December is a busy time of year for letterpress wedding announcements and love is in the air! These custom designed save the dates came in from a designer in Alabama. Blind impression and charcoal grey ink on Crane Lettra single ply. Finished size is A7 (5"x7"). Contact us today with your wedding invitation needs. We'd be happy to supply you with a quote!
A letterpress wedding invitation has to have
This custom wedding invitation was designed and printed a few months back and we think it has just the right blend of sugar and spice. We packed classic typography and a bold sense of style with feature and form. The real secret is in the personal flavors we added which came from really getting to know with the bride to be. The brides excitement was obvious and she was an absolute doll. We wanted to give this invitation the same sense of vibrance. We take a lot of pride in matching a couple to their invitation design and this one was no exception. Gold foil and slate grey ink on 2-ply. Oh - and who doesn't enjoy a little fun with an ampersand. Contact us for your custom quote today!
This piece was all about being creative with the visual but more importantly, we combined some unusual finishes to push the boundaries. The digital printing was finished on BLACK paper. Yes, we printed full CMYK on black stock. How? - That'll just be our little secret. We then incorporated with fast and free foil script to add some life and energy. Lastly, we duplexed the stock to add that weight that everyone wants in a custom wedding invitations. This invitation design includes a matching rsvp, info card, and gold letterpress coasters as well as custom die cut address labels and a medallion circle cut tag with twine band. We'll post a few more pics to show the entire suite. Thanks for visiting our letterpress blog. You can contact us for your custom quote here.
Spyhouse coffee and their overall presentation are second to none. If you've been to ANY of their locations, then you know just how much attention is put into atmosphere and vibe. We love Spyhouse coffee and we're fortunate get to work with them regularly to produce their bags and other printed goods. Cheers to a fantastic fall season!
What a success! If you're not familiar with the Big Fake Wedding, definitely check them out! We recently took part in their Minneapolis event at Le Meridien Chambers Hotel by producing a custom invitation suite geared to fit their wedding theme. Our design aesthetic was "Folk-Floral-Fabulous!" We created a custom gold foil and digital print along with a matching rsvp, envelopes with printed labels, coasters and novelty tags. The different finish techniques we used included duplexing invitations and rsvps, foil stamped invites, foil stamped rsvps, die cutting labels, letterpress coasters, and some fun twine binding to finish it all off.
We attended the completely SOLD OUT faux wedding, met with guests, had dinner, partied and danced the night away alongside out other participating vendors and guests. We'll definitely be doing this again!
Dig on these absolutely beautiful gold foil business cards. They're trimmed at a stylish 2.5" square dimension and printed double sided on our single-ply house stock. We just finished these super cute cards for Nicola Harger. She's a photographer based in the North Loop area and her work is absolutely stunning. Check out her site and maybe if you get a chance to meet her, you'll walk away with one of these beauties?!?!
Business cards, wedding invitations and so much more! Contact Dick & Jane Letterpress for all your Hot Foil and Letterpress needs!
The BIG announcement we've been waiting to finally share! We're moving to a brand new storefront studio location. We're still in the same building but we're no longer occupying the interior unit. We've expanded to the street front and the new studio is being built out as I type! So many new things are happening. New floors, doors and lighting; we're adding some fun furniture and some really killer decor sourced from some of our favorite local vintage and modern furniture companies. It looks like we're even buying some new equipment to increase productivity!
Real talk: For a long time we've quietly cranked out some really amazing work for clients across the globe. Well now it's time to share what we do and how we do it with everyone right here in our home town! We're really excited to show you just what we're up to so definitely stay tuned!
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If you'd like to schedule a consultation hosted in our new space or even just come see what we do please contact us either by phone or email.
2496 University Avenue Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114 P.651-756-8990 | E.info@dickandjaneletterpress.com
We LOVE printing business cards! Nothing more fun than running up some fun, funky little designs and getting to work with great clients in the process. Brewery business cards have been really big this past month thanks to the Portland based Craft Brewers Conference which went down a couple weeks back. Here are a couple of the cards we ran along with a few others from recent past.
If you're a business or individual looking for letterpress business cards, look no further. Dick & Jane Letterpress offers every possible finish you can imagine and we think our prices are pretty darn good too!
We get a lot of opportunities to work with a lot of different business and this job is not exception. Unmapped Brewery ordered up these cards last week and we couldn't be happier with the final product! We ran a duplexed French kraft stock with 465 and black. The cards we're final trimmed and hopefully JD will drop off a couple brews when he stops by to pick up!
We recently worked with Jessica Wonders (Jessica Wonders Events) on a style shoot and it turned out absolutely stunning! Even more exciting, the whole thing has been featured on the Wedding Lovely blog! You can check out all the details including the cute, tiny menus we came up with and hopefully the post and pictures will bring a little inspiration to your plans! Many thanks to Jessica for organizing the whole thing and to Wedding Lovely for sharing everyones hard work!
We labored over what colors to run with on this for a while. Our palletes we're originally in the soft blues and sea foams combined with a deep blacks.After taking more time to look at the brides venues and inspiration we suddenly shifter gears in favor of the warmer tones. We ended with this super clean juxtaposition of a blush dry brush technique applied over a silver ink. The envelopes were also matched using a blush tone paper but for the liners, we went with a higher contrast steel grey. It was truly a labor of love. We couldn't be happier with the results!
Over a hundred years ago on Melcher street in Boston (also known as printers row), the pressmen would set type by hand and crank away all day. The work was tedious and tiresome. After a job was done, they'd walk out to the alley and pick a kid to come in and sort all the type back into it's appropriate drawer for the lesser half of a nickel. To my knowledge, this is where the term, "printers devil" was born.
