



Letterpress printed QR codes can and do work when letterpress printed, as can be seen here on the business cards we recently printed for Tim Brook at BeApt.
The cards are printed black over a blind deboss onto 540gsm Colorplan.




Letterpress printed QR codes can and do work when letterpress printed, as can be seen here on the business cards we recently printed for Tim Brook at BeApt.
The cards are printed black over a blind deboss onto 540gsm Colorplan.
Posted:
January 27th, 2012
| Category: Business Cards, Letterpress Techniques
Tags: 540gsm board, black, business card, colorplan, cotton paper, debossed, heidelberg, ink, letterpress, paper, printing, white |
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Printing a large flat area of ink on uncoated stock can be tricky, but with careful setup on the press it can be done. We achieved a good solid black on these business cards for Neil McLean of Ayelike. Printing a solid black with a reversed out white logo was an alternative to a white hot foil.
Press: Heidelberg 10 x 15 platen
Stock: Colorplan 540gsm
Colours: 2
Dimensions: 85 x 55mm
Client: Ayelike
Designer: Neil Richards
Posted:
January 19th, 2012
| Category: Business Cards, Letterpress Techniques
Tags: 540gsm board, black, black and white, business card, colorplan, duplex, full bleed, heidelberg, ink, letterpress, red |
2 Comments »
Søren Ragsdale came to us to create and print this simple card.
Here’s Søren’s brief:
“I’d like to order a set of business cards that just say “No Thank You” in a clean, serifed script. I’ve just moved to London where there are a ton of people trying to hand me flyers. I’d like to have something to hand back to them.”
I wonder if the people who receive them keep them or just throw them away? Either way, what a great idea!
Letterpress printed black 1/0 on Cranes Crest 365gsm, 100% cotton. Dimensions: 85 x 55mm.
Posted:
January 17th, 2012
| Category: Business Cards, Letterpress Ephemera
Tags: 100% cotton paper, black, black and white, business card, cotton paper, cranes crest, heidelberg, letterpress, paper, printing, typography |
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Some rather special letterpress business cards for Romanian company Brain Up. Printed 3 colours both sides on a hefty 700gsm Colorplan and finished off with vibrant green edges.
The stock allowed a deep impression on both sides without too much show through on the opposite face. The original plan was to use a triplex stock, white/green/white, but edge painting ultimately has a powerful presence.
Print Specs:
Colorplan 700gsm, 3 colours both sides, green edge paint, letterpress printed on a Heidelberg platen.
Posted:
January 17th, 2012
| Category: Business Cards, edge painting
Tags: 700gsm, business card, colorplan, edge painting, heidelberg, letterpress |
No Comments »
We are often asked what’s the smallest point size letterpress can print. Well hopefully this will give you a good idea of how small we can go.
Posted:
January 13th, 2012
| Category: Business Cards, Letterpress Techniques, typography
Tags: colorplan, letterpress, printing, typography |
3 Comments »






Hot off the press are these striking business cards for WHP Creative. The cards are a Cranes Crest / Accent Fresco 700gsm duplex, letterpress printed black and blind deboss on the Cranes, black ink on the Fresco. The black logo on the Fresco was originally intended to be a blind deboss but we advised a black ink to help lift it. We can edge paint a Duplex stock and these were painted in a vibrant aqua green.
Design © WHP Creative
Posted:
December 23rd, 2011
| Category: Business Cards, edge painting
Tags: 100% cotton paper, black, black and white, business card, cotton paper, debossed, duplex, edge painted, heidelberg, letterpress, paper, printing |
No Comments »




Letterpress printing onto 425gsm cotton paper creates beautiful, tactile wedding stationery. Printed onto 425gsm 100% cotton paper. Design © Julia & Anthony Iredale.
Posted:
December 20th, 2011
| Category: Wedding Stationery
Tags: 100% cotton paper, cotton paper, heidelberg, invitation, letterpress, paper, printing, saunders 425gsm, wedding invitations, Wedding Stationery |
No Comments »
This TwitterTreat has now ended. The winner chosen at random from our Twitter followers who retweeted is @Burlisaurus
This years Christmas Twitter Treat is for some rather lovely business cards, letterpress printed onto Colorplan duplexed with recycled Greyboard. You even get to choose the colour of the Colorplan!
Print Specification
100 Business Cards
85 x 55mm (Landscape or portrait)
2 colour/1 side or 1 colour/2 sides
350gsm Recycled Greyboard / 350gsm Colorplan – your choice of colour!
Creating your artwork
The print area is 85 x 55mm. Artwork must be supplied as a print ready PDF or Illustrator .ai or .eps file. Please ensure all fonts are converted to outlines. Set your artwork file up as CMYK, not RGB and use spot colour from the uncoated Pantone colour books, no tints, shades or gradients.
The winner will be picked at random from our list of Twitter followers at 2pm Thursday, 22nd December 2011. The winner will be notified by DM on Twitter.
The winners artwork will be printed after the Christmas holidays.
How to enter:
Step 1
Follow us on Twitter!
Step 2
Retweet this tweet
Step 3
Cross your fingers!
SOME RULES
Posted:
December 19th, 2011
| Category: Business Cards, Twitter Treats
|
1 Comment »






