Lunalux letterpress stationery » Lettra

Envelope liner adds pop of color

Jenni — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:21:18 +0000

Way back in June we finished these colorful invitations for Margot and John’s destination wedding. I still pull it out regularly to show to a client or a friend – I love the finished piece, and I loved the process of making it too. The bride-to-be came to us with folksy hand-drawn artwork for the invitation itself, which we knew instantly would translate well to letterpress. It was a pleasure to help her flesh out her idea, develop a plan for the full invitation suite, and explore color schemes and paper options. She also wanted lined envelopes, a fun detail that we haven’t had tons of experience with in the past. But once we assembled the prototype of a plush cotton envelope lined with smooth sunshiney yellow paper, there was no going back to plain old envelopes. The invitation and RSVP card are printed in lime green and aqua blue inks on bright white cotton Lettra cover. The envelopes, also imprinted with Margot’s handwriting, are embellished with horseshoes – a detail from the invitation artwork, and a nod to the ranch where the nuptials will take place. The hand-drawn illustrations make for such a personal invitation, and the assembled package feels so special and substantial in your hands. We’re slightly jealous of the invitees who got to experience the surprise of opening this colorful piece of mail. And because we so loved the envelopes, we’ve started retro-fitting older invitation samples with liners of their own (we’ll add those to our website sometime soon). We hope more couples fall in love with this finishing touch.

If you want to learn more about our wedding invitations, check the custom page on our website for general information, or browse our blog archives for more examples of our favorite invitation options.

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: 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

Design + Print: program covers

Jenni — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:20:49 +0000

Have you noticed that the Lunalux blog has been kinda quiet lately? Me too. The main reason: I took several weeks off from work in October because my mom passed away. I come from a great big family, so we all huddled together for a while to take care of each other. There is, indeed, strength in numbers! We all pitched in to help plan the funeral, too. My task: creating programs for the service. Late one night, with one of my brothers peeking over my shoulder, I did my best to create a quiet, beautiful design for my least favorite thing ever. After staring at the computer screen for an hour or two, we discovered a lovely coincidence: the lily of the valley image includes 10 individual flowers, one for each of my mom’s 10 kids. The next afternoon, we (and by “we” I mean 2 brothers, 1 sister and myself – we’re all printers) letterpress-printed the covers with green and gray inks on pearl white 100% cotton Lettra cover; the interior pages were modest photocopies, because there wasn’t time to do every element so fancy. The programs were bound with green double-faced satin ribbon. Extra program covers are doing double-duty as thank-you notes.

It feels a little weird– wrong, even – to blog about something so personal and sad. But I think it would feel even more weird to skip over this monumental project like it never happened. So here it is. And now we’re moving on to other things.

Design + Print: wedding invitation booklet

Jenni — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:44:53 +0000

Even though it’s practically a holiday, I’m enjoying a bustling and productive day in the studio. Planning to work late, even! We’re expecting a little visit from Blue and Jack, a couple whose unique wedding invitations we printed earlier this year. They’re having a night-before-the-wedding party at the dance studio next door (hello, Four Seasons), and might pop in for a visit before they get their champagne on. The bride and groom live in London, but are enjoying Independence Day nupltials at the James J. Hill Library in downtown St. Paul. The bookish locale inspired wedding invitation booklets with their names pressed into the cover, and pages for the invitation, travel information and response card. Extra booklet covers will be repurposed as covers for the ceremony program (Blue took care of the detailed interior pages) and thank-you notes. We also printed two A2-sized envelopes – the bride’s parents’ address was used for the invitation envelopes, but Blue and Jack’s London address went on envelopes for the thank-yous.

The booklet is made from three folded cards, printed in navy blue and saturated yellow on 100% cotton Lettra cover. The last page, an RSVP postcard, was micro-perforated for easy removal. We nested the pages together and gave the assembled invitations a face-trim. With such thick pages in the booklet, interior pages jutted out of the cover a bit; this final post-assembly trim left the finished piece looking more, well, finished. Blue took on the Herculean task of hand-stitching over 100 invitations. I tried to stitch a few together for sample albums and photo shoots, but kept pricking my finger and messing up the snowy white cover. So our sample shown here is bound with a slim satiny ribbon along the spine.

