Rise and Shine Letterpress

Custom Letterpress Printing for Designers and Brands

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The Importance of Branding your Business

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A Letterpress and Gold Foil Business Card

Creating a captivating brand is essential for any business, whether you are a new startup or an established organization. Here are our top five reasons why branding is very important for your success:

#5. Consistency

By having a consistent brand image, your customers know what to expect from your company. They can identify your products or services as authentic and the real deal because they are dressed in the uniform of your brand.

#4. Recognition

You can see your friends from across a crowded room. You want your customers to perceive your brand the same way. If you speak with a consistent “voice,” your brand personality will develop an identity of its own. For example, you know an Apple device without having to see the logo. They have an unmistakable presence, and so can you.

#3. Employee Satisfaction

These days, employees need more than just a job. They want to work for something, or toward something. This isn’t an easy thing to accomplish for a business, and there is a long road ahead to create that kind of progressive workplace. But the very first step is to create an identity that is the framework for the rest of your team-building efforts.

#2. Value

They say a business should have an exit strategy*. If your business is just you, there is no way to make a separation between you and your business one day in the future. A brand has its own identity, and its leadership can be transferred one day as your grow. *Our business totally doesn’t have an exit strategy, and we think that’s ok, too. Even though we have a brand, we (Ryan and Leslie) do way too much of the hard work to ever sell Rise and Shine Letterpress.

#1. Trust.

This beats everything else, or maybe it sums up all of these points into one perfect word. Your brand is a shorthand for everything your company does and stands for. Your brand is your second face, and trust me, you could get punched square in the brand-nose if you’re not careful. But if you act in good faith, with reliable, authentic work that pushes toward something, you’ll get a kiss instead, on the brand-cheek!

One of the cornerstones of any brand is how it is expressed in print. A business card, a hang-tag, or just a thank-you note that you send to your customers can go really far in making your brand real. Learn who we are to see if we’re a good fit for your brand.

Printing Techniques: Add more color with letterpress overprinting.

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With letterpress printing, we consider every color a “spot color.” That means that every color has its own plate, and the ink is mixed to the specified color and added to the press. A two-color print will have two plates and two press runs. But what if you want a third color without the expense of a third plate?

One trick we love to use is called Overprinting. The two color plates are carefully registered to print over top of one another using semi-transparent inks. Because the inks allow light to pass through, the colors will appear to blend almost as if you were mixing paint. Red and blue makes purple. Yellow and Orange makes Red. Blue and Yellow makes Green.

If you need a specific Pantone-matched third color, another press run will be necessary. But for the right design, overprinting can add color and curiosity to your letterpress project.

How to choose paper for your letterpress project.

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You have probably seen beautiful prints on soft, textured paper that sings when combined with a signature letterpress bite. In this skill session, we’ll shed some light on how to explore the world of paper for yourself, and to communicate clearly with your printer so you receive the results you desire. We’ll talk about all the different weights, calipers and finishes, and what it all means in relation to your project. And we will give you plenty of resources to learn more.

Start exploring papers with paper-mill swatch books.

Paper mills (“mill” is the term used to describe a paper manufacturer) all distribute swatch books of their products. A paper mill will usually have several line names or brand names that it produces, and each will have its own swatch book. Inside, you will usually find a waterfall of paper samples along with the color names, available weights and finishes. They often include examples of fine printing techniques on their papers. In the Resources section below, we have links for you to order swatch books for yourself.

Neenah Paper Swatch Books

An example of the many papers available from Neenah Paper Company from our paper library. Each swatch book is packed with examples and information about each paper brand.
French Muscletone Swatch Book

A swatch book from French Paper Company, the oldest family-run paper company in the US. French Muscletone is very popular for designers specifying stocks for letterpress. French Paper can be purchased in small quantities direct from their website, so it is a great choice for short-run projects. They also stock matching envelopes for every grade and color in their line, which is fantastic for stationery designers. French also sells a Sample Pack Multi Pack, which is an amazing box of 8.5 x 11″ sheets of every paper they make. At $30, it is seriously worth the money for any graphic designer.
Neenah Paper Co Swatch Book

Inside a swatch book, you can find a waterfall layout of paper with a key sheet that describes the colors, weights and finishes available.  Some colors may not be available in all weights, so check carefully to make sure you weight and shade combination is available.

It’s good to have a soft side.