Mark Dowsett of Stranger Studio came to blush°° for some quality letterpress printing. Mark’s postcard features a large QR code that you can scan and feel. Once scanned on a smartphone reveals his contact details, address, email and web address – very clever and a cool way to give people your details.
The postcards are letterpress printed on 540gsm Colorplan Citrine yellow, both sides on a Heidelberg platen. Colorplan is a fairly hard stock but does take a nice clean deep impression.
Posted:
October 27th, 2011
| Category: Postcards
Tags: 540gsm board, black, colorplan, heidelberg, letterpress, paper, printing, QR code, yellow |
No Comments »
The first in the ‘Assorted Types’ series of letterpress prints showcasing classic typefaces. Designed by Jim Williams, an award winning typographer & graphic designer who has a lifelong passion for the craft of typography and letterforms. He also has a keen interest and understanding of letterpress and teaches typography at Staffordshire University. Jim’s knowledge of typography and attention to detail is second to none. Constantly ‘tweaking’ his work until it is just perfect, kerning here, letterspacing there, a real perfectionist.
The prints have been lovingly printed to perfection on our vintage Heidelberg cylinder press onto 300gsm Somerset Velvet 100% cotton paper.
Limited to 100 prints and individually numbered and are available to purchase from our online store.
Follow Assorted Types on Twitter for updates, special offers and exclusive previews during the production of the next prints.
Posted:
October 21st, 2011
| Category: Letterpress Posters, Limited Edition Prints
Tags: 100% cotton paper, 300gsm, black, centaur, cotton paper, font, graphic design, heidelberg, letterpress, paper, printing, Somerset, Twitter, typeface, typography |
No Comments »
We were thrilled when Candykiller aka Brian Taylor called on Blush to produce his latest ‘Beast’ print. We have worked with Candykiller before, printing the 5th Anniversary limited edition prints. Candykiller’s illustrations print beautifully on the press and Brian’s attention to detail and technical ability when it comes to artwork is first class.

We printed the Beast on 300gsm cotton paper on a Heidelberg platen press, tweeting live at each stage of the production, from platemaking to trimming. The first stage of the job was to prepare Brian’s artwork for print. The artwork was supplied digitally and we check the file before creating the separations. Each colour is a separate pass through the press, so once through for the red and through again for the black. This means we would need two plates.

We mix the ink to a Pantone ref supplied by the artist and ink up the press. We decided to add the rider roller to give an even and consistent spread of ink across the image and to prevent ‘ghosting’.

The plate is attached to a base to bring it up to type height (.918″) and locked up in the chase then locked into the press.

We ink up the press and pull some initial prints to check for registration, ink coverage and impression. We also check the print for any defects in the plate.

Once we are happy with we run the sheets through the press.

After the first colour run we wash-up the press and prepare for the second colour. Change plates, ink up for black pass and reload the paper on the press.

We pull some prints and check once again for impression, ink coverage and registration.

Then run the sheets through and print the black plate.

The final prints are checked and trimmed on the guillotine before packing.
You can see more production shots on our Flickr pages and follow us on Twitter for news and updates on future live letterpress tweets.
The prints are available to purchase from the Candykiller online store.
Posted:
October 20th, 2011
| Category: Hot off the press, Letterpress Posters, Letterpress Techniques, Limited Edition Prints
Tags: 100% cotton paper, 300gsm, black, cotton paper, heidelberg, letterpress, paper, printing, red, Somerset, tweets, Twitter |
3 Comments »




Red and white duplex is a striking combination as seen here in these business cards we printed for James Sheriff at Genius Division. Printing red ink to complement the red paper and then printing red ink over the red side rather than a blind deboss really help lift the pattern.
Letterpress printed onto 540gsm Duplex on a Heidelberg platen.
Posted:
September 6th, 2011
| Category: Business Cards, Letterpress Techniques
Tags: 540gsm board, debossed, duplex, heidelberg, letterpress, paper, printing, red, white |
No Comments »
Deeply Impressed is a new website dedicated to showcasing letterpress and hot foil printing in the UK. The sites creator wanted to send out a promotional card to coincide with the launch of the website and of course it had to be letterpress! We discussed papers and ideas to help create a simple effective print to whet the appetite, give an idea of what letterpress is and how it feels.
The A6 cards are printed on 425gsm Saunders 100% cotton.
We tweeted the print run live on Twitter, photographing and posting each stage of the job. You can see and read the results on our Flickr pages.
Posted:
September 2nd, 2011
| Category: Hot off the press
|
No Comments »






