Three Red Hens: Letterpress & Design

Enjoy a beard, even if you can't grow one...

2009-03-03T13:05:00.007-05:00

Call me crazy, but I have always wanted a hat with ear flaps that became a "beard"—especially on a windy New York day like today. It seems like I'm not the only one. This week I bring you plenty of ways to enjoy a beard even if, like me, you can't grow one of your own...

Fabulous "Beard T-shirt" from Hide & Seek Clothing
I have to get myself one of these—I love love love it!

"Beards are Sexy Tote Bag" from The Bold Banana

A variety of covetable "Beard Caps" from Vík Prjónsdótti.
This is the kind of beard hat I dream about!

"Behind Every Girl is a Guy With a Beard and Glasses Print" from egg-a-go-go.

This guy looks familiar...

"Lumberjacks" card from Dude and Chick.
Lovely card for "the rugged, plaid-wearing person in your life."

From the rugged & manly to the more feminine beard. This "Girly Pink Beard" has been sold, but you'll find plenty of lovely beards to suit your fancy over at i made you a beard.

"The Couple" digitally colored original illustration from Ashley G and Drew.
There are so many other lovely bearded illustrations in their shop, and you can even get your own custom portrait done if you want.

And no list can be complete without this funky beard font from Tim Yarzhombeck.

I'll post my little silk screened tribute to moustaches soon...

New holiday cards from Three Red Hens!

2008-11-12T21:22:00.003-05:00

Three Red Hens featured on Friago's blog

2008-11-04T11:25:00.005-05:00

Three Red Hens' "Berries" card was featured in a lovely collection of print goods on Friago's blog dedicated to "the love of Design, Architecture, Art & all things fabulous". If you're in need of artistic inspiration or gift ideas check out her collection of goodies from Etsy.

Remember to vote!

2008-11-04T10:49:00.002-05:00

Just a reminder to vote! Original post on this promotion by AirBed&Breakfast at TheDieline blog.

Designs on the presidency: 50+ Manifestations of Design in the 2008 Campaign

2008-10-24T21:19:00.046-04:00

I set out to find some of the best examples of graphic design & art from the 2008 campaign but have had a difficult time keeping it balanced. Graphic artists (and artists in general) haven't used their skills for McCain in the same way. Try Googling "McCain poster" versus "Obama poster". Even a poster competition on McCain's website wasn't enough to get the creatives going in the same way.

I tried to stick with the positive or at least light-hearted manifestations of design in this campaign, but there's plenty of negative out there too: There's the resurrection of 90s-style motivational posters parody on both sides (just look in the above "poster" Google searches—eek—just bad design) and everyone & their mom parodying or borrowing from Shepard Fairey's iconic Obama posters—see a few examples here, here, and kinda here (this last one scared me in the East Village the other day!). Of course there's also the Palin Poster Project.

In the end it's really the issues that matter. Just consider this a little eye candy reminder to vote. :-)

"Not Necessarily the News" by Jim Hanas on the design of fake news graphics from the October issue of Print Magazine. I hope I'm watching the Comedy Central coverage on election night... just have to find a TV.

Younger Than McCain t-shirt from Geoff Ponnath on 200 Nipples.

"What Font Says 'Change'" article from the Boston Globe earlier this year. Or for a more scholarly approach (with graphs)...

Two sides from the same poster by Jason Urban.

McCain is My Homeboy shirt seen on t-shirts.com. There's an Obama is My Homeboy version too.

This and many similar quote posters are available from NotAnotherCStudent.com.

Above two of Complex.com's responses to the lack of hip McCain wear.

"To the Letter Born": analysis of Obama's design scheme.

Vote posters from AIGA's Get Out the Vote poster competition. So many other great posters there—check it out!

Seriously, on pumpkins too!? By Cynthia Moore & Tom Thompson on the YesWeCarve website full of displays of support for Obama in the medium of Halloween pumpkin.

Good Magazine always has nice info graphics. This one is about political donations to the two campaigns.

Abraham Obama Print by aperryz for DesignforObama.org. If you're an Obama supporter you have to check out Design/ers for Obama—lots of eye candy there.

"Stars and Stripes Literally Forever" downloadable guide to 40 years of presidential campaign graphic design from Print Magazine.

Sarah Palin laser cut pin by DIYorDIE. They also make an Obama & a McCain version.

Letterpress poster from Yee-Haw Industries.

"The Candidates Finger Puppets" by abbeychristine.

One of many variations of Obama hand silk screened ties by Lineology.