Every paper has its own personalty on the press. Before you pick a paper, it’s best to decide what you want to express. Do you want your prints to have a soft, delicate, pillow-like impression profile? Or do you want to give your prints a deep, chiseled indentation?

Here are some examples of the kinds of papers you can choose, and the impression that results:

  1. Crane’s Lettra. This example features 220lb Crane’s Lettra, a 100% cotton paper designed specifically for letterpress printing. It has soft, pulpy fibers that give it the feeling of hand-made art paper.
  2. Neenah Classic Crest. This is a fine example of a high-quality “commercial” style sheet, generally designed for offset printing. It prints beautifully with letterpress, too. You can see how the hardness of this sheet is less yielding to the letterpress impression. It gives the letterforms a chiseled appearance when viewed up close.
  3. French Muscletone. Though this paper is made of 100% recycled wood fibers, it has a softer finish more similar to the cotton paper.
  4. Wild 35% Cotton. This paper has a unique surface texture. The added cotton gives this paper a luxurious softness without sacrificing weight and presence in the hand.
  5. Mohawk Superfine 120lb iTone. Designed for digital printing, we use this paper for letterpress + digital combination prints.

Weight vs. Thickness

Paper weight does not accurately indicate paper thickness. For example, 110lb Crane’s Lettra Cover is actually slightly thicker than 130lb Neenah Classic Crest Cover. That’s because weight doesn’t take into account the density of the paper. The Lettra is soft and pulpy. The Classic Crest is hard and smooth. It simply packs more fibers into a thinner sheet.

The number to consider when thinking about thickness is the paper’s “caliper.” Paper thickness is usually measured with a device called a micrometer. In the US, it reads in thousandths of an inch, but we use the word “points” as shorthand. A paper that is 40 thousandths of an inch thick (0.040 inches) would be referred to as 40 point. For a handy reference, a dime is precisely 0.053 inches thick, or 53 points.

Paper Finishes

The paper industry uses the term “finish” to describe the paper’s surface texture. Every paper company has their own unique take on what these textures mean, but we have selected some favorites to show here.

  • Smooth. Smooth finish papers have no discernable texture. They are smooth and uniform in finish with no discernable texture or tooth.
  • Wove. Wove finish is usually similar to smooth, or it may have a subtle mesh finish.
  • Vellum. Vellum is toothier, slightly more coarse in texture than wove finish. It is used for stationery because the texture makes it great for writing.
  • Eggshell Finish. Similar to the texture of an egg. Toothy and slightly textured. Very similar to vellum finish paper.
  • Linen. Linen finish paper has the texture of linen fabric. Linen fabric is made from the flax plant, but a linen paper is not an indication that it is made with flax fibers. Instead, this is a finish that is added to the paper to resemble the fabric.
  • Laid. Historically, this finish was the result of a handmade paper making process that used a wire mesh to form the paper sheets. Modern laid finish papers add the texture as an effect in the paper, similar to the way a watermark is added. It imparts the paper with a unique, classic look.

Paper Makers

French Paper Company – http://www.frenchpaper.com
Mohawk Paper – http://www.mohawkconnects.com
Neenah Paper – http://www.neenahpaper.com/
Reich Paper – http://www.reichpaper.com/
Domtar Paper – http://www.domtar.com

Learn more about paper

Legion Paper – http://www.legionpaper.com/
Visit their “our papers” section for photographs and descriptions of many great commercial and fine art papers.

Paper Specs – http://www.paperspecs.com/
A subscription service that gives you easy access to swatches and resources. Also free galleries, blogs and videos.

10 Techniques to Inspire your Letterpress Business Card Design

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Duplex Business Cards Edge Profile

Creating a captivating brand is essential for any business, whether you are a new startup or an established company working on modernizing your style. As your business grows, so should your brand. And an eye-catching business card is the cornerstone of any successful branding venture.

However, if you think of a business card design as just the text and graphics, you could be missing an opportunity to elevate your style and impress your customers. You may also want to consider the importance of the physical production of your business cards. Where will they be printed? What kind of paper will you use? What method of printing will be used to create them? These factors can be just as important as the graphic design itself. That’s why we have identified these 10 techniques to help inspire your thinking about your new cards.

Letterpress Business Card with Deep Impression

Technique One: The Deep Impression

Letterpress printing is truly done on a “press,” meaning it uses pressure to push ink onto the paper. You can use this to your advantage by adding light and shadow to your design, along with the added texture. It’s impossible not to run your fingers across a letterpress impression.