Here I am today packing to visit kids at a local preschool for a hand-on workshop. I love watching the kids eyes light up as they print they're very first card. It's a far cry from todays iPad and iKea lifestyle but in most ways, I think that is exactly what makes these workshops so great. If you'd like to schedule an on location print demo for your school or event. Give us a ring. If we can fit it in, we would surely love the opportunity!
Whatcha got there?
1. tiny sigwalt press
2. denim apron
3. half can of Vanson Black
4. a pair of ruber gloves
5. roll of paper towels
6. ink knife
7. small box of pre-cut biz card stock
8. tiny bottle of press wash (properly labeled with skull and crossbones)
The Minnesota Bride Magazine - Spring/Summer 2015 issue hit stands this month and it is jam-packed with all kinds of fantastic photos and articles. Even better, this issue has their annual Invitation review and guess who made it in!?
Woo-Hoo! I swear no matter how many years we've been doing invitations, every time I see our work in a printed publication, I get all kinds of super excited! Everyone around the shop is a buzz and our spring/summer clients are starting to come out of hibernation to begin working on their invitation suites. So much fun and great new designs in store for 2015.
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If you're considering invitations and you've got a crush on letterpress, definitely hit us up! We've got all kinds of packages to fit you needs AND your budget! - xoxo DJL!
We at D & J drink coffee - lots and LOTS of coffee. And we got to thinking, why not give something back to our local coffee joint? As we started thinking about expanding into new materials, we did a test run of coffee koozies for our the nearby Round Table Coffee Works. Now the locally-roasted fresh brew looks as good as it tastes :) Keep a lookout for us - we might be around your favorite coffee cup, next!
Katie Evans has been involved here at Dick and Jane for years. She started as an intern helping out with all sorts of projects as she finished school. Katie has since gone on to work with a number of other companies offering her unique design/illustration style across the Twin Cities. You can check out her work at hellokatieevans.com
We recently commissioned Katie to help us create this totally jaw dropping letterpress invitation design. Every letter, every line, completely hand drawn by Katie. We're calling it "Love Blooms Eternal". The design was released at the October TCBA Wedding Show in Minneapolis receiving a wealth of positive feedback. We've since begun the fall/winter process of working on a collection of new designs for the Spring season. Katie will be creating at least 2-3 more illustrations in her one-of-a-kind style. Each of Katie's designs (including Love Blooms Eternal) are being added to the collection line up. Clients simply submit their text and Katie illustrates the entire piece. 100% hand drawn, hand lettered, and 100% guaranteed to knock peoples socks off!
Stay tuned. We will post a lot more info on the upcoming designs as we get them wrapped up. Thanks for visiting the letterpress blog!
Say hello to our newest team member - Jenny Da. Jenny comes to us from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She's an MCAD Sophomore with a great eye for design and composition. She's working closely with us to aid in the creation of some really new and exciting invitation designs which we will be unveiling in the next few weeks or so. Some of the pieces she's creating include an amazing Minneapolis skyline featuring a flare of Marimekko style as well as some fun scroll work pieces. Check back soon for more images and samples as we update our letterpress blog.xo - DJL
Just a few images we snapped over the last week or so. Although running a letterpress shop all day takes a lot of focus and attention, we always squeeze in time to play with our baby boy, Sonny. Usually, he's hanging out in the lounge area tearing up dads books!
We recently finished an invitation order for the Peterson wedding. The bride and groom came in with the brides mother. The four of us sat down over a coffee and notepad where we discussed their particularly stylish taste unlike anything we had ever really attempted before.
The couple expressed their adoration for the traditional calligraphy/script type style however it was obvious that the two of them were a little more daring than leaving it at that. They continued to tell me about the ceremony being held at the super cool Gold Medal Flour building in Minneapolis, MN. I had recently been looking at pictures of the giant sign still mounted to the top of the roof so I was quite familiar with the allure of the building. The Petersons wanted to somehow incorporate the building into the invitation suite but do it tastefully.
After some back and forth we came up with the pictured design. We combined a blind emboss (no-ink) with an elegant script in formal black. At first glance, the invitees would not quite notice the full-bleed Gold Medal Flour sign quietly slipped in behind the script text. Also, if you lay each piece down on the table, the pieces reassemble like a puzzle to reveal one large sign which runs the width of both the invite, rsvp, and tidbit card. This was by far one of our most fun designs of the year. Thanks so much to the Petersons for being so daring. xoxo - DJL
We're very pleased to announce the kick-ass addition to the gang, Sara Bischoff! Sara has come to us from MCAD. Her background is in marketing and design. She is helping Dick and Jane reach out to the Minneapolis / St. Paul design community. We're working on a great new self-promotion initiative which Sara is spearheading. Be sure to check out the blog for more news on that topic. In the meantime, Sara has been featured in a recent YouTube video posted above! Sara is updating her site so we'll be sure to follow up with the new URL as soon as we receive word. Be sure to visit the Dick and Jane blog for more wonderful updates from the world of letterpress.
xoxo - DJL
That's right! We set the letterpress wedding invitations aside Thursday night for an evening of fun and entertainment as Dick and Jane Letterpress (along with an A-list of wedding vendors) partied with the Knot Magazine (MN). We managed to keep our heads together long enough to snap a few quick pics and even capture some small video clips. We compiled the pieces and posted to Youtube today for everyone to check out. Check out our videos posted under username: "LETTERPRESSfilms"
Special thanks to everyone at the Knot for hosting such a wonderful evening. We greatly appreciated the invitation and will be sure to stop out again in the future. Be sure to check out our letterpress blog for regular updates covering the local Minneapolis, St Paul wedding scene!