Letterpress Print Design

Grow Collective business card with debossed glyphs.

The new Grow Collective business card is in circulation. It appeared a while ago, and I’ve been meaning to post about it. Today seemed like a good day. In a calm interlude, I snapped open the lens cover, hit the macro key and, after grappling with my poor photographic technique, here you go.

It was printed using letterpress onto 740gsm two–ply (natural white with Baghdad brown) Colourplan card by the venerable, and expert printers, Piccolo Press of Nairn in Scotland. They are one of the few remaining commercial letterpress printers in the UK who, ironically, do a large portion of their printing for clients in the States. Wherever you are, you could do much worse than a conversation with Tim Honor, or the designer, Paul. Their advice is invaluable.

Quick Tips

Letterpress is an analogue format so go to the highest resolution your machine and software can handle when producing the artwork. (I spend chunks of time waiting for changes to be applied at 1600dpi, but it was worth it.)
Letterpress will saturate the card with ink, so your colours will be richer than printing on the office inkjet.
You pay for the block, the card and the print run. It’s not cheap but then, it’s not lithographic quality, this is letterpress!
Trust the advice of the printer (especially if you use Piccolo) on the choice of card. They can provide samples, but a good rule is, the thicker the card, the better the deboss at print. Standard weight is around 540gsm — almost twice that of litho printers.

There’s a high resolution photo on Flickr if you want a closer peek. I’d love to hear how you get on if you go down this route. It’s more than worth it just to run your fingers over the debossing when they’re delivered.

11 Comments

1. By tyGos on 23rd Oct ’07 at 18:24pm

Dude, I thought you were a web designer?

This post certainly smacks of a good bit of "print design geekery".

Whattup with that dude, lol.

Thanks for the lesson.

2. By Ian on 23rd Oct ’07 at 18:58pm

They look amazing! You need to hand me one when you next see me.

3. By Ian on 23rd Oct ’07 at 19:13pm

You're on their website too

4. By Jon 陳 on 23rd Oct ’07 at 20:16pm

You're welcome Ty. Pedantry in all things seems to be the yoke that binds me to the work. :)

Thanks for that Ian, I didn’t know. I'll be sure to show you one next time out.

5. By Stef on 24th Oct ’07 at 09:31am

Nice – was reminded the other day that I wanted to get the name of your printer!

6. By Elliot Jay Stocks on 24th Oct ’07 at 10:48am

Wow. These look lovely, Jon. Would it be rude of me to ask how much you paid?

7. By Jon 陳 on 24th Oct ’07 at 11:18am

Hi Stef, glad to share it. The guys over there are great. Good to see you in here! We’ll have to try and meet up again, sometime.

Hi Elliot. Thanks! :) The cost depends on blocks, card and run but hopefully this will give you an idea: The blocks were £25 each (we had ones cut for the Grow logo, and then individual name/contact info for each member.) Card and print run for 500 was £138. All ex VAT. Delivery was about £7.

8. By Zach Inglis on 24th Oct ’07 at 12:25pm

Nice. I've been considering doing a bit of letterpress work lately and I will definitely use them.

This is a great business card. Nice work.

9. By Steve Avery on 24th Oct ’07 at 12:46pm

Hi Jon.

Lovely business card design mate. Be sure to throw one my way next time we meet up.

10. By Jeff on 15th Nov ’08 at 19:07pm

Wow I never thought of letterpress. They look very nice and professional.

11. By Andy Gowland on 15th Jan ’09 at 21:22pm

Hello, do you offer a debossed print service?

I have a client who is seeking this service. Please contact me if you do and are interested.

Thanks

Andy

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Remarks from the log

By 7 in Complex Type: CSS Fix, ClearType Miss:

Thumbs up on the css styled logo.

By Mircea Piturca in SkillSwap Goes Typographic:

So as I. Hopefully they will do something like this in Europe. I got so many questions to ask like what safe web font…

By Sam in SkillSwap Goes Typographic:

Thanks for the book recommendation Mircea, I will check it out as I wasn’t sure about Vertical Rhythm either. I…

By mario oyunları in Display Type & the Raster Wars:

i am using firefox 3 its better than ie6 and ie7 on xp

By Chris Seidl in Seven Things:

Oh geez, how did I miss that? Anyway, funny post. :)

By Chris Seidl in Seven Things:

The word meme was, I believe, originally coined by Richard Dawkins in his first book, The Selfish Gene. The intent…

Footnotes

This simple dish was created with a little xHTML, a dash of CSS and a pinch of PHP. It’s garnished with hAtom, hCalendar, XFN, hCard and rel-tag with a large slice of accessible intent. Hopefully it plays nicely, all the time.

1. By tyGos on 23rd Oct ’07 at 18:24pm

Dude, I thought you were a web designer?

This post certainly smacks of a good bit of "print design geekery".

Whattup with that dude, lol.