Letterpress Business Cards with Blind Deboss

Technique Two: The Blind Deboss

Why use ink at all? When combined with soft, textured cotton letterpress paper, a blind deboss can add a subtle touch of texture that gives you a clean white-on-white appeal. One important tip is to only use blind deboss for bold design elements – important details should always be printed with adequate contrast for easy visibility.

Thick Cotton Letterpress Business Cards with Edge Painting

Technique Three: Edge Painting

We can all agree the third dimension is pretty cool. After all, the world would be pretty flat and boring without it. Why shouldn’t your business card be in on the fun? You can add an exciting splash of color with edge painting. Go subtle with a color that’s close to the paper color, or go bold with a neon fluorescent. It’s up to you! Fourth dimensional edge painting coming soon, as soon as we learn how to transcend time and space.

This example shows neon pink edge painting on 220lb (600gsm) Crane’s Lettra paper.

Duplexed Business Cards

Technique Four: Duplexing

Duplexing is the process of mounting two layers of paper together to create a double-thick sheet. There are many interesting ways to use duplexing in your design.

Many designs call for a solid color on one side of the business card. Instead of printing the color, you can achieve a deep, consistent color by using paper that is dyed in the paper-making process. A great example of this are some of the paper varieties from French Paper Co. They are made with bright, intense colors that would be difficult to achieve with printing ink alone. But what happens if the other side of the card needs to be white? That’s where duplexing shines. You can easily mount a red paper to a white paper to create a custom card that’s unique for your design.

Another use for duplexing is for printing a deep letterpress impression on both sides of a business card. With a deep impression, bruising on the back of the sheet can be unavoidable. Instead, you can print the fronts and backs on separate sheets, and mount them together after printing. The bruising is concealed between the two sheets.

The duplexing process is can be done precisely, but we do not recommend using on designs with a border on both sides of the paper unless absolutely necessary. Some customers have expressed concern that the glue may come apart, or may not line up exactly with the front of the card. The glue we use is specifically designed for this process, so it will not come apart in normal use. And the gluing is done before the cards are trimmed. After trimming, the glue line is barely noticeable.

Foil Embossed Letterpress Business Cards

Technique Five: Foil Embossing

Letterpress is known for pressing the artwork into the paper. What if you wanted to raise it? That’s where embossing comes in. Embossing is often used interchangeably with debossing, so let’s clear that up first. Debossing is what it’s called when the artwork is pressed into the paper. An emboss is a raised image. It’s done with a two-part die. The paper is sandwiched between the two dies on the press, and it is sculpted with heat and pressure to create the raised image. There are several different kinds of embossing, such as foil embossing like the image above, or blind embossing, where there is no ink or foil and the color is the paper color. It’s a really cool process that is definitely worth exploring, but it does tend to be one of the more costly options.

Die-Cut Letterpress Business Cards

Technique Six: Die-Cutting

Don’t be a square, or a rectangle for that matter. Die cutting can help you add a unique shape to your business cards. Picture a cutting die like a really heavy duty cookie cutter that’s strong enough to punch through paper. It’s just like that! It’s locked into the press just like a printing plate, but instead of printing, it uses the pressure of the press to punch the cards out precisely in the shape of your design. To design a die-cut card, start with vector die lines. A die maker can usually use a PDF file. The process is a fairly accurate and will allow your printed artwork to align cleanly with the cut edges.

Die Cut Business Cards on Colorful Paper

Technique Seven: Colorful Papers

Now is an amazing time for colorful papers. There are so many interesting papers out there to accentuate your design. Colored papers can be an interesting design choice when you want to add a lot of color without the expense of a multi-color print. The blue cards above are stamped with copper foil on Neenah Classic Crest Patriot Blue. You could even use multiple colors of paper throughout the press run. Or duplex two different colors together to create your own combination.

Copper Foil Stamping on Chipboard Business Cards

Technique Eight: Foil Stamping

Foil stamping is very similar to letterpress, and it is done on the same type of equipment. The difference is that it uses a film of metallized foil instead of ink. The press is equipped with a special electric heating attachment that heats a metal die between 200-300F. The heated die, combined with the impression, transfers the foil in the shape of the design. In this example, we used bronze and black metallic foil on black French Poptone Black Licorice paper to create a striking appearance. And it’s not just gold and silver foil stamping. There are many colors available in both metallic and pigment shades.