I’m really proud of how this invitation turned out. Blue and Jack get lots of credit for coming to Lunalux with the idea of a booklet invitation, and for giving me a nice balance of articulate direction and creative freedom. The finished invitation feels substantial and special, and looks like it was meant to be letterpress-printed. The unexpected format executed with classic typography turned out to be perfect for their wedding in the stacks. The ornamentation is bookish, but the exaggerated proportion of the dingbats on the cover add a modern touch to an otherwise simple, classic composition.

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.

Design + Print: train-inspired wedding invitations

Jenni — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:12:45 +0000

With Taylor & TJ’s wedding reception planned at the Minnesota Transportation Museum’s Jackson Street Roundhouse, the blushing bride wanted train-themed invitations for their big day. Our challenge was to create a suite that would cultivate nostalgia for old railroad culture without explicitly incorporating trains, train tracks, and engineers with their tell-tale caps – we’re talking wedding stationery, not invitations to a little boy’s 4th birthday party! After poring over pictures of early-1900′s steam locomotives and train-related ephemera, this simple suite took shape. The icon on the top of the invitation, which includes the couple’s names, wedding date and wedding location, was inspired by old railroad logos. The typeface for their names was chosen because of its similarities to style of numbers painted on many old engines. Each of the three cards (inviation, reception card and RSVP postcard) were letterpress-printed in black ink on pearl white 100% cotton Lettra cover, and paired with metallic copper envelopes. The back of the response cards included a request for the guests to jot down a personal message or image for the couple. We love the vintage feeling of the finished invitation, and the basic black and white color scheme. Like all of the invitations we create, this one can be customized for different events. Imagine how great it would look printed in a combination of red and black inks, or on a rougher material like chip board. Thinking about custom invitaitons for your wedding or other event? Click here to read more about our design and printing services, or browse our blog archive to read about other invitation packages we’ve created.

Design + Print: good stuff for Nick and Eddie

Jenni — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:28:40 +0000

If you dine at Nick and Eddie (right next door to Lunalux) your meal will be served on a large white plate decorated with the restaurant’s name in black. That simple dinner plate was the inspiration for the design of their gift certificates, which we made this winter. We letterpress-printed the text in black ink and blind-embossed the plate image on super-soft bright white stock, because we wanted to create a really striking texture. Opening the card reveals standard gift-certificate fare: to/from/amount blanks, the restaurant’s location and hours, and the certificate’s unique number (forgers beware!). Imagine if you received a card like this, tucked inside a deep red envelope – we think the gift certificate itself is so beautiful, it’s almost a present even if you couldn’t redeem it for fancy food!

We printed business cards to match, too. The typesetting mimics the gold and black lettering on the restaurant’s big front window. Like the gift certificates, the cards are printed on 100% cotton Lettra cover. Simple, urban and luxurious. And while we’re tooting our own horn, we’ll give some love to our neighbors too. We love Nick and Eddie because it always feels like there’s something happening there, whether we’re enjoying a raucous Saturday-night burlesque show or reading the new City Pages at the bar on a quiet Wednesday. This newest kid on the block has brought some much-needed energy to the neighborhood! And now that our favorite chef Steven Brown is working there, we love it even more.

Click here to learn more about our custom business card and business stationery offerings, or browse our blog archives to read about other recent business stationery projects.

Design + Print: cattail save-the-date

Jenni — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:21:50 +0000

We’re swooning over this save-the-date announcement we created for Matt & Stan earlier this month. The combination of a clean, simple cattail illustration and basic wedding details set in traditional type looks so lovely letterpress-printed on soft cotton card stock. Click on the picture for a larger view, you’ll see that irresistible texture that can only be created by letterpress printing. The dusty blue envelope is from Green Paper Company, which makes envelopes and cards from a well-edited palette of recycled papers. So many clients ask about recycled papers now, we expect that people will really respond to this company’s beautiful colors.

Like all of our wedding stationery, this save-the-date was custom-designed for the happy couple. Matt and Stan liked the overall look of our work, but wanted something we hadn’t done before: cattails. It’s a fun challenge when clients come in with very specific requests, and a great pleasure to make their paper dreams a reality! If you’re thinking about custom invitations for your upcoming wedding, click here to learn more about our design and printing services, or read about other wedding projects in our blog archive.