Re-branding the re-branders.

Re-branding has its perks

After re-branding, I needed to supply some top-notch business cards. I spent the morning with Doug & Danika Aplin, the letterpress design duo at their new studio up in Brookvale because I’d heard that they love their craft almost as much as I do. We want things with longevity, things with purpose. Things that make an impact.

With digital printing becoming the norm it’s great to see some old school craft in printing has stayed entrenched and is now a speciality.

I personally love the smell of an original Heidelberg and there’s something special about colour adjustments that are done with a spanner rather a keystroke. Mmmmm letterpress 🙂

If you’re looking for something a little extra special for your next print job after a re-brand hit them up at ddletterpress.com.au or twit away at @DdLetterpress

Want to know more about letterpress?

Letterpress prints tend to have a very tactile quality, with a slight debossing effect evident where the ink has been laid.
As the process is very manual, letterpress prints tend to also be as much about the paper stock as the print itself, with the printer and designer working together to choose unusual, richly textured or heavyweight stocks.
Many of the typography terms and phrases we’re now familiar with originate from the combination of moveable type and the letterpress process. ‘Upper case’ and ‘lower case’, for example, refers to the storage of the different type forms in type cases. ‘Leading’, the space between two lines of type, refers to strips of lead placed between lines of moveable type to space them further apart.
The finished print surface, constructed from a moveable type and image plates, is inked before being applied with pressure to the surface being printed. This results in a clean, sharp imprint, and dependent upon the amount of pressure applied during the print, along with the material being printed onto, a physical debossing impression will be made simultaneously.
Each colour needs to be printed individually on letterpress, and the process doesn’t suit the familiar CMYK blended colour approach. Consequently, you need to consider letterpress as being a series of spot colours – try to avoid overlapping colours where possible, as this will create inconsistencies during the printing process.
You can learn how to make your own letterpress art, get us to design new business cards for you or contact the wonderful craftspeople at DD Letterpress for printing.