Pride poster

This weekend’s Pride festival in Loring Park will bring thousands of folks to our neck of the woods. We invite everyone to stop by our studio for a little printing project, to raise money to combat the Minnesota Marriage Amendment on the ballot in November 2012. Our Vandercook proof press will be set up with bold wood type and a rainbow of ink; visitors can try their hand at printing or pick up a ready-to-go print. We’re asking $10 for each poster – we’ll keep $2 per poster to cover our costs, and donate $8 from each poster to Minnesotans United for All Families, the campaign that is working to defeat the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in our state. We try to steer clear of politics in our work most of the time, but we’re so sickened by this proposal, and we’ve been struggling to think of ways to raise awareness and help prevent this yucky amendment from going into effect. We’re envisioning these posters hanging in windows across the Metro, and brandished at rallies for months to come. We’ll be open Saturday from 11a.m. to 6p.m., and are looking forward to printing with all the festival-goers.

Hot off the press: a free poster for you

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.

Letterpress haiku posters

Last week we waved goodbye to Carrie Phillips. She interned here for nearly a year, after earning her degree in graphic design from the University of Minnesota in the spring of 2008. This week she’s headed to Seattle, where we hope she has great adventures! We’ve been enjoying the play-by-play of her Westward road trip, you can follow along too on her blog. Carrie came in for her final shift last Thursday, to finish the fifth in her series of haiku posters. We love the green and yellow inks on the buttery yellow felt-finish cover – the color scheme is perfect for this on-the-verge-of-spring time of year.

Carrie started her haiku series in November. Each of the five limited-edition posters is set in assorted vintage wood type. She printed them on the Vandercook and used a fun inking technique: a different ink color was applied at each end of the cylinder, so the inks mix together during the printing process. She’s pictured here with the very first haiku, which is still my favorite. All five haiku posters are for sale at the Lunalux studio store, for just $10 each.