Designing with Letterpress

Designing with Letterpress: A Webinar from PaperSpecs.

This webinar was educational and had wonderful examples from Judith Berliner (Full Circle Press) and Josh Chen (Chen Design Associates). Here are a few tips from what I learned today:

The Process:

– Know you press before you start your design and determine if the design is fit for the equipment – not all designs are right for letterpress
– film is created from your design
– a photopolymer plate is made using a light sensitive process
– printing begins

Considerations every designer should know:

Color and Ink:
– Work with solids and not screens of colors – 1 color at a time is important to remember
– Pantone books are printed offset so letterpress will look a bit heavier
– Designers should know how different papers influence color
– Minimum line weight should be .25 but preferably .50

Size and Runs:
– most printers have capabilities to run jobs from business card size to 21″ but size will depend on the press you have
– 250 minimum quantity for a run is suggested, but any quantity is possible

Paper:
– You can work with a family of papers for the same job
– Type of paper also determines the impression depth, 80 lbs is probably too thin – need thicker paper for deeper impressions
– Uncoated sheet: You can print on both smooth and textured paper (letterpress is almost always printed on an uncoated stock)
Coated paper: “It doesn’t really jive with the feel” as Josh says.

Special effects:

Example 1: A two color job with overprinting gives you more depth and more colors. Also, an additional color was added with a custom rubberstamp (stamped each month).

Example 2: A blind impression adds extra depth to a design.

Example 3: Unique Applications – Advent Calendar

People say that print is dead. When you see these beautiful samples you know why they are wrong!

Tomorrows Flickr Friday will feature more Letterpress samples so stop by the blog to see those! If you have some letterpress samples I would love to see them, share your link below in the comments!

Images and content from PaperSpecs.