"McCain's Optimum Look" analysis of McCain's logo by Stephen Heller, featuring renowned designers and their thoughts.

One of many fabulour designs in the We Heart Obama shop.

Billi Kid urban art.

"No Returns After Nov. 4" selection of election goodies from The New York Times.

Vote poster created by Match Factory as an Obama fundraiser in Omaha

Created by GOPnot4me using http://johnmccainisyournewlogo.com/.
.

Shepard Fairey prints.

Screen shots taken by Brian Yerkes to accompany his post on the "Web Design War". Similar comparisons can be found here and here.

"How Design Can Save Democracy" post & interactive feature on clear ballot redesign. By Richard Grefé & Jessica Friedman Hewitt for The New York Times.

Created by renee823 for DesignforObama.org.

From 30Reasons.org.

Lovely work, as always, by Scott Hansen.

I first reported on Alcove Press' awesome Obama Valentine's Day cards. Now here's a version for the whole year.

ObamaTee.com

"Voter Groups You May Have Overlooked"–humorous article on The Bygone Bureau. "Graphic Designers for McCain (GDM) urges candidates to adopt typefaces that come standard on desktops computers, like Arial and Comic Sans."

You Had Me at Gotham poster by rmastalerz. Judging by what I was able to dig up on the web, this poster sums it all up. Obama has inspired designers and artists to get creative.

Does your vote count? Good Magazine tackles the question.

Have you seen more interesting presidential campaign-inspired designs? Please e-mail them to me! And remember to vote!

Three Red Hens featured in Lucky Magazine

2008-10-06T09:39:00.005-04:00

Three Red Hen's "Just My Cup of Tea" card was featured in the New York section of Lucky magazine this October along with a few other lovely New York letterpress printers. I'm not a regular Lucky reader, so I wasn't familiar with the New York section and I almost missed it! I was literally 5 minutes away from missing it completely — a nice man in a local magazine shop fished out a few copies for me from a box he was packing to ship back or throw out.

When only tap water will do...

2008-09-10T22:54:00.008-04:00

Seriously? I'm all about eating/drinking locally and the water does taste pretty good, but really, it's been bottled?

Tap'dNY's website seems to make them out as a nicotine patch for bottled water addiction, while using the same arguments for eating locally: fewer food (or in this case water) miles, supporting the local economy, supporting mindful production/extraction methods, etc. While they are encouraging people to reduce the use of plastic bottles and reuse bottles in one's possession (good), they are still selling a bottled water product in a new [pretty] plastic bottle (not-so-good).

The "story" behind it...

Tap’dNY was born on a balmy evening in 2007, when New Yorker Craig Zucker made a remarkable discovery: Great water was available, on tap, in his Manhattan apartment...

Did we mention that New York City tap water wins in taste tests, even over those fancy imported water? Well, it does. NYC water is some of the best on the planet and is considered by many to be the champagne of tap waters.

If you are really curious about the history of NY water, you might enjoy this article from the newly debuted magazine Edible Manhattan, part of the Edible Communities.

As for Tap'dNY, will the irony of purchasing a bottle of water that could have been filled from one's own tap help consumers make that same conclusion about other bottled water? I suppose only time will tell. Maybe they'll take drinking locally one step further and "produce" their own... off to the faucet for a cold drink.

Inspiration: Anneke Jacobs

2008-09-10T21:45:00.010-04:00

Anneke Jacobs is amazing!

From the series of sketches "Undesigning"

"Sketches" 2008

"Chiquita Chandelier" made out of recycled banana boxes. Anneke even includes the directions to build your own here (click on "tekst"). This caught my eye on Craftzine.

"Lampekapjes" 2004

Big Typography Poster Contest on MyInkBlog

2008-09-10T21:35:00.003-04:00

Oooh... big typography poster contest on MyInkBlog.com! Submissions accepted until 10/10/2008.

Where it all began, or [my] computer arts in their infancy

2008-09-10T19:15:00.003-04:00

This header may be an eyesore but it takes me back to good times!

For some reason lately I've been thinking back nostalgically about some computer programs that I used when I was younger. It occurred to me recently that I've been using computers most of my life for expression in some form of digital art (but don't worry—I went outside too!).

It took me forever just to remember what the names were, but I found it almost more difficult to dig up information on the web. I think most of us have all but forgotten about graphics programs' (and our own) humble beginnings. I may be dating myself but if you're in your 20s you may remember some of these from your own youth...

Macintosh SE
This is the computer I was rocking early on—it's the first computer we had in our family. If you're wondering, this little guy was top of the line and had 40–80 MB of hard drive space and a tiny little black & white display. It was more than enough for word processing, playing Glypha 3.0, and even was eventually hooked up to the early internet when it was still all texty. Photo from wikipedia.

