THANKYOU!THANKYOU!THANKYOU!

This was a fun project! I've always loved how a 3rd color emerges when 2 colors overlap, especially in letterpress printing. So I decided to make some new Thank You note cards that would play with this idea. 

The color ways I decided on were neon pink and orange, concrete grey and navy, and bright yellow and turquoise. The 1st plate went on and we printed a ton of cards in the 1st colors. Then I got sidetracked with 10 other projects! 

A few weeks later, the 2nd plate went on and we printed the cards with their 2nd color, which created the overlap color in the process. I blended the ink colors, and put a spot of "transparent relief medium" with the 2nd colors to really push this overlap, but I wasn't too happy with how thin the ink looked so I scrapped the medium. 

I wanted that old broadside block print lettering look, so I sketched out and designed 2 plates worth of "THANK YOU's", which when printed over each other would have some really cool overlap in the colors. Plus, using polymer plates allows for a deeper impression then using old wooden type.

Here they are completed! We matched each card with similar color envelopes and called it a day!

The shop favorite is the pink and orange!

I'm looking forward to playing around a lot more with color and using these plates in the future as a vehicle for experimenting! 

If You Can't Stand The Ink, Stay Out Of The Printshop!

I love printmaking! I practically lived in the printshop at college. I visit printshops. I have a printshop! Printshops are these magical spaces full of old metal presses, flat files full of beautiful paper, nicked wooden type letters and carved linoleum blocks, and of course the designated "clean area" for tearing and handling paper. And there's ink! Lots of ink! I think having ink on your hands and still handling that bright white paper is a beautiful balancing act that takes years of practice. I learned most of my habits from formal classes and years of printing.

My love of all things inky is shared by thousands of printmakers around the world, so I decided to make a small broadside print to celebrate our love of this old frustrating medium!

The design was sketched by hand. I really wanted to give these the look of an old broadside, but use a polymer plate instead of old wood type. The design was then sent to Illustrator and cleaned up.

Using a polymer plate gave us the always killer advantage of getting a very deep impression in the paper. 

These are a lot of fun! And I can tell you from this past week they have been available that they are on their way to printshops and printmakers all over the world!

Printmakers Unite!