White Pigment Foil on Black Paper

Technique Nine: White Pigment Foil

Foil stamping doesn’t have to be a metallic color. We often use white pigment foil stamping to print business cards that print white on dark black paper. There are also clear foils, and pearlized tint foils.

Simple Foil Business Cards

Technique 10: Simplicity

Just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should. There are many possibilities with letterpress printing, but in the end, ink on paper is the classic. Don’t be afraid to create a simple design that embraces the elegance of fine typography, beautiful paper and and generous white space. After all, this has been the tradition for 500 years.

What is letterpress, anyway?

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It all started with movable type.

Letterpress, once the standard method of printing, was almost lost due to the age of digital reproduction.

Any good letterpress background starts with the introduction of Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg was the visionary who invented a system of movable type and a compatible printing press that enabled mass duplication of the printed word. In Europe, starting in the 1450’s and for the next 500 years, Gutenberg’s revolutionary movable type was the method that most mass-produced printing was achieved.

Letterpress printing had a good long run, but around the 1950’s, technology began to progress rapidly, and so began a slow decline of the process. New techniques like offset printing came onto the scene and added such unfortunate things as “speed” and “efficiency” to the printing experience. Even with the improvements that the 20th-century brought, letterpress was still a slow and methodical process that required the labor of many skilled craftspeople. Letterpress hung on commercially into the 1980’s, until computers, copy machines and digital presses dealt the final blow. Sadly many letterpress machines were melted down for scrap in these dark years. What happened next was unexpected, and very interesting.

Right as the Internet revolution hit us full force in around the year 2000, interest in letterpress printing began to re-emerge. As technology pushed us further away from the hands-on traditions of printing and graphic design, curiosity for the old ways was growing. Graphic designers began to realize that letterpress printing could help them express a quality and authenticity that just can not be replicated with modern methods. Luckily there was still a lot of letterpress gear out there that hadn’t been turned into toaster ovens. By this time it was available at affordable prices, and sometimes scrap value. Because of this new financial accessibility of equipment, start-up artists and craftspeople could get their hands on some of the best letterpress equipment ever made. This renaissance did not just start up where letterpress left off though; Instead, a new way was found to combine modern digital design techniques in a way that embraced the advantages of new technology while retaining the traditional hands-on quality of a beautiful old craft.

The most notable new addition to the letterpress process was the development of the photopolymer plate. Letterpress is a “relief” printing process. This means that the printing surface is raised to accept ink, and then pressed directly onto the paper to create a reproduction of the image. The raised surface can be anything that fits into the press. Movable type, carved wooden blocks, or, in this case, photopolymer plates. These plates can faithfully reproduce digital artwork in extremely high detail. Photopolymer plates are also made of a very strong material that can easily resist the tons of force that are applied by letterpress presses. In fact, they are stronger than movable type, and less prone to damage when pressed with enough force to imprint deeply into paper. Thus, the modern and now iconic “deep letterpress impression” was born. When combined with soft cotton paper, photopolymer plates allowed this new generation of artists to print beautiful, tactile stationery, invitations and art prints, with a signature deep impression that is only possible with letterpress printing.

The deep impression that is created during this process helped to differentiate letterpress from other printing methods available. With these deep impression that you can see and feel, you know you have a real, authentic letterpress print. The true craft of the process is able to shine through; It was no longer just a method to get ink on paper. At this point it had been made clear that letterpress is, and always was, a form of artistic expression.
Once a method for mass production that met its demise due to its slow and time-consuming nature, letterpress was reborn and has been allowed to gain new respect for its very special qualities. Because of it’s need for hands-on skill, it’s connection to the past, and its unmistakable tactile impression, letterpress is here to stay as one of the most authentic techniques available in the graphic designer’s toolkit. Much of the surviving letterpress equipment is in the hands of people who cherish the machines and process. These craftsmen and women are keeping them well-loved and well-oiled, carrying on Gutenberg’s printing tradition in new and interesting ways.

Fresh Pressed: PS & QS Hang Tags

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Chipboard Letterpress Recycled Kraft Hang Tags

We’re excited to feature these hang tags because they are a great example of how to use letterpress to create an authentic presence for your brand. Black ink + a cool design + recycled chipboard creates something that looks ancient and fresh at the same time. We love it. Design by Ps&Qs. They are an online and retail shop based on South Street in Philadelphia, PA. Check them out at https://psandqs.com/.

Need help? Call Us at (800) 213-6408