Thanks for the lesson.
2. By Ian on 23rd Oct ’07 at 18:58pm

They look amazing! You need to hand me one when you next see me.
3. By Ian on 23rd Oct ’07 at 19:13pm

You're on their website too
4. By Jon 陳 on 23rd Oct ’07 at 20:16pm

You're welcome Ty. Pedantry in all things seems to be the yoke that binds me to the work. :)

Thanks for that Ian, I didn’t know. I'll be sure to show you one next time out.
5. By Stef on 24th Oct ’07 at 09:31am

Nice – was reminded the other day that I wanted to get the name of your printer!
6. By Elliot Jay Stocks on 24th Oct ’07 at 10:48am

Wow. These look lovely, Jon. Would it be rude of me to ask how much you paid?
7. By Jon 陳 on 24th Oct ’07 at 11:18am

Hi Stef, glad to share it. The guys over there are great. Good to see you in here! We’ll have to try and meet up again, sometime.

Hi Elliot. Thanks! :) The cost depends on blocks, card and run but hopefully this will give you an idea: The blocks were £25 each (we had ones cut for the Grow logo, and then individual name/contact info for each member.) Card and print run for 500 was £138. All ex VAT. Delivery was about £7.
8. By Zach Inglis on 24th Oct ’07 at 12:25pm

Nice. I've been considering doing a bit of letterpress work lately and I will definitely use them.

This is a great business card. Nice work.
9. By Steve Avery on 24th Oct ’07 at 12:46pm

Hi Jon.

Lovely business card design mate. Be sure to throw one my way next time we meet up.
10. By Jeff on 15th Nov ’08 at 19:07pm

Wow I never thought of letterpress. They look very nice and professional.
11. By Andy Gowland on 15th Jan ’09 at 21:22pm

Hello, do you offer a debossed print service?

I have a client who is seeking this service. Please contact me if you do and are interested.

Thanks

Andy

By 7 in Complex Type: CSS Fix, ClearType Miss:

Thumbs up on the css styled logo.
By Mircea Piturca in SkillSwap Goes Typographic:

So as I. Hopefully they will do something like this in Europe. I got so many questions to ask like what safe web font…
By Sam in SkillSwap Goes Typographic:

Thanks for the book recommendation Mircea, I will check it out as I wasn’t sure about Vertical Rhythm either. I…
By mario oyunları in Display Type & the Raster Wars:

i am using firefox 3 its better than ie6 and ie7 on xp
By Chris Seidl in Seven Things:

Oh geez, how did I miss that? Anyway, funny post. :)
By Chris Seidl in Seven Things:

The word meme was, I believe, originally coined by Richard Dawkins in his first book, The Selfish Gene. The intent…

Letterpress Print Design

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11 Comments

1. By tyGos on 23rd Oct ’07 at 18:24pm

2. By Ian on 23rd Oct ’07 at 18:58pm

3. By Ian on 23rd Oct ’07 at 19:13pm

4. By Jon 陳 on 23rd Oct ’07 at 20:16pm

5. By Stef on 24th Oct ’07 at 09:31am

6. By Elliot Jay Stocks on 24th Oct ’07 at 10:48am

7. By Jon 陳 on 24th Oct ’07 at 11:18am

8. By Zach Inglis on 24th Oct ’07 at 12:25pm

9. By Steve Avery on 24th Oct ’07 at 12:46pm

10. By Jeff on 15th Nov ’08 at 19:07pm

11. By Andy Gowland on 15th Jan ’09 at 21:22pm

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Remarks from the log

By 7 in Complex Type: CSS Fix, ClearType Miss:

By Mircea Piturca in SkillSwap Goes Typographic:

By Sam in SkillSwap Goes Typographic:

By mario oyunları in Display Type & the Raster Wars:

By Chris Seidl in Seven Things:

By Chris Seidl in Seven Things:

Footnotes

Letterpress Print Design

Quick Tips

Share

Browse More Articles

11 Comments

1. By tyGos on 23rd Oct ’07 at 18:24pm

2. By Ian on 23rd Oct ’07 at 18:58pm

3. By Ian on 23rd Oct ’07 at 19:13pm

4. By Jon 陳 on 23rd Oct ’07 at 20:16pm

5. By Stef on 24th Oct ’07 at 09:31am

6. By Elliot Jay Stocks on 24th Oct ’07 at 10:48am

7. By Jon 陳 on 24th Oct ’07 at 11:18am

8. By Zach Inglis on 24th Oct ’07 at 12:25pm

9. By Steve Avery on 24th Oct ’07 at 12:46pm

10. By Jeff on 15th Nov ’08 at 19:07pm

11. By Andy Gowland on 15th Jan ’09 at 21:22pm

Post a Comment

Lately in the Log

SkillSwap Goes Typographic — Mon, 9th Mar 2009 {8}

Seven Things — Mon, 9th Mar 2009 {10}

Growing OmniTI — Sun, 21st Dec 2008 {23}

PHP Advent Seasoning — Tue, 16th Dec 2008 {9}

Remarks from the log

By 7 in Complex Type: CSS Fix, ClearType Miss:

By Mircea Piturca in SkillSwap Goes Typographic:

By Sam in SkillSwap Goes Typographic:

By mario oyunları in Display Type & the Raster Wars:

By Chris Seidl in Seven Things:

By Chris Seidl in Seven Things:

People and XFN

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