Letterpress stationery and business cards for Crowne Chauffeur Services, designed by Alan Haverty. The business cards are letterpress printed onto 540gsm Colorplan black & white duplex with a deboss crown logo on the black side. The letterheads were printed on matching 135gsm Colorplan in black and gold ink.
We paid special attention to the delicate type. Small fine fonts have a tendency to break up under the extreme pressure on the press but a careful balance between pressure, ink and packing on the press can help keep this to a minimum.
Posted:
September 2nd, 2011
| Category: Business Cards, Letterpress Stationery
Tags: black, duplex, gold ink, heidelberg, ink, paper, stationery |
No Comments »




Mark Lindop, a brand identity designer from WRK™ has created a design that uses letterpress and edge painting to full effect. We printed the cards on a Heidelberg platen, silver ink onto a substantial 650mic recycled black board. Silver ink isn’t glossy like a foil but does have a rather sexy shimmer to it and stands out well on the black. Mark’s choice of colour for the edge painting is a vibrant contrast and certainly grabs your attention. We love it!
Posted:
September 1st, 2011
| Category: Business Cards
Tags: 650mic, black, edge painting, heidelberg, ink, letterpress, silver |
No Comments »
These Save the Dates look striking with no colour. Letterpress printed using as transparent white ink to enhance the deboss into the soft cotton paper.
Designed by www.mockupdesigns.co.uk and letterpress printed on 425gsm cotton paper.
Posted:
August 8th, 2011
| Category: Hot off the press, Letterpress Techniques, Wedding Stationery
Tags: 100% cotton paper, cotton paper, debossed, letterpress, paper, saunders 425gsm, Wedding Stationery, white |
No Comments »



We letterpress printed this foxy little business card on a hefty 1mm recycled board for bespoke hairdresser Helen Ray. The thick board allows a fab deep impression with very little show through onto the opposite side.
Posted:
July 14th, 2011
| Category: Business Cards
Tags: 1000mic, black, business card, impression, letterpress |
No Comments »




These business cards for new company The First 65 have qualities people crave with letterpress. Good design, quality board, deep impression with and without ink and an extra special finish. The ink was hand mixed to match the green paper and the logo was blind debossed on the reverse. As an extra special finish they were edge painted in a vibrant bright orange. The cards were printed on a Heidelberg platen onto 540gsm Duplex White over Green.
Click onto our Flickr pages to see the cards in production.
Posted:
July 13th, 2011
| Category: Business Cards, Letterpress Techniques
Tags: 540gsm board, business card, debossed, design, duplex, edge painted, green, heidelberg, letterpress |
1 Comment »
We are looking for a letterpress printer. Someone with exceptional printing skills and a desire to produce a perfect letterpress print.
We are a modern letterpress printing company working on prestigious accounts with leading designers and are seeking a letterpress printer to join our busy print room. Experience operating Heidelberg Platens and/or Cylinders is essential and a good knowledge of letterpress printing, from prepping and setting up to mixing inks and trimming is expected.
So do you have the desire to produce a perfect print? If you do then we’d love to hear from you. Drop us an email.
This vacancy is for a full-time position, we are not looking to fill a placement or internship.
Posted:
July 12th, 2011
| Category: Jobs
Tags: heidelberg, Jobs, ksba, letterpress, printer |
1 Comment »
We have been having a shift around in the print room and have found some bits and pieces we had forgotten about. Amongst some posters we found a print we had taken to proof a fount of wood type we had acquired.
Letterpress printed on our Vandercook proofing press. The poster is 320 x 420mm light grey paper. Printed in black ink with beautiful wood type. The type is in good condition but has a few knocks which adds character.
We will be giving away a copy of the print to one of our Twitter followers today. Simply follow us and say ‘Hi!” and at the end of the day we’ll pick a random winner from our Twitter followers.
This TwitterTreat has now closed and was won by @PaulAdamDavis.
Posted:
July 7th, 2011
| Category: Letterpress Posters, Limited Edition Prints, Twitter Treats
Tags: black, handset type, ink, letterpress, movable type, paper, printing, proofing press, Twitter, vandercook |
No Comments »