Wedding invitation inspires holiday card

Over the summer, I worked with my niece and her fiancé on invitations for their very casual wedding. They planned an intimate outdoor ceremony, followed by a great big picnic. Even though the bride is a vegan, the wedding menu was sure to include burgers and brats – so the happy couple laughed as they decided to feature swooning cows on the invites. Monica supplied a darling sketch, which I translated into a smoother, press-ready illustration. They also wanted to use green products where feasible, so we letterpress-printed on recycled chip board and envelopes from earth-loving French Paper Company. The autumnal color scheme and non-traditional wording was a great reflection of what turned out to be a beautiful, un-fussy, perfectly Them wedding celebration!

I loved the cows so much that, with Monica’s permission, the lady cow now graces one of our new holiday cards. This time the cow is printed in black ink on bright white wove-finish card stock, and she’s holding a poinsettia rather than a daisy. “Have a Very Dairy Christmas” she exclaims – corny, I know, but I couldn’t help myself. This year, the Dairy Christmas card will be available exclusively at the Lunalux studio store ($4 for a single card, $16 for a box of 8). We’re working on a bunch of new cards which we will start to promote through our sales reps after the holidays, so hopefully the holiday cow will make her way into other stationery shops next year!

Good deeds done dirt cheap

Most of the time, we’re straining to make ends meet around here. But occasionally, when we’re feeling a little flush, we’re able to do design and letterpress work at a discounted rate, to help a worthy person or cause. Two such projects passed through our studio this past fall.

Markus Wuollet is a young man who worked as a server at Cafe Lurcat (one of the three restaurants on our block). At the age of 24, he was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer, and has been battling the disease for over a year. He planned a party in November to celebrate with his friends and family (and a fundraiser, to help cover his scary medical bills) and asked us to create inexpensive invitations. Though I didn’t know Markus personally, I was very touched by his story, which made me think of Lunalux founder Tim Gartmen, who lost his life to cancer at a very young age. So I was happy to help Markus on his quest to cram lots of goodness into his days. One of his friends developed a nice graphic logo, which we incorporated into a contemporary design. The invitations were letterpress-printed in chocolate and red inks on florescent white Lettra cotton cover, and paired with bright red envelopes.

We also created invitations in October for the opening reception of an art show, Dispelling Fear through Creativity. Documentary photographer Michael J. Allen spearheaded this multi-media exhibit, which shed light on the complicated issue of homelessness. With an artists’ budget, he asked us to design and print invitations for this special event. In the next breath, he also invited me to contribute original artwork to the exhibit. I said yes to both requests. Because the the show included panhandlers’ cardboard signs, we used chipboard to reference that raw material. The simple text for the invitation was letterpress-printed in red and black on 3.875×9.25 buckslip cards, and paired with red envelopes.

Which brings us to the question of… “Jenni, what did you contribute to the art exhibit?” Well, here’s a picture – me with the wood-type poster that I printed on our Vandercook proof press, inspired by a sign created by William, a homeless man who used to work on Nicollet. You can read more about this art project at Michael Allen’s website.