Customize it!

One of the coolest things about letterpress printing, in my opinion, is that each sheet of paper that's printed, is fed into the press by hand, one color at a time. Each color that's printed is either a separate metal cut (image), a separate block of metal type, or a separate photopolymer plate. What this should mean to you, my wonderful readers, is that each part or color of everything we print can be 100% customizable to your liking, without a whole lot of extra work...

For example, remember those cool scroll pattern thank you cards?  I've made them in several different colors for the etsy shop including red, yellow and blue.  Well, a shopper in Boston, Massachusetts contacted me a while back wanting to know if she could order several of the blue ones to use as thank you cards for her wedding.  I told her absolutely and that she could even get a bulk discount on them, and that we could print her return address on the flap of the envelope at no extra charge.  How cool is that?  Check them out below:

Another way to customize one of our designs is to ask for it in another color.  Here are the same thank you cards that I customized for the aforementioned Boston bride, printed in green for a customer in Florida.  This customer wanted white envelopes instead of colored ones which also wasn't a problem at all.  The photos of these were taken right after I finished printing them, which is why they are sitting on the press.  If you were ever curious what a printing press from 1912 looks like, here you go: 

Want another example of how we can customize just for you?  Okay.  Lets say you've seen something on our website that you really like, but want to use it in an entirely different format for an entirely different purpose.  We can probably do that too...  Below are some photos of some awesome paper goods I made last spring for a commitment ceremony in New York.  I used that same scroll pattern from the last two examples, but printed it on a light grey 100% cotton paper in a slate grey ink so that it looked kind of like decorative iron metal work.  I then created a T-length program, thank you cards with envelopes, table numbers and a set of menus using the same motif.  You can see pictures of those below: 

We can also customize many of our other designs, other than the scroll pattern one.  For example, remember those pretty wildflower thank you cards that I printed in yellow and orange or pink and magenta last spring?  My mom really liked them, but wanted them to have her name on them instead of "Thank You" and she wanted them in a different color.  This is what hers looked like: 

Pretty, don't you think?  (By the way, those blue floral ones at the top of this post were custom made just for her too).  

So, if you happen to see a Twin Ravens Press design on this blog that you like, but maybe you want there to be something different about it, let me know.  Maybe you want it in a different color or a different size.  Maybe you want different colored envelopes or you want the envelopes to have your return address on them.  Maybe you see a design that we've done but want to use it for a different type of card, event or purpose all together.  Let me know!  I love customization and I would love to hear your ideas and then see what we can do to make one of our designs uniquely you!  

Save the Date: Dana & Robert are getting married!

I've been really busy printing lately and I wanted to share with you a very cool set of Save the Date cards that were completed for a lovely couple in New Jersey last week.  This is perhaps one of the most unique sets of Save-the-Date cards that I've printed lately.  The design for them was fairly simple - we used only text elements in the design, but it was fun because we played around with several different combinations of fun fonts until we came up with the set you see above.  The really unique thing about this set is the paper that it's printed on.  Dana and Robert's Save-the-Date cards are printed on a stiff 100% cotton paper from Crane & Co. in Espresso Brown.  This is the same paper that I used back in October for some really cool calling cards. Because of the papers stiffness, you can't achieve the same deep imprint with the letterpress that you can with a lot of other 100% cotton papers, without the print looking kind of smashed in and messy, but the color of the paper is so unique that I love the way the printing looks on it anyway.  With letterpress, it's often fairly difficult to achieve a good print on such a dark color of paper, but I think that Dana and Robert's Save-the-Dates turned out fabulously!  The ink colors we used were a metallic copper and a very dark plum purple.  I was worried that the plum wasn't going to show up well, but check it out in the detail shot below:

Pretty cool, don't you think?  They also chose to include a small accommodations card with their Save-the-Dates rather than with the invitations so that if they have guests that are planning to come really far in advance they can already make their accommodations arrangements.  Check out the card below:

We chose to round the corners of both of these cards, which I think was a really nice touch. Unfortunately, Crane & Co. doesn't produce a matching monarch size envelope for this paper, so instead, I paired the set up with a chestnut brown monarch envelope from Green Paper Company and printed the return address on the flap.  I think the pairing of papers from the two different companies was a really good match - not exact, but they still look very nice together. 

I was so excited about how the copper metallic ink turned out on the dark brown paper that I ended up printing a few Twin Ravens Press business cards with it on the same stock.  I'm not going to do this all the time for my business cards, because the chocolate brown paper is quite a bit more expensive than my regular stock, but I figured they would look really cool, so I had to try it out.  Check out the photo below!

I'm really excited to have gotten to work with Dana and her fiancee on her Save-the-Dates.  I actually worked with them before on another stationary project last year, prior to starting this blog.  Dana really likes fancy envelopes with cool envelope liners, so I created this set of stationary earlier last year based on a very cool envelope liner paper she found.  You can see pictures of that whole stationary set below:

Above is a single sheet of the stationary with the matching envelope.  The envelope had their address letterpress printed on the flap.  Below is a close-up shot of the stationary with the open envelope, so that you can see the aforementioned fancy envelope liner.

