One more video update from Dick and Jane Letterpress! This time we just finished a letterpress wedding invitation set that included a pocket folder feature. We decided to make a quick how-to video displaying exactly how these pocketfold invitations can be assembled. We're using double sided scrap book tape but there's a lot of options for adhesives. Please feel free to comment with questions or help.
enjoy!
xoxo - DJL
For a limited time, Dick and Jane Letterpress is offering FREE letterpress wedding invitation samples! We've been busy these last weeks and the overprints are taking up valuable shop space. Considering letterpress invitation? Here's an opportunity to get samples delivered to your door. Why spend all day looking at digital images on the web when you can get the real thing? Sample orders are fulfilled from recent orders. Samples will vary.
Note the added "Samples" link to the top left of the navigation list.
xoxo - DJL
Howdy everyone!
Here's another installment in our letterpress short films. This one includes a bit of time lapse video depicting owner, Brian Durk printing letterpress wedding invitations in a sage green on lettra pearl stock up in the front shop window. This order was completed for the Kampa wedding and will ultimately be assembled in a pocket folder with a really amazing letterpress monogram face card. We'll be doing another video shortly showing a "how-to" quick assembly of letterpress invitations in a pocket fold so check back in a few days!
Audio track by none other then the talented Mr. Tim Williams. Be sure to watch in HQ for best quality!
xo - DJL
Last Friday Dick and Jane Letterpress took a little day trip to the University of Minnesota. We received invitation to their St. Paul campus for a visit with a fine fellow by the name of James Boyd-Brent. James has been hard at work collecting an ensemble of letterpress equipment for their blossoming letterpress courses. Just a quick four block walk from our shop to McNeal Hall, the studio is simply too intriguing to pass up a visit. The walls were lined with type cabinets and the shop currently consists of a couple Vandercook Proof presses along with a hand press in AMAZING condition. We spent a hour or so discussing the shop and the many possibilities of the program. With the semester now at an end we are eagerly awaiting the fall term to begin so that we can drop in once more for additional letterpress photos and discussion. Admittedly, the photos are a little lower quality than I'd prefer but I was using the iphone camera.
enjoy!
xo - DJL
There's just nothing like it. Beautiful black script letterpress wedding invitations! This design was recently commissioned by Abigail Mikeworth. Abby hit the nail on the head during our first visit. "At first glance, I wasn't that into it but after looking at it a bit more, it just grew on me." There's something captivating about this invitation style. It's quite an exquisite composition to feast the eyes on. Enjoy!
xo - DJL
Here's our first installment in many more letterpress shorts to come! Today we are printing a few St Anthony Park greeting cards. Black ink on good old kraft card stock. The artwork includes an illustration of the neighborhood Finnish Bistro and the Dunn Brothers Coffee building. Illustration by Jordan Kay (msjordankay.com). Pictured printing in the video is Keisha Bigelow enjoying the view from the shop front window. Don't forget, Dick and Jane Letterpress is your affordable source for letterpress wedding invitations and other printed goods. Be sure to check out our site for up-front pricing and other info. Please feel free to contact us with any questions on your upcoming project.
xoxo - DJL
Greetings all!
With the change in weather and the ramp up to the wedding season, we're making a push to get the website updated as quickly as possible! We've noticed that the most popular pages on our site are our Gallery, Wedding Collections and of course, Pricing. Some of the things we're currently updating include the gallery and the shopping cart. A couple other items on the list for build-out include our Flickr page and of course our Blog.
Have you had something printed by Dick and Jane Letterpress recently? If so, you wedding invitiations may be posted to the updated gallery! We've collected a completely new folder of images all taken over the last couple months from recent work. Projects include coasters, record jackets, wedding invitations, save-the-dates, stationary and all kinds of other printed goodies. As mentioned above, we are updating the online shop.
Maybe you noticed a design you liked but you're just in the price shopping phase right now. No problem! We're creating a customized quote request form which asks ALL the important questions. Upon completion of the form you will receive a formal quote along with additional details and information to assist you in your invitation shopping process. Oh yeah.. all in a window of 24 hours!
