Shop Twin Ravens Press at Finch!

Great news for Twin Ravens Press fans in and around Austin, Texas!  I'm currently in the process of finishing up and getting ready to ship off an order of Twin Ravens Press cards to a little retail shop in Austin called Finch!  

Finch is located in the heart of downtown Austin at 417 West 2nd Street.  Their shop offers a lovely collection of gifts, and hand-crafted furnishings for the home. Finch specializes in independent design (like us!), and carries handmade ceramics, textiles, lamps, glassware and other items from around the world.  Twin Ravens Press is very excited to have our cards at Finch, so if you're living in or close to Austin, go down and check them out!  

Simple, Yet Sophisticated: Kristin & Timothy are Getting Married!

Last month, Twin Ravens Press had the opportunity to print a very stylish, simple, yet sophisticated set of wedding invitations for a couple in upstate New York!  When Kristin and Timothy contacted me, they already new what they wanted for the design of their wedding invitations, and it was just up to me to customize their specific pieces and do the printing.  Kristin and Timothy's suite included a 6.75" square wedding invitation with matching Marquis size envelope, a 4bar reply card, with matching envelope and a small, 2.5"x3.5" reception card.  You can see a photo of all of the pieces together at the top of this post.   All of Kristin and Timothy's pieces were printed on Crane Lettra Bright White Paper in light grey and pewter colored inks.  Their envelopes were Crane Lettra Bright White Envelopes with square flaps.  

Here is a photo of Kristin and Timothy's invitation and invitation envelope: 

Twin Ravens Press currently offers three sizes of square invitations: 5.5", 6.25" or 6.75".  Kristin and Timothy's invitation was the largest square size we offer and I think that the size really helped add to the nice open, clean, uncluttered look of their design.  I also love how the larger envelope, with the larger flap, allowed us to do some really fun things with the design of their address.  We were able to print the address in two ink colors and have the shape/style/fonts mimic the fonts on the invite.  Click on the photo above if you'd like to see a larger version.  Below is a photo of they're stylish, sophisticated invite all by itself, and below that is a close-up so you can see the ink colors, fonts and impression a little better.  

Very nice, don't you think?  

For their reply card, Kristin wanted something simple: no fancy options or check-boxes or blanks to fill in, just a nice, white card that went well with the invitation, had space for the guest's name(s) and a space for them to write their response.  This is what we came up with: 

And here it is with the envelope:  

For the envelope - we printed the address in the same style, fonts and colors as we did on the flap of the invitation envelope.  I love how clean and crisp it looks - very classy!  

Lastly, Kristin wanted a separate reception card for her suite, since her wedding and reception are going to be held at different locations.  One of my favorite sizes for reception cards is 3.5"x2.5".  This size is slightly larger than a business card and has just enough room for some brief information about a different reception location.  Once again, we mimicked the design of the invite for this separate card.   

Kristin and Timothy were wonderful to work with throughout the whole process!  Kristin even sent me a very sweet e-mail when she received everything.  Here is what she wrote: 

Thanks so much again for doing such a phenomenal job on these invitations.  Everyone loves them, especially Tim and I.  They definitely are exactly what we were looking for, simple but sophisticated.  ... You can be sure I will be recommending you to anyone who will benefit from your services.  Thank you again for adding a special touch to our special day!

Thanks so much again, Kristin & Tim!  All the best! 

Just off the Press: Round Wedding Menus!

I just finished printing a set of gorgeous wedding menus for a couple who are getting married in Spain next Saturday.  I've been working with the bride and groom that these are for for several months now and this is the final piece they are having me print for their wedding.  The couple I'm speaking of are Isabel and Luis, who I printed a gorgeous set of wedding invitations for back in January.  I wrote about working with Isabel and about her wedding invitations in a couple of other blog posts, which you can find here and here.  

Like her other letterpress pieces, Isa designed her wedding menus herself and sent her design to me to be letterpress printed.  Like her other pieces, the menus are bilingual, english and spanish and feature a gorgeous, ornate-looking, romantic design.  These menus are also extremely unique in that they are 5.5" circle shapes.  In order to print these, I first printed them on a square 6" sheet of Crane Lettra 100% cotton ecru paper in violet ink and then die-cut each one on the letterpress using a sharp, custom-made, steel 5.5" round circle die.  As, you can see from the above photo, they turned out magnificently!  (Click on the photo if you'd like to see a bigger version).  

I really loved Isabel's fancy designs throughout her whole suite.  Here is a close-up of some of the ornate, beautiful pattern on the top of the menu: 

The design is beautiful and really shows off the letterpress detail and impression very well!   These menus were rush shipped off to Spain this afternoon so that Isabel and Luis can enjoy them at their reception next weekend.  

Congratulations again, Isabel and Luis!  Thanks again!  

Cecilia & William are Getting Married!

