Design + Print: Minneapolis skyline invitations

We created these skyline invitations last spring for a couple who was planning a downtown wedding. When they asked about the possibility of including an image of Minneapolis on the invitations, we had just finished printing notecards featuring a modified photograph of our downtown skyline (the cards were featured in our blog last March). So it was a breeze to translate this into a sophisticated urban invitation suite. The skyline and invitation text were letterpress-printed in sepia ink on 110# natural white Strathmore wove-finish cover. We created matching smaller cards for the hotel information and RSVP.

You can read more about our recent wedding invitation projects in our blog archive. If you’re thinking about custom letterpress-printed wedding invitations for your big day, click here for general information about our design and printing services.

Design + Print: custom holiday photo cards

Each year, a few clients come to Lunlux for custom holiday cards. In recent years, we’ve seen a strong trend towards flat cards to accommodate photographs – a format we’re thrilled to work with! These cards can pack a lot of personality, and are typically less expensive than folded greeting cards. As these examples illustrate, we work closely with our clients to create cards suited to their specific photo, tailoring the design to uncommon sizes or drawing inspiration from the snapshot’s theme or color scheme. All the custom holiday cards shown were designed and letterpress-printed in our Loring Park studio, and our crafty customers took care of photo reproduction and mounting. Though we will, with the magic of a glue stick, mount the photos for you.

Because everything we do is custom, we’re adept at catering to unique specifics. Whether you want to incorporate text you’ve written (Mrs. Rasley wrote the charming prose on her and Ron’s star-studded monarch flat), use your favorite font (the snow-flakey card, below left, uses Bernhard Modern, the same font we used years ago on this couple’s wedding stationery), or see your family photo’s colors reflected in our printed work (on the buckslip below with orange wood-type-style lettering, the ink matches the trim on the tot’s jersey), we’re up for the challenge.

All the cards shown here were printed on Strathmore Writing wove-finish bristol cover, which feels very substantial but isn’t too expensive. But we work with a wide variety of stocks, from plush cotton to earthy recycled to vibrant colors. If you’d like to learn more about our custom design and printing services, you can browse our blog archives or visit the custom page of our website. And there’s still a bit of time for holiday or New Year cards this year. Get in touch with Jenni at our studio (our contact page has all the vitals) to schedule a consultation.

Design + Print: Yellow-Edged Business Cards

Hannah came to Lunalux over the summer in search of cards for her new business. Another designer had created a few logo variations that she liked; we made minor adjustments to optimize their look for letterpress printing, and incorporated the logo into business cards and correspondence cards. Hannah was really drawn to the colorful work on display in our shop, but it was important to her that the cards would be taken seriously by corporate contacts in the insurance business – the chunky Copperplate lettering in the logo and the clear communication of her contact information served this end well. But she didn’t want to cards to be boring or stuffy. The sunny yellow ink and modest but playful dots at the bottom of the cards brightened things up a bit and reflect her warm, vivacious personality. Initially she just planned to get business cards; by the end of the design process, she’d added notecards and envelopes to the order too.

The HDH Alliance business cards and notecards are letterpress-printed on bright white 130# Strathmore wove-finish bristol cover. HDH loved the idea of adding yellow edging to the cards, but with an eye on the bottom line, she decided to opt out. We were eager to see what it would look like, though, so we edged a little stack for her as a gift, and kept a stack for our samples too. Up to now, we’ve only done painted edges on much thicker card stock, so we were happy to see that the effect is still stunning on cards of this thickness. It’s relatively subtle on a single card, but seeing a stack of them with their perfect golden edges, they look delicious!

You can read about other personality-filled business stationery projects we’ve done in our blog archive; it you’re thinking about business cards or stationery for your self, you’ll find general information about our design and printing processes on the custom section of our website.

New online shop

We finally have an online shop! Now Lunalux fans near and far can get their letterpress-loving paws on our stuff via the Felt & Wire Shop, a curated online marketplace full of design-driven cards and gifts. Like everything around here, our Felt & Wire shop is a work in progress; we try to add a few new things every day, so there’s an ever-growing selection. Today’s milestone: all of our ready-made holiday cards are now online (including two new creations, shown below). All Chickenboys are  present and accounted for, as are many other customer favorites, such as the Fortune Folio, the Irreverent Series, and the Bacon-Eating Contest card. Thank-you notes, call-me cards, scratch pads and posters are on the short list of Products to Add Soon. We’ve even posted our Stationery Saturday designs there in the last couple months, allowing our friends to order personalized stationery from afar. Next time you need a little Lunalux fix, we hope you’ll check us out at feltandwireshop.com/seller/lunalux.

We’ve flirted with other online marketplaces in recent years, but they all felt too cluttered and anything-goes. When we found the Felt & Wire Shop, it seemed a perfect fit. The site is run by the fine folks at Mohawk paper (they make Strathmore Writing, one of our go-to stocks for greeting cards, stationery & invitations), and we love that there’s a tight focus on stationery and other paper-based goods. It’s truly an honor to be included! If you’re a fan of ours, or just a stationery geek in general, you’re sure to flip out over all the creative products for sale, from gritty wood-type posters to polished calendars and hand-bound journals. We try not to spend too much time clicking around over here, lest we spend all of our allowance in one place!

September Stationery Saturday: Minnesota Buckslips

It’s Stationery Saturday time again. And you know what that means: personalized stationery letterpress-printed while you wait, for just $29.00. This Saturday, September 11, we’re offering note cards featuring four handsome motifs: a Minnesota silhouette, a Minneapolis stamp, a St. Paul stamp, and three stars. We’ll print the name or phrase of your choice (25 characters and spaces, max) in red ink using a newly acquired font of vintage Huxley Vertical lead type. These buckslips (that’s a 3.875×9.25-inch flat card that fits into a standard business-size envelope) are printed on 100# natural white Strathmore Pastelle felt-finish cover – it’s a hefty stock, feels very substantial, and takes the letterpress impression very nicely. Finished cards will be paired with matching deckle-edge envelopes, and packaged with ribbon and a letterpress-printed Lunalux tag. All the names/phrases on the cards shown here were chosen by our fans – we had a contest on the Lunalux facebook page, and the winners’ ideas were used to print samples. You can visit our Stationery Saturday page to read more about the event, see a list of other upcoming dates, and view photos of past Stationery Saturday designs. Or use the event listing on facebook to RSVP and tell all your paper-lovin’ friends about it too. Stationery Saturday runs 11a.m.-6p.m.; we’ll also have coffee and homemade cookies to share all day. We’re excited to hang out with all y’all!

For folks who are dying to get their paws on some of these limited edition cards, but geography or their schedule doesn’t permit them to visit our studio on the 11th of September, we now have a way for you to order Stationery Saturday cards online. Just visit the new Lunalux shop at feltandwireshop.com, a curated stationery marketplace, where you can view product listings for all four designs, and order your favorite. This is a new experiment for us, so we hope someone will try it out and we hope it goes smoothly!

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