicken sandwich and a bottle of wine. That’s right, folks: modest red wine, a humble fast-food sandwich, and letterpress-printed greeting cards are KEY to your cultural satisfaction this month! You can view this feature online at the Metro Magazine website. If you need a “You’re Pretty” card but can’t make it to Loring Park, you can order this card (and many of our other designs) through our new online shop at Felt & Wire. It’s just a click away. And check out our blog archives to read about other media mentions we’ve garnered.

Mohawk Papers unveiled the Feedback Loop collection of notebooks this week – limited-edition notebooks created by designer/printers from across the country. Mohawk donated the paper (printers’ choice from Mohawk’s new line, LOOP), the printers donated their work, and 100% of the proceeds from notebook sales go to School: by Design, a youth mentoring program developed by Design Ignites Change and the Designers Accord. We were honored to be invited to participate in this innovative program, but it was a little scary too. Mohawk gave just basic guidelines regarding the size of the notebooks, but the design could be anything we wanted. It’s fun to have a little creative freedom, but also intimidating when you know that your work will be on display with sky’s-the-limit output of two dozen other unidentified but presumably very skilled craftsmen. What is everyone else doing? How will mine compare? Are my ideas awesome or lame? Mohawk is promoting the program all month on the Felt & Wire blog – and we’re thrilled that our notebook is featured there today. Click here to read a mini-interview, and view a video of our press in action. Now that it’s all out in the open, it’s fascinating to look at what everyone else has created. I love our design, but I wish I’d upped the ante in the binding department. My favorites (other than ours, of course, which you can buy here for just $15), are the ruler-covered notebook by Cleanwash Letterpress; the exposed-stitch composition from Igloo Letterpress; and MK Printers‘ book covered with a montage of olde-timey lettering. If anyone’s looking for an over-the-top present, consider ordering a library of all 20 notebooks. That’s $300 to a good cause, and a library of amazing designs! Photos below courtesy of feltandwiershop.com

For the second year in a row, Minnesota Monthly magazine has included Lunalux in its annual Best of the Cities feature. We’ve been tapped for Best Paper Goods, and the write-up on page 75 makes us blush just a little… OK a lot! Praise for our Stationery Saturday series is followed by this: “The shop’s top reputation for custom-designed, letterpress-printed invitations, stationery, calling cards, announcements and more continues to grow.” Aw, shucks! We’re tickled and honored and grateful to be included. Congratulations also go to our neighbors who are mentioned in this feature – Nick and Eddie chef Derik Moran made the list of best chefs (they call him the Rising Star), and Cafe Lurcat has been flagged for Best French Fries. Are we the most decorated block in the metro area or what?

You can read part of the Best of the Cities feature on the Minnesota Monthly website, but to see the whole feature (including the bit about us) you’ll have to get your paws on a hard copy. Which shouldn’t be hard, because the September 2010 issue just hit news stands a few days ago.

Two new books  include spotlights on Lunalux. Our little shoppe is featured in the second edition of eat.shop twin cities, a guide to the best local shops and restaurants in Minneapolis and St. Paul. You’ll also find a few photos of our work in Impressive: Printmaking, Letterpress & Graphic Design, an overview of contemporary design in letterpress and screen printing. Lunalux was included in the original edition of eat.shop twin cities (published in 2007), and we are honored to have made the cut the second time around. Once again, the editorial staff did a top-notch job selecting the most interesting Minnesota-grown shops and eateries. The design of the book, the artistic photos of all the businesses, and even the quality of the paper it’s printed on, all help make this the most irresistible local guide, great for natives and newcomers alike. The book is available in the Lunalux studio store, along with eat.shop guides for many other major U.S. cities.

Impressive is more of a coffee table book, bursting with letterpress- and screen-printed eye candy. Designers from all over the world are included in the tome, with a focus on Europe and North America. The styles vary from crusty wood-type posters to polished business collateral to dreamy arty prints. The 200+ pages of images are studded with interviews with innovative printers (including Ben Levitz of Minneapolis’ own Studio On Fire). We particularly love the text-based posters of Douglas Wilson, and everything from Mike Burton (“The Cranky Pressman”). One of our thank-you cards is featured on page 15, while page 98 is devoted to a series of wood-type ice cream signs we printed for Izzy’s Ice Cream in St. Paul. We’re not carrying this book in our shoppe, but you should be able to find it at a giant bookstore near you.

Click on the images below for larger views of Lunalux pages in these books.

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.