Blog - custom design and letterpress

Silhouettes. Perfect for a holiday card:

Step One: Get profile snapshot(s) of a person(s):

Step Two: Use the lasso tool in Photoshop to select the profile and delete all other information. Feel free to edit out any bed-head or bad-hair-day hair.

Step three: Using the magic wand tool in Photoshop, select the white background. Select “Inverse” and under Edit->Fill, choose “fill with black.”

Now just use Adobe Illustrator to live trace that thing. If you want to get all fancy, you could stick the heads on some sort of bodies. I felt like these boys should wear stocking caps and go sledding:

That IS cute! NOW just have the file turned into a plate and print it

on your printing press.

Wait, what? You don’t have one? 

Proposals were requested by a public entity (m-m-mysterious!) and WHO ARE WE not to respond?? We felt it our duty (doodie) – as citizens – of this great state, to answer the call.

What follows is a step-by-step account of the creation of the proposal. Zeichen Press style.

°°°

1) Do I look bitter? I’m getting into character. 

2) Brrr! This type is as cold as my heart. Here is the part where lead type is put into something called a stick. Sometimes reading backwards makes me so angry.

3) Now that cold, lead type is locked up into a (cold, metal) frame using fancy (cold, metal) things called quoins. This whole thing is very heavy and sits flat on a proof press. Ready to do my bidding.

4) I load up my brayer with black ink so I can roll it across the type.

5) When I’m sure that my type is evenly inky, I roll this over it. *Notice the vice-grips. I don’t remember why I put them on there and am now afraid to take them off.

6) Isn’t this magical? Ink + paper = awesome.

7) (I would show Jen printing the pages for the guts of the proposal but I felt too fragile to withstand another one of her icy stares.)

8) Printing done.

9) This is where Andrea is shackled to the table and sews the pages into little books while I throw olives at her head.

10) And this is where the little books are finished.

I suppose other people will email their proposals. That’s cool, too.

We gave Tanek two concepts and one was met with nervous laughter. Why is that such a familiar reaction? Here’s the rejected concept: