The location of this upcoming June wedding was the inspiration for this invitation design. Nestled in the canyons of Irvine,  Strawberry farms has loads of green grass for an outdoor wedding, and the giant barn has been finished on the interior to host receptions. Having the opportunity  to visit the site in January was a bonus, as some of the photos we took there were incorporated into the design.

The interior pieces were letterpressed with brown and green ink, and all was fastened together with a belly band printed with a wood grain photo we took outside the barn. The same texture was used to fill the barn illustration on the cover invitation.

Inside the barn, hundreds of lights are strung on the ceiling, which give the space a rustic elegance. This, of course,  inspired the illustration above. The eggshell finish of the 100 lb. Classic Crest natural cover provided an amazing surface to create a deep, crisp impression.

A small pocket was created  in the belly band for the rsvp card to slide into,  giving a nice letterpress preview of the simple design to be found inside.

After all that work, of course the finished pieces are carefully wrapped before shipping to the bride and groom.

This project was such a nice combination of design and production concepts – it may be my favorite print project to date.

Admittedly I wasn’t thinking thoughts of Christmas this summer, when I could have been printing, assembling and packaging these ornaments for Fall.

Then again, it was a fun experience to play with the design and production of these and, in the end, have a unique tree this year. Now that I have developed a production strategy and seen how they look on the tree (as well as discovered that our cats have no interest in them – hurrah!), rest assured I’ll happily add them to the etsy store in the Fall.

The stars were a nice accent to the circular designs.

Idea books are a relatively new tradition for Shew Design – designed, printed and delivered to clients for the new year. This year’s cover design speaks to the variety of ways one might fill this book with creative ideas. Interior pages contain a light grid printed on pale green Royal Resources text.

To achieve the subtle pattern of swooping lines we used transparent white ink with a hint of silver metallic ink, and a deep impression. The result is a clean and simple presentation.

The “seeds” card, which is our most recent addition to our etsy store, was the first notecard we printed on Crane’s 100# Cotton Lettra cover stock. What a delicious experience that was!

I love the description that our friend Teresa Schmidt from Sprout Creative wrote for us for this card. “Letters scatter on the breeze like so many dandelion seeds—suggesting the random, organic nature of communication. So take a deep breath, blow, and grow a few words. And remember—once they take root, they can spread like kudzu! So be nice, and plant some goodness, starting with this card.”

It kind of says it all.

The impression of “seed” letters was the most satisfying aspect print layer to produce. Simple type on soft paper.

Not necessarily the most interesting of print projects – one ink color on envelopes…but there is something very satisfying about printing envelopes. Envelopes that will soon be filled with invoices (preferable) and checks (not as fun) and then sent through the mail.

It’s still ink on paper. And I used up the last of the premixed Shew Design Pantone color (as you can see from the below photo) – very efficient!

Things have been busy lately, and I wish I could say that printing is one of the things I’ve been busy with. But, no. But to keep printing in front of me I did take some time the other day to sift through my pile of makeready sheets.  I’ve always loved ink over ink, and I love the unexpected results when a new print job is printed over an old one. Sometimes nothing much… sometimes magic.

It’s fun to put a frame around a discarded sheet and voila! Something new appears. Ready to be part of our living environment.

For Shew Design’s upcoming happy hour event we wanted the invitations to be memorable. We chose to print three spot colors on Crane 100% cotton Lettra 110# coverstock – a very good first step. The large areas of solid color were a challenge on this textured stock, but in a world where four  color process printing overwhelms business printing, I think the deep impression and slightly irregular ink coverage were a nice contrast to the clean design.

What happy hour event would be complete without coasters? Running this Lettra 220# cover definitely pushes the limits of our Vandercook…but the results are so rewarding we just have to push every once in a while…and then speak a few soothing words to the press.

We do hope that the event on Thursday proves to be as fun as printing the above!