Computers are awesome!
John and Elisabeth visited us back in early March. We had a great conversation about what they were envisioning. The couple ordered letterpress wedding invitations and announcements for the big day as well as commissioned some design work .
We put together a custom design which included 2 color printing on both pieces as well as printed envelopes. Printed on Crane Lettra "Pearl" stock with matching envelopes; Everything was finished up this morning. The colors (silver/dark-sage) turned out absolutely amazing! So much so in fact, that we decided it would be an ideal job to photograph and post up here on the blog for everyone to check out!
Thanks so much to John and Elisabeth for their business and we want to wish you both a marvelous life together!
xo - DJL
Howdy to all you wedding goers! The wedding season is here! We've swept the salt and sand from the stoop and put the space heaters back in the closet. Dick and Jane Letterpress winter hours have hapily come to an end. We are now on the Spring/Summer schedule. We're open Monday through Friday for walk-in customers with Saturdays currently designated for client meetings, workshops and of course... printing.
Smart Women are Gifted! That's the concept behind the new Smart Women product. Julie from Smart Women wasted no time on this project. We worked with her on the design and layout over two sessions. We ended up with a really cute "Six Gift Bags for Kitchen Goodies!" Why was Julie in such a rush to get these produced? EXCELLENT QUESTION. The product has been requested by none other then Rachel Ray for inclusion in the July issue of Everyday with Rachel Ray (magzine)! Thanks to Smart Women Company, Dick and Jane Letterpress will have just a little piece of our work in one of the top magazines in the US and not to mention the 80+ international retailers surrently carrying Smart Women products.
We hope to continue our relationship with Smart Women Company for years to come. Special thanks to Julie for her immediate attention on the project and her wonderful design sense. Good things to come!
That's right folks! Dick and Jane Letterpress is extremely excited to announce that we will be teaming up with the wonderfully witty Smart Women Company on their next product release. We don't want to give too much away but the new item is slated for release in the next few months (spring-summer) and will be part of their kitchen essentials line. This will be their first letterpress printed production of hopefully many more to come. Special thanks to Julie Hellwich for giving us the opportunity to be part of this new and exciting project!
For all you Smart Women Company lovers out there...stay tuned!
xo - DJL
Dick and Jane Letterpress is excited to announce that some of our letterpress work is going to be in the next issue of Minnesota Bride Magazine! We were recently invited by the gang at MN Bride to be included in their next edition's wedding invitations article. Dick and Jane Letterpress will grace the pages alongside the areas best work and top invitation suppliers.
It's true what they say... Minnesotans really are the nicest people you'll ever meet! Much thanks, love and appreciation to Mary O'Regan and the rest of the people at Tiger Oak Publications and Minnesota Brides Magazine.
xo - DJL
A great big THANKS to Minnesota Bride Magazine! Minnesota Bride Magazine was gracious enough to post a super awesome review of our shop and services on their blog today! What a great Friday surprise!
Have you visited the Minnesota bride Magazine blog lately? Minnesota Bride magazine is a great tool for brides seacrhing for resources in the twin cities and surounding areas. Being one of the only locally operated bridal publications, their knowledge of the area and resources is priceless. Check 'em out!
xo - DJL
The letterpress coasters have been printed and we have lots of pictures! All the materials arrived on Thursday afternoon. We squeezed the job in between a few other pieces with the goal of having it all completed for delivery on Monday. We started printing the coasters on Friday morning. On Saturday we printed up the packaging pieces. Finally, Sunday we had a romantic evening sitting in the dining room with the fireplace burning as we folded, stuffed, stapled and assembled everything. Okay... Maybe it wasn't so romantic. But it was MUCH more cozy than the shop! All in all, we think they turned out pretty darn good looking! Have a peek for yourself!
xo - DJL
Natalie was in charge of printing this one!