And above is a fun close-up of a few sheets of the stationary fanned out together.  I really love the way this pattern turned out.  

Thanks again, Dana & Robert!  You've been really great customers and I'm really looking forward to working with you on your wedding invitations!

Shop Twin Ravens Press in Portland, Oregon!

I have great news today for all of my Portland, Oregon readers, shoppers and aficionados!  If you live in Portland, Oregon you can now buy Twin Ravens Press products locally in a few different retail shops in your area.  The first store in Portland to ever carry Twin Ravens Press products was Broadway Books.  Broadway Books is a very nice, independent, locally-owned book-seller located in Northeast Portland at 1714 NE Broadway.  Go check them out!  

You can also purchase Twin Ravens Press products at two other locations.  The newest shop in the Portland area to carry our products is Oblation Papers and Press.  I'm very excited that Oblation started carrying our products because I have been in love with their little paper boutique since I was a college student - long before I even thought of starting Twin Ravens Press. Oblation is  an old-world letterpress print shop, urban paper mill and fine European-style paper boutique.  They specialize in custom invitations and announcements, but also have a lovely retail section, where one will find Italian correspondence stationary, fine fountain pens and distinctive paper from around the world.  The also carry an assortment of eclectic gift items, French wax seals, photo albums, journals, raw materials for bookbinding, designer office supplies and an unrivaled selection of handmade and letterpress printed greeting cards.  If you'd like to read more about Oblation's printing and retail shop you can on their website. Below is a photo of the inside of their store, it's really fun and inviting.  

Oblation has two locations.  Their original location (pictured at the top) is in downtown Portland in the Pearl District at 516 NW 12th Avenue and they also have a retail location in Bridgeport Village at 7243 Bridgeport Road in Tigard.  If you love my work, and/or letterpress printing in general and you're in Portland, Oregon, go check out Oblation.  You will love them!  

Do you own, work at or know of a retail shop in your area where you'd love to see Twin Ravens Press' products?  If you do, e-mail me at twinravenspress@gmail.com! I love working with other retailers and would be glad to send your shop or a shop that you know of a wholesale catalog and price list.  We would love to work with you!

Featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper!

Today we were delightfully surprised to find one of our Valentine's Day cards being featured on the blog Oh So Beautiful Paper.  Check out the delightful author, Nole's, blog post here.  The one at the top of this post is the one being featured on her site.  We have a couple of other V-day designs available right now in the etsy store and will be adding more new ones starting early next week.  This robot is always a sweet (and awesome) choice: 

Remember these John Lennon-inspired ones from last year?  

They're now on sale (for really cheap!) in both set and single form.  Check them out!

Kerplunc

I recently completed a brand new set of business cards for a small Calgary, Alberta Canada-based company that does web design, development and hosting called Kerplunc.  If you're interested in checking out some of the stuff that Matt Hall and his business partner, Nick, are up to at Kerplunc, they operate two blogs: Resource Pile and Exploding Wumpus.  If you are in need of web hosting, check out their hosting sites SuperBytes and Fanatical Host.  I had mentioned in a previous post that a new site for twinravenspress.com is in the mix, and I may have to contact Matt about helping me out with it as soon as I figure out exactly what I want.

Matt discovered Twin Ravens Press through our Etsy shop, where he purchased one of our Robot Heart cards for his girlfriend (Awww...).  Shortly after, he placed an order for these custom cards: 

I really like the design of the cards - they are really simple and clean and incorporate the red K Logo on one side that Matt already had for his company, and simple, black informational text on the back.  I love how much space Matt chose to leave on the cards - that way if he or the client or potential client need to write something down, they already have space to do it.  These cards were printed on Crane Lettra's 100% cotton letterpress paper in Bright White.  The softness of this paper left a really great tactile impression for the letterpress work - particularly that raised, white, unprinted K from the logo (check out the close-up photo of it at the top).  Thanks so much, Matt!  

If you're looking into the possibility of ordering new business cards for your business, please don't hesitate to contact us at twinravenspress@gmail.com.  We would love to work with you!

Isabel & Luis are getting married!

I was thinking today that it's been a little while since I posted anything about weddings, and since I have had quite a few potential custom wedding clients appear over the past week or so, it might be good to write about some of the wedding stationary that has been recently finished. A few months ago I was contacted by a lovely bride, Isabel, through my etsy site about letterpress printing a set of custom wedding invitations that she was designing herself.  I feel really honored to have gotten to work with this couple, because, although they are living in the U.S. now, Isabel is originally from Spain and her husband-to-be, Luis, is originally from the Dominican Republic and right before their wedding they will be leaving the U.S. to move to Tunisia for work.  Personally, I love to travel and I always thought it would be really neat to have a job that you travel and live in different countries for.  I didn't quite end up in a job like that (obviously, even though I love the job I have very much), and I don't plan on trying to move my nearly 1,000 pound printing press around to different places just so that I can say I've lived and worked in other countries, but I do still love to travel to, see and experience different places whenever I get the chance.  Because of this I feel really excited to have gotten to work with a couple who is doing that, and who will be here for awhile and then be somewhere else. It's really neat that they chose to work with me, out of all the other possible people they could have throughout the U.S., the world and their travels.  It's pretty neat how the internet and e-commerce can bring people and businesses together who are hundreds or thousands of miles apart.

