Vespagraphics Business Cards

Check out these awesome business cards we printed for owner/creative director of Vespagraphics, Keith Van Norman, last Friday! Vespagraphics is a graphic design company in Eugene, Oregon that focuses predominantly on print media, so it was quite the compliment that the owner, Keith, hired me to design and print his new cards, rather than designing them himself. Keith's company focuses on creating socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible design solutions within their own work, and he wanted to keep up this responsibility with his business cards by using an environmentally responsible (recycled, tree-free) paper and soy/linseed oil-based inks.

Keith's cards were printed on a custom, seeded, 100% recycled, 100% cotton paper by Porridge Papers in a cream color. The paper is embedded with wildflower seeds that will actually grow! They were printed with two ink colors: chocolate brown and deep burgundy-red. Design-wise we chose to go with a more antique-looking layout, with a vintage-inspired rendition of a Vespa in the center of the card, and all of Keith's relevant contact information thoughtfully placed around the Vespa in a slab-serif font. I really love the wood-type inspired typeface that we used for the actual business name. I've used this typeface on a few other projects before, and I absolutely love how crisp and classy it looks letterpress printed!

Then, to be extra-fancy and unique, rather than keeping this card a standard rectangular shape, we die-cut the cards on the letterpress into a unique and more organic shape! I find die-cutting to be a really satisfying process that can really add a lot of character to certain designs. For Keith, it was the perfect finishing touch to make his cards really unique and interesting!

Keith was an absolutely wonderful client to work with and it was so much fun getting to show him the actual process of printing his cards from start to finish! He actually came and hung out in my studio on Friday morning while I was printing his cards, just so he could check it out. It's really fun for me when a client takes as much interest in the process of creating their cards, as well as in the outcome! If you've ever wanted to see more photos of my shop, Keith took quite a few while I was printing, which you can see on his flickr stream. Check them out! Also, if you've ever wanted to see a 1912 Chandler & Price Letterpress in action, Keith took a short video of me as I was printing and die-cutting his cards. Check it out here:

If you are interested in having new business cards designed and printed for your company, please feel free to contact me anytime! Also, if you are in, or are willing to travel to the Eugene/Springfield, Oregon area and would like to visit our studio to check out the actual printing process, you are more than welcome to do so! (Just make sure you make an appointment first).

Thanks so much Keith! You rock!