Christmas Cards..........continued..............again!!

So. Here they are.
The first few pictures of my Christmas Cards. I have printed 150 so far, 50 in each colour. Keeps it fair.

I need to make a photopolymer plate for my logo as it isn't setable with any ease so I will get round to printing the revers of my cards this week. But, get your orders in guys!!

Christmas Cards continued.....

So, I think I've got a price for my cards now.
Finished sizes will be A5 when folded, envelope included and as for colours........... It will be a suprise!!
I don't have many yet but all will be appropriate!! Do not fret.

So, I was thinking, how about...........

£5 for 5 + 2 Free

or

£10 for 10 + 5 Free

I think that is pretty reasonable!!

Christmas Cards

So, I have been spreading the word this week, shamelessly plugging myself and the fact that I may be printing some Christmas Cards this year. I have had quite a good response so far, enough for me to actually get some done. So, I'm going for it. I have enough stock......some 300gsm Pulp Board that I was given and I have someone who can guillotine it down to size and then score it for me so it's all ready to be folded. The design is going to be along the same lines as the Birthday Cards that I have printed (pictures below in another post). This way, they will either look good as they are, or there is room for people to fill in the gaps by whatever means they wish. Maybe I can even do some. Maybe put one in each set that I sell. I plan on them being finished size A5. I now just need to source some envelopes. I have spotted some that I might be able to use and won't cost me anything, which is happy days. Keep the costs down.

But speaking of costs, that is where my dilema lies. I dont know how much to charge.....per card/set?
I have been looking on etsy and in general, the cards sell at approximately $4 each (that's 2.50 per card). Knowing my family and friends, I think that's a little steep. If your selling for a international market, then yes, I'd say that is fair as there are quite a few man hours going in to the work. I don't want to put people off but at the same time, I want it to be slightly beneficial to me. Maybe it could be like 5 pound for a set of five, and you get a few free? I don't know. Any input from people would be greatly appreciated.

I will keep you updated as to how things are turning out.

Mark Geary's 'Live Love Lost it - NYC' album print

So, finally, here is an image of one of the initial prints that I did for Mark's album cover. Not the best impression ever but I really liked it. I showed it to Mark and he thought the same. Because the album is live and was recorded in NYC, I wanted it to have a raw, urban feel. Much like New York is.

Maybe some of you out there can spot were I have cheated a little bit.
Points go to the first person that spots it!!

Let me know your thoughts people!!

Album Cover

So, I've been a bit busy lately working and designing an album cover for Irish singer/songwriter, Mark Geary. He has just recorded a Live album in New York called "Live Love Lost it - NYC". I was luck enough to be able to design the album cover and CD. Because its a live album and it's from NYC then I thought about using letterpress as my main idea. I wasn't interested in getting a perfect impression. I wanted it to be rough..........raw.

I used a nice blocky wooden typeface for the front (pardon my ignorance for actually not knowing what it is. Infact, its on an image at the bottom of this blog!!). I also did my first lot of typesetting with the help of a master and set the lyrics in 12pt Times New Roman. This turned out beautifuly when pressed but unfortunately, wasn't used in the final outcome.

In the end, I resorted back to my style of design and combined letterpress and illustration. Some hand rendered type thrown in there..................

Unfortunately, I don't think I am able to put up any images yet of what the design looks like. But as soon as it has gone to print and has started being printed, I will get some images up. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure I can give you a glimpse of the track names that I did.

 

Check out Mark Geary. Fantastic guy.

Letterpress and illustration

So, here are a selection of new birthday cards that I have designed. As you can probably tell from the second image, the top of the P and Y perished away whilst printing which I was quite upset about. But I carried on printing regardless. In a way, I am feeling slightly rebellious and I am going to use wooden type that DOESN'T leave a perfect impression. I personally thin that it gives more character to the print. I don't know? Maybe that's just my strange design style!

I wish I had more inks that I could play with but at the moment I only have the green. These were printed on to a 400mic (around 300gsm) white pulb board. It prints beautifully and leaves a small but effective impression on the paper.

I have purposely left some of the letters out so that I could fill them in myself. I plan on merging letterpress and illustration/hand rendered typography. I would like to sell cards this way. maybe even sell some blank for those who are like minded, to fill in the gaps themselves.

First lot of prints.

So, I started to attempt my first lot of prints on Saturday.
After I'd taken all the necessary screws out for a de-rusting and grease up, I was ready to go.

It was all really exciting. My chase was set up, as best as it could be for my first ever attempt and my ink was at hand. Until I realised that I didn't have a hand ink roller. It took a while to spread the ink with the rollers on my Adana and manually turning the ink plate.
I got there eventually.

I lifted the handle up too see my wood type inked up for the first time, slid in my paper and pushed the handle down.

Not too good.....!! I wasn't expecting miracles but I wasn't prepared for how frustrating it is to keep adjusting the impression screws!


This was the best impression I got. Considering that it was also on textured paper. I was basically just wanting to try it out. I had a better impression on this stock than I did on a plain stock.
The design is for my girlfriend, a thank you for buying me the letterpress and letting me carry out my dream/passion.
Of course, she gets the first print!!

I've got it!!

My amazing girlfriend bought me my my first letterpress last night. An Adana 8x5.
Here it is, to the left!!

Thanks to Jeremy for selling it to me!! What a guy. So helpful
and just a generally nice person. He supplied me with the press, quoins, keys, wood type, fancy borders and blocks and some ink!!
I am very grateful!!

Not only was I lucky enough to find one of these sought after machines, I was lucky to get a good amount of wooden type and borders to be starting off with. There is an image of just one set.
All of this for just 210 Queens!! A bargain I think! The Typeface unknown at this moment in time, but I will find out. It all needs a good clean up so that is my plan for Saturday, before I get started with any of it!!

Its all really exciting.
My new venture does actually start out here!!

Here we go.....

This is the start of my new venture. Right here, right now............

Sat at my works computer!!!

Over the last year, I have been procrastinating over buying an Adana 5x8 table top letterpress
and I have finally come to the conclusion, with help from other occurrences, that I AM GOING TO GET ONE!! I have sourced a guy who sells them and I am just going to go for it.

I haven't actually used one of these yet, so it's a new venture for me. But it's end result is something I have always had a passion for. Because it's that much of a passion, I am willing to learn how to use it. I want to take design back to the basics..........away from digital (the irony, is that I work on a Xerox digital printer for a job!!).

I'm always doodling and drawing but I want to take these ideas further. Turn them into prints, birthday cards, postcards..........anything.

I just want to have fun!