I also had plenty of fonts at my fingertips for typographic stylings in Claris Works. :-)

Image from wikipedia. In case you're wondering, I was a big fan of the font Chicago—a classic Mac font.

Kid Pix
I want to say we had Mac Paint as well, but Kid Pix was one of my favorites on our little Mac SE. Below are some images from the first public domain version which was quickly replaced by a version with color, more tools & goodies. Later versions included sound, slideshow and animation capabilities.

The introductory image in this post was made using the public domain version of Kid Pix—that is still available online though you have to use Classic Mode on your Mac! (I added the yellow rectangles in Photoshop.) You only have one font, uppercase letters only, as a choice in this version and you have to place letters using a stamp method—this is why my text is a little crooked. Click here to get your own free version of Kid Pix to take for a test run. If you want to upgrade for yourself... err your kids, click here.

I wish I had some original "vintage" artwork to share with you but alas it's gone—maybe I'll be able to dig some up over the holidays.

The images above are from The Vintage Mac Museum, a Japanese website that is mostly in English.

Mac II-something
So maybe my middle school didn't have the most up-to-date computer systems, but I remember many days of booting up 5 1/4 inch floppy disks to play Number Munchers, Oregon Trail and Print Shop.

This is a Macintosh IIc—the picture is the closest to what I remember our computers looking like. Photo from wikipedia.

Print Shop
Print Shop was this awesome* program that allowed you to create simple layouts using borders, clip art and simple text. You could even print multiple page-long banners on your tractor paper-fed dot matrix printer—how cool is that? *well, awesome back in the day

I looked all over the web for images of Print Shop and its pieces of art, but it was tough. The photos below are from David Malkoff's Flickr photos—the only other person who seems to be thinking about Print Shop. Thanks!

Adobe Illustrator: The Early Versions

I was not old enough to even consider using the early versions of Adobe Illustrator but I found these videos on YouTube both amazing in what the original Illustrator capabilities were (even in black and white!) and also how far along the software has come.

Illustrator 1: Debuting on a Mac in 1987
It's funny when during the demo the Adobe president goes to change up the color of a vector drawing's line with "any shade of gray". Looking back at the video it looks like CMYK designations were available, but I suppose you couldn't tell what you had selected on screen?

Illustrator 88 in 1988: Oooh color!

Want to read more? Wikipedia has interesting entries on Macintosh fonts, Macintosh SE, Macintosh II, and the History of Adobe Illustrator. Of course, don't forget The Vintage Mac Museum!

New(ish) Dexter ads

2008-09-09T20:17:00.008-04:00

I just saw a group of these ads yesterday while walking through SoHo. I should have read the New York Times and I wouldn't have been so surprised—but they definitely caught my eye. It made me think of how much I love Andrew Hearst's intertwining of pop culture and politics that turns expectations on their head.

Dalí at MoMA

2008-09-02T20:25:00.005-04:00

We finally hit the MoMA on Monday to see the Dalí exhibit, Painting and Film—just a reminder, it's ending September 15!

The exhibit brings together over one hundred pieces of art by Dalí, ranging from exploratory sketches and iconic paintings to six surrealist films to "explore the central role of cinema in his work as both an inspiration and an outlet for experimentation".

I was amazed at the skill applied to creating light & shape on the delicate canvases, which were much smaller than I had ever imagined. His ideas on paper/canvas are impressive in their dreamlike imagery but the exhibit experience was really completed by the films included.

The films delved into the subconscious in poetic, strange, surprising and sometimes disturbing ways—think ants crawling out of a person's hand, decaying donkeys or a razor cutting an eyeball, as were part of Un Chien Andalou—while a dream sequence clip from Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound offers a Dalí experience for the more squeamish.

It definitely got me in the mood to go back and read some Andre Bréton!

If you can, visit, if not, you can get a preview of the exhibit at its online home, www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/dali.

Little People in the City: The Street Art of Slinkachu

2008-09-02T19:54:00.005-04:00

'Oddly enough, even when you know they are just hand-painted figurines, you can't help but feel that their plights convey something of our own fears about being lost and vulnerable in a big, bad city' — The Times

These intriguing, dark, and sometimes comic macro photos capture the trials & tribulations of city life for its smallest "inhabitants" (tiny painstakingly-painted figurines that are arranged and then left to brave the world on their own). View more of the artist Slinkachu's work on his blog, www.little-people.blogspot.com.

