Wedding Invitation: Vintage Tattoo Letterpress
When Courtney and Blair found my custom wedding invitations they immediately emailed me for a quote and we began working together to create something for their big day. They knew they loved the look and feel of letterpress and when it was within their budget to go that route I was beyond excited - these are actually my first set of invites to have printed by letterpress.
If you're unfamiliar with letterpress printing it is basically where your design is turned into a metal plate - the design is raised off the plate and covered with ink. The paper is then pressed against the plate - so the invite is being debossed and printed on at the same time. You need a separate plate for each color (here we had two - one for aqua and one for the metallic gold). It creates an unparalleled texture - seriously, you could fondle these invitations all day. Maybe that's just me.
Anyways, Courtney and Blair wanted something different - they were inspired by the architecture and culture of their wedding location and love the look of vintage tattoos like doves, swords and sacred hearts. I used all of this as inspiration to create their invitations. What I love about this suite is the amount of contrast - the big flourishy type contrasting with the small caps modern sans-serif, bold shapes contrast with flourishy woodcut birds, and a fresh design contrasted with an old school print method.
Every time I design something new it's my favorite - and these invitations are no different. A huge thanks to Courtney and Blair for letting me be a part of their wedding celebration.
These are beautiful!
I absolutely love that small caps sans-serif font for some reason.
Verra nice lassie. (said with a fake scottish accent)
Alright, this will make me a jerk, but i was a professional letterpress printer for a good 5 years. Bear with me a moment.
The plates you made aren't called "dies" usually. Dies are things made to cut out contours (as in "die-cutting"). What you had made were metal plates, with photopolymer plastic on top. Some shops still etch zinc plates and mount them on wood (the old fashioned method). Vintage letterpress images (aka "cuts") are sometimes called dies, but it's an incorrect terminology.
Ok-- hate me yet? The other misnomer that gets me- letterpress is a DEbossing process. Not an emboss. Emboss pushes something up from beneath while letterpress is pushing into the paper-- a depressing.
I know i'll get guff for this, but as a printer, i have to chirp in. The invite does look great-- just wanted to step in and speak up for the letterpress techies!
Leiflet - No, thank you for the information! I do have a few printers that read this blog so I was SURE I'd be getting some comments pointing out some mistakes I had made in my explanation.
these are beautiful. I love the colors and the intricate design. Bravo.
OMG, I just wanna touch 'em!!
Very nice. When I saw the subject line in my feed reader, before the post loaded, I was immediately skeptical, wondering how a vintage tattoo theme would work and not look cheesy. Well, my friend, great job, because these aren't cheesy at all! :) They look swell!
Post a Comment