Anyway, on to the stationary.  Because they have many friends, speaking different languages, all over the world, Isabel & Luis decided to have two sets of invitations printed.  The design of both sets is the same, but one set is in English and the other set is in Spanish.  You can view images of both complete sets below.  

Each set included an A8 size invitation, a khaki invitation envelope with their return address printed on the flap and a reply card.  All of the pieces (except the envelopes) were printed on Crane's Lettra paper in Ecru.  We decided to use the standard weight of Crane Lettra (110 lb.) for their reply cards and the double-thick weight (220 lb.) for their invitations.  Check out both invitations below.

I haven't printed on Crane's double-weight paper too often, but I really do like the way that it looks.  The paper itself, while still being 100% cotton is so stiff and thick, it almost feels the same as my coaster stock.  It prints really beautifully and because of the thickness of the sheet to begin with, you can get a fairly substantial impression without a lot of effort.   Check out a close-up, detailed image of one of the invitations below:

Pretty, don't you think?  I really love too how the combination of the warm red and chocolate brown inks on the warm Ecru 100% cotton paper really makes it feel like a decadent and romantic Spanish wedding.  It's almost like a preview of what the actual celebration at a very old cathedral in Madrid, Spain will be like, in paper form.  

Below are closer-up images of both sets of reply cards.  Rather than going with a standard reply card where your guests fill in their response and mail them back to you, Isabel and Luis opted to go with more of an informational-style reply card and are having their guests respond online.  I did a similar type of card for the last couple I wrote about, Valerie & Rebecca, for the same reason: both couples are moving in between when the send out their invitations and when they have their actual weddings.  I think this is a really great thing to do so that you can still have a separate reply card if you are in the same or a similar situation.  Check them out:

Last, but not least: the envelopes.  Isabel and I went back and forth a lot on what the envelopes for this set should be: white, ecru, khaki?  What size should they be? Etc...  We finally decided on a Khaki colored A9 envelope from Waste Not Paper.  The actual invitation is an A8, but Isabel was making some sort of fancy fabric inner envelope to put the invites, etc. in that would go inside the printed mailing envelope, so we decided that going with the bigger size would be the safest idea in order to make sure that the fabric inner-envelopes would fit.  Isabel designed a rather fancy return address image and I printed it in chocolate brown ink on the back flap.  

Finally, it's always wonderful to hear a little bit of praise every now and again for what you do, day to day, even if what you do is really really cool...  Normally, I would just link to this sort of thing, but in this instance I didn't want it to be too hard to find, so below is what Isabel wrote on her wedding website about Twin Ravens Press and my work:

The letterpressed part of the wedding invitations (inner invitation, RSVP card and envelope) were designed by Isabel but printed by the awesome Twin Ravens Press.  They were A+++ on customer service and went above and beyond to find the highest quality at the best price.

Thanks so much, Isabel!  I know that they are going to have an absolutely beautiful and romantic wedding in Spain in May.  

Congratulations Isabel & Luis!

Happy New Year!

I hope that all of you out in blog land had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year! We have some very exciting new things in store for you for this upcoming year, so stay tuned to this blog, if you want to be the first to know about the new stuff.  

Just to give you a little sneak preview of what we have in store for you: 

• There are going to be at least half a dozen brand new Valentines Day card designs available in our etsy shop starting the week after next.  Be sure to check those out!  
• We are working with an awesome web designer and good friend on making twinravenspress.com into a fully functional, awesome, bona fide website.  I'm hoping that it will be up by March or April.  Don't worry, you will still be able to get to this blog and the etsy shop from the new site.  The new site will just make it easier to view all sorts of stuff that we're doing and stuff that we've done in the past all in one place.
• Remember those cool wedding coasters we did this past fall?  Well, we enjoyed doing them so much that we're going to be adding a whole new product line of decorative and functional letterpress coasters to our wholesale/retail line.  These coasters will be more general-purpose or holiday related than the wedding coasters, and they will all be customizable.  The first ones will be available in the Etsy store starting in early spring.
• And, speaking of new stuff: Twin Ravens Press will be offering another brand new line of stationary products that I know you'll be excited about.  I'm going to be mean though and not reveal them yet, but trust me, I know you're going to love 'em.  

If you haven't been over to Etsy lately, go and check out the showcase this morning.  One of our card designs is being featured there (today and today only).  

It's been a busy week and I have several awesome new things to post about over the next few days, so come back and visit soon!  Have a very Happy 2009!!