A book of photos and stories, Little People in the City, has also just been published—available September 5.

Font Conference video

2008-08-28T09:45:00.001-04:00

A few screen shots above from the Font Conference video from CollegeHumor.com. Click here to watch it for yourself. I won't give away the ending, but I'll tell you I was a little surprised who saved the day—I suppose that's the biggest joke of all.

Illustrator Crash Course

2008-08-26T09:28:00.004-04:00

If you haven't seen this already, check it out. Four weeks worth of lessons will introduce you to the tools & basic tricks of Adobe Illustrator CS3.

Click here to be redirected to www.vectordiary.com.

I love ampersands!

2008-08-25T15:13:00.013-04:00

I wanted to share a little love regarding my favorite personalities in a font's character set. The ampersand has been around since the first century A.D. where it began as a squared "Et" and has since become more connected and curved in many modern serifs and sans serifs ("&"). Ampersands to me have the most personality & flair as compared with other characters—if you agree here are a few things you might appreciate.

"More than just a pretty shelf sitter, these heavy ligatures can be deployed in a wide variety of household and office applications such as bookends, door stops, paperweights, dumbbells for power-walking or self-defense mechanisms."

Cast Iron Ampersand Sculpture from House Industries
www.houseind.com

Ampersand Organic Shirt from Service
www.serviceisgood.com

Beautiful Ampersand Plate from Cul de Sac
www.culdesacdesign.com

Hoefler & Frere-Jones' post "Our Middle Name" This article gives history of the ampersand and details some of the foundry's favorites.

"Ampersands with Attitude" article from Smashing Magazine that details 10 different styles of ampersands from different fonts

"The Funkiest Ampersands You've Ever Seen" from Spoon Graphics Blog This post includes some of the recognizable, some of the most beautiful and of course some of the funkiest ampersands out there. It's inspirational & fun.

The Ampersand Blog features every incarnation of ampersands that you can imagine. Hours of fun for ampersand lovers! Many images above were submitted to the blog by readers.

What are your favorite ampersands?

What does your kerning style say about you?

2008-07-30T21:25:00.006-04:00

Communication designer, Valérie Madrill, applies graphological interpretations to digitally-typeset text in this intelligent & entertaining graduate project. With academic precision Valérie identifies the psychology of users of differing styles of margins, leading, kerning, tracking and even font choice.

Widening left margins mean an "obliviousness to economic necessities", while narrowing left & right margins mean a "conflict between fear of people and inability to remain alone" and overlapping lines of text means "sign of mental disorder."

So, what does your typographic style say about you? My small even tracking says I'd make a "good homemaker" while my irregular right margins say I have "unwise thriftness" and "reserve alternating with loquacity." :-)

Check out the whole "Graphology vs Typography" project here.

A few snippets of her project below. Visit her website for the full project and other design treats (my favorite is the rabbit poster): www.valeriemadill.com.

TRACKING

LOWER CASE i
LEGIBILITY

CAPITAL LETTER M

Farm-fresh prints

2008-07-28T15:22:00.015-04:00

The summer season is upon us here in NY. That means so many delicious fruits & vegetables on the farm and at local farmers markets. I have been eating my fill of sweet cherries, green beans, sweet corn and fresh salsa. To celebrate the eating season I've tracked down some of my favorite prints on Etsy that pay tribute to edible seasonal delights and have them here to share with you—even though I'm jealous that some of them come from kinder hardiness zones & longer growing seasons than myself. :-)

*Click on the images for a little more detail.

Hand screen-printed calendar featuring delicious fruits for each month—
you definitely don't need to live in California to appreciate this one.
"Seasonal Fruits of California" $35.00 www.clairenereim.etsy.com

Vividly-colored modern seasonal screenprint from modern manifesto
representing one of the four humors: sanguine.
"4 Humors Screenprint- Sanguine" $16.00 from www.modernmanifesto.etsy.com

Just some of Rigel Stuhmiller's hand-carved block print
reproduction notecards inspired by veggies.
"Vegetable & Fruit Block Notecards" Set of six, $16.00. www.drenculture.etsy.com

Beautifully illustrated limited edition book with original Italian text and English translation.
"The Fruit, Herb and Vegetable of Italy" $180.00 from www.angelaliguori.etsy.com

Fun retro-flavored letterpress poster with positive message for kids. :-)
"Eat Your Peas" $45.00 from www.pantrypressinc.etsy.com

Three Red Hens giveaway on This Old Hen House Blog

2008-07-16T23:42:00.008-04:00

Three Red Hens is excited to be featured on a fellow poultry-lover's blog: This Old Hen House's today. You can also enter to win a set of my farmy cards. :-) Click here to read the interview and enter to win.

