Letterpress at the Minnesota State Fair

Our state is abuzz with state fair talk. This time of year, it’s all we Minnesotans can think about! If you’re headed to the Great Minnesota Get-together on Thursday September 2, be sure to visit the Newspaper Museum in Heritage Square, where you’ll find Yours Truly operating the Chandler and Price platen press, 2:30-7:30p.m. (I also worked at the museum yesterday, when I recruited a visitor/letterpress enthusiast to snap a few pics of me printing souvenir bookmarks) The museum is heavy-metal time warp, full of antique printing equipment from the now-defunct Maynard News: the C&P, a linotype machine, a cutter, and big machines for printing and folding the newspaper. The museum is always looking for volunteers, too, so if you know a thing or two about letterpress and are interested in helping out at the Fair next year, they have a volunteer card you can fill out during your visit.

Design + Print: Colorful Kushner bookmarks

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.

Design + Print: letterpress bookmarks for the Guthrie

If you attended opening night of Guthrie Theater’s “Shadowlands” production earlier this month, you received a commemorative bookmark as you left the building. Guess who made those charming little treats? Lunalux! We were approached by the theater with a proposal that was right up our alley: please take a quote by C.S. Lewis (the main character of the play) and make a beautiful bookmark (cuz he’s an author, get it?). We create postcards in this same vein on a regular basis for our store mailing list, so we enjoyed applying the same aesthetic to a project for another business.

Wise words from the author of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” were paired with an old illustration of a wooden wardrobe, and letterpress-printed in blue-green ink on pearl white cotton paper. We imagine the bookmarks look equally lovely peeking out of a paperback or tacked to a memo board. The Guthrie folks were so pleased with the design, they even had us print some bookmarks without the opening date, to be sold in the theater’s gift shop – so even if you missed the freebie, the bookmark can still be yours! Check with the gift shop for availability, of course.

Design + Print: Bookmark for the First Lady

Even though I’m a card-carrying liberal, I was very excited when an old friend and client asked us to work on a bookmark for Laura Bush. Steve used to work as a concert promoter, and we created many great posters for the shows he booked at the Dixie’s/Saji-Ya stage at Grand Old Day. Now he’s in event planning, and he’s got a big one coming up during the Republican National Convention: a luncheon in honor of the First Lady, celebrating her work with children’s literacy. Back in the day, we worked with Steve to create bold, gritty rock and roll ephemera. This time he was looking for something much more refined: a memorable bookmark to be included with a book that 700 luncheon guests would take home with them. How cool is that? The finished product, quite hot off the press (I finished printing it about 3 hours ago), is pictured to the left. It’s letterpress-printed in two shades of blue, on 110# pearl white 100% cotton Lettra cover, and feels so decadent and luxurious. I can’t believe we just made something that’s probably going to end up in the White House!