A quick update: We're checking back in today after a few busy weeks. We've had a lot of great inquiries and meetings with some really nice couples. We also squeezed in a snowmobiling trip in Northern Wisconsin last weekend! We've submitted our plate artwork for the letterpress coasters as well as some additional artwork for a letterpress party invitation we're creating! The plates should show up on Thursday along with the coasters. From there, we're gonna throw some ink on the press and turn these things out! We're VERY excited to report that in just a few days we'll have photos of the completed project posted our blog.
xo - Dick and Jane Letterpress
So we pick back up today after a weekend of plotting on the concept. Natalie and I talked up a storm about what would be appropriate and still reflect our biz AND be a sweet addition to the gift bag. After many rounds of concepts including fruit, birds, branches and or berries, silverware, tablecloth patterns, couples dancing, stemware, etc, we've decided to clarify and focus. What is it?.... not yet.
As for colors, we visited the competing designers websites and simple lifted colors based on their general pallets. In other words, we used colors that both designers clearly would approve of. We also discussed packaging the coasters in a cellophane bag (which we already have a stock of) with a cute Dick and Jane stapled card on top. A sketch is attached below showing our color and packaging concept. The final artwork and design is almost complete. Once done, we'll post the artwork image. Next, post will have the completed artwork. from there, it's off to the platemaker and printing!
Okay, we're going to try something new. Something we've never seen on any blogs or letterpress sites. We're going to attempt to show and explain the letterpress design process for the Duel of Design project. NOTE: Everyone's process is different. We're going to display daily sketches and ideas until eventually we are printing and displaying the final project. This is intended to show the translation from computer, to print. I warn you now, digital files are sometimes difficult to imagine letterpress printed but in the end, I'm sure you'll love it! Here we go!
In a nutshell, we were simple asked by Geri Wolf, owner of the Style Laboratory if we'd be interested in contributing something to the event gift bags? We checked out the event online. It was obvious that it's gonna be a wicked good time. We said yes! From there, the next questions is, what's appropriate for this kind of event? Our thoughts landed at gift tags, greeting card, competition score cards, place cards, napkins, calling cards, a calendar, or coasters. From there we nailed it down to coasters (tons of fun to print and design). Most of the other pieces just seemed either too boring or super overdone recently. Our next considerations are design aesthetic, colors, packaging, and again appropriateness. To be continued...
Today was Mr. Micah's (Micah Edel) last day. Micah has been an intern here at Dick and Jane Letterpress for a few months. He has greatly contributed to print projects, stationery design, and overall shop fun-ness. He is currently moving on to a new and exciting project wonderfully referred to as "Sexy Pillows!" You will soon be able to check out his Sexy Pillows along with his new website at mistermicah.com. Soon, we expect you'll find him hanging out on the west coast with the Housewives of Orange County and guest staring on Oprah.
All the best of luck to Micah!
xo - dick and jane
Dick and Jane Letterpress will be contributing to the March, "the Duel of the Design" competition hosted by friend, event planning monster, Geri Wolf of the Style Laboratory. Our contribution is nothing too fancy. We're creating really romantic, modern letterpress coasters. The design will be completed and printed shortly. Once printed, I'll be sure to get a photo up for your viewing pleasure. For an evening of fun, excitement, design, and competition, check out the Duel of the Design. See you there!
xo - dick and jane
As promised, Dick and Jane attended last nights Minnesota Association of Bridal Consultants first 2009 gathering. We are pleased to report; What a blast! Everyone was super friendly, an outstanding turn-out, snacks and deserts were supplied by Pracna on Main and Jessica's Cakes. Cheri was an absolute doll as were all the attendees. I even had a moment to chat with Jessica (of Jessica's Cakes) a bit more as we are both contributing to the Duel of the Design, hosted by the Style Laboratory.
One of the hot topics that came up a lot last night revolved around social networking, web development, marketing and blogging. I tried my best to offer up some kind of a general understanding throughout the evening. I only hope I wasn't super confusing?!?! Blogging is a common occurrence for us at Dick and Jane. We just really enjoy sharing the day-to-day developments like last nights (ABC) Association of Bridal Consultants MN gathering. Brides considering a planner? - check out the planner and vendor listings at http://www.bridalassn.com/
xo - D&J
Thanks again everyone for the wonderful evening