Here's another beautiful and summery wedding invitation suite that I completed last month for a lovely couple in Georgia!  The bride, Cecilia, had been following Wedding Bee for a few months and had seen some of the work my company had done for different brides on that site and decided to contact me about creating a wedding invitation suite for her June wedding.  As you can see in the above photo of the suite, Cecilia and William's set included a T-Length wedding invitation and coordinating envelope and a 4bar size reply card with coordinating envelope.  Here is the invitation and invitation envelope: 

Cecilia and William's invitations were three colors: black, light blue and leaf green and the invitation and reply card were printed on Crane Lettra 100% cotton pearl white paper.  I love the way the blue flowers and green leaves and vines give the whole set a very warm, summery feel.  I also love that the design we ended up doing is a T-Length size.  This size is one of the more uncommon ones that I do for wedding invitations, but I really love the look of a long, skinny invite.  The envelope we chose to pair with the suite is from Waste Not Paper Company - it is their T-length size in Luxe White.  I love how most T-Length envelopes open on the short end and the flap has just enough room for a small, letterpress printed return address.  Cecilia asked for a deeper impression for her pieces, which I thought turned out really nice.  Here are a couple of close-ups of different parts of her invite so that you can see the pretty ink colors, fonts and impression better: 

Cecilia and William's reply card is a standard 4Bar size, which measures 3.5" x 4.875".  It is also three colors and featured the same blue and green viney flowers from the invite.  For the reply card envelope we chose a light green envelope from Waste Not Paper and made sure that the green ink we used for the leaves and vines on the pieces matched the color of this envelope. If you look at the envelope in the photo at the top of this post, you will see that we printed the return address for the reply envelope on the front in black ink.  Here is the reply card and envelope together:  

Here is one more close-up of this card so you can check out the impression, colors and pretty fonts: 

Cecilia and William were a pleasure to work with and I know that these invites are just the start of what's going to be a beautiful Southern, summer wedding this June.  Congratulations Cecilia and William!

Letterpress Printed Cocktail Napkins

Did you know that letterpress printing can be used on other objects besides regular flat paper? One of the more traditional objects that was printed on regularly, other than paper, were square cocktail napkins.  People often used to have napkins printed up for special events or parties such as weddings, milestone birthdays, anniversary parties, etc.  

I recently got a request to print up some of these napkins for a good friend whose adult son is a sailor.  The son and his girlfriend have a sailboat called Santa Magdalena that they travel all over the place on (Caribbean, South America, etc...).  The mom thought it would be a really neat gift to get them custom printed cocktail napkins themed after their boat.  I thought it was a very cool idea too!  You can see a close-up photo of the design for the napkins at the top of this post and a wider shot of them here:  

These napkins are regular, square, 3-ply cocktail napkins that you can find at any party supply store.  They are ivory colored and feature the stick-drawn sailboat design and the names printed in chocolate brown ink on the diagonal of the napkin.  Aren't they cool?  

If you would like more information about custom letterpress napkins, feel free to contact me at twinravenspress@gmail.com!  I'm sure they would be a hit at your upcoming party or other get-together (or they would be awesome to have on your sailboat!).  

F is for Fail (A Short Film About the Creative Process)

F is for FAIL from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

If, like me, you work in some kind of design or creative field full-time, you're sure to appreciate this video.  You'll also like it if you are just a fan of really awesome uses of typography.  

From Vimeo:

F is for Fail is a short film about the creative process, and the failure we always encounter, but usually overcome.  Told using the alphabet, each letter informs us of the state of the protagonist's creativity/state of mind.  Each letter has two words associated with it (except A and Z); sometimes the positive word overpowers the negative word, and vice-versa. 

Creative direction, design, and animation by Brent Barson.   

I thought it was really cool!  Check it out!  

Paul & Jesika are Getting Married!

I recently had the pleasure of designing and printing a set of wedding invitations for a couple of good friends that I went to college with.  Paul & Jes have been dating longer than I've known them and they are tying the knot at the end of this month!  For their wedding, I created an invitation set with an invite, reply card, save-the-date card, thank you cards and four sets of envelopes.  

Let's start with the Save-the-Date: 

I created Paul & Jes' Save-the-Date cards several months ago.  They were loosely based on this set of wedding invitations I printed for another couple in 2008.  Paul & Jes' wedding colors are blue, white and black, so we stuck with light blue and black inks on Crane Lettra 100% cotton Pearl White paper for the whole suite.  The above Save-the-Date card is an A2 size and came with a matching blue envelope with a monarch style flap from Green Paper Company.  Here is a close-up so you can get a better look at the Save-the-Date: 

After the Save-the-Date cards were printed and sent out, I began working on the designs for their wedding invitations.  Jes really liked the light blue flowers from the Save-the-Date card and wanted to keep the design and formatting of the other pieces in her stationery suite similar, and this is what we came up with: 

The invitation is a standard A7 size and comes with an A7 envelope that was the same color as their save-the-date envelopes.  Green Paper Company currently makes two different blue papers, a lighter one and a darker one.  The two sets of envelopes you've seen so far are their darker blues.  For Paul & Jes' invites we custom lined each one with the lighter blue GPC color, just to give it a little more pizazz.  I think they turned out really pretty!  Here is the invite with the lined invitation envelope: 

And here are a couple of close-up photos of their stunning invitation: 

Like the design we printed in 2008, Paul and Jes wanted their names to be the most prominent textual element on their invitation design, with the other information designed around it.  I love the way that the blue flowers interlace with the script of their names, and I love the use of the 1/4" black border to frame everything.  

For the reply card, we used a standard 4bar size with a light blue envelope (that matched the invitation envelope liners).  I tried to keep the design of this card in line with the design of everything else.  Here is the reply card with its envelope: 

And here is a close-up of the card, by itself: 

I really love the elegance and simplicity of this reply card!  It's very pretty, simple and yet functional and coordinates with the rest of the suite perfectly!  

Last, but not least, I created a set of matching thank you cards for Paul & Jes to use after their wedding.  Here is what they look like:  

The thank you cards were also a 4bar size.  They incorporated the same floral pattern from the reply card and featured their names (with Jes' new last name!) in the center.  These also came with a coordinating blue envelope.  

As much as I enjoy working with the majority of my customers, it's really fun when you get to create something beautiful and special for your friends!  Congratulations Paul & Jes!  I'm so excited for your wedding!