Field Trip! A little inspiration for me and hopefully for you

2008-07-16T20:56:00.010-04:00

I take so many photos for work, but it seems like I never get an opportunity to take them for myself! For some reason NYC cityscapes just don't do it for me. My husband finally took me to the Bronx Zoo yesterday and amongst the hordes of kids I was able to snap a few good shots. Unfortunately my memory card is mostly full of blurry monkey pics but these animals were able to stay still for long enough... Getting out and about with camera in hand gives me so much inspiration for new work. I hope these pictures will brighten your day too!

Not the pinkest flamingo in the pond, but the closest.

Endangered/rare kingfisher.

Lemur in the Madagascar exhibit.

Penguin feeding time! I think I was more excited about this than the kids in attendance.

Another lemur in the Madagascar exhibit.

Siberian tiger at Tiger Mountain. For some reason the zoo was misting in the viewing area. I had to get out of there quickly before my hair exploded.

A dwarf mongoose—one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I have a sneaking suspicion they bite, though.

Kookaburra. A very funny looking bird.

Where do you go to find inspiration?
Any recommendations in the NY area?

My first woodblock print!

2008-06-17T13:05:00.005-04:00

Since getting into letterpress, I've wanted to learn other hands-on image-creating techniques that could be combined with letterpress. So this summer I'm taking a woodcut & linoleum class. Below is my first ever woodcut print– it's not perfect but I'm so proud of how it came out. I started with the outline from a public domain engraving and then used my own inclinations to create the textures of each object and add a little more modern personality to the piece. Next project in the works is a 4-color reduction woodblock print using a photograph of a tree that I took during my high school French class' trip to France.

This particular block is too big for my letterpress, but I hope to do smaller woodcut or linoleum series of cards using my letterpress.

Click on the images for more detail...

Thirsty?

2008-06-12T22:19:00.005-04:00

I keep trying to find a context within which to share this with you, but I'm at a loss. I saw this a while ago on the Die Line Blog. Anyway, this parody on Vitamin Water just cracks me up. If only I had had some Meat Water during that dismal heat wave this past weekend!

Whether you're in need of a meaty refreshment for breakfast, lunch or dinner, they've got you covered. Is this commentary on our overly-processed artificially-fortified "foods of the future" or just fun? You decide.

You'll find amusing tidbits throughout the site, including product descriptions like this:

Prosciutto, champignons, gorgonzola cheese, with a drippy crust

Remember John Travolta strutting down the street chowing on his double slices in Saturday Night Fever? Well we recreate the flavor of a brick-oven Bay Ridge slice by taking Tuscan prosciutto, San Marzano tomatoes, stinky gorgonzola, champignons and a hint of basil and putting all that into a super-nutricious Energy Drink that won’t get tomato sauce on your polyester suit!

A real college flashback for a true world champion.

Enjoy cold. Enjoy warm. Enjoy hot!

Click here for some refreshment.

A few typographic treats

2008-06-12T21:33:00.009-04:00

I just wanted to share some fun things I've run across recently. I'm a big fan of the lovely treatment of type (both lead & digital) and really enjoyed these sites & games...

Smashing Magazine: The Showcase of BIG Typography
These little visual snippets come from the first edition and second edition of fun typography. Links to the real thing are listed below the image (though the links for the last two wouldn't work for me).

seanklassen.com

blog.fl-2.com

aigadc.org

wearitwithpride.commartinkonrad.com.au

I Love Typography: The Rather Difficult Font Game
Think you know your fonts? Give this surprisingly tough game a spin. I just barely graced the Hall of Fame on my second try, but I won't say it was a shining moment. Watch out, the game is rather addictive and definitely will give you a greater appreciation to the subtle & poetic differences of fonts created over the years. Click here to try it out for yourself.

The Extensis Community Blog: TYPEmatch
If you've given up on trying to get 34/34 on the Rather Difficult Font Game, this should give you a little mindless entertainment. This short quiz will tell which font personality you're most like and then you can set the different personalities up on dates that play out on screen.

I have mixed feelings about this quiz, as it told me I'm most like Comic Sans (is this worse than Papyrus?). I suppose the options weren't too flattering no matter what, but still! See below for a little insight into my [font] personality. Click here to play for yourself.

Nerds in the wild & other curious creatures

2008-04-25T21:13:00.006-04:00

I'm back! The recent beautiful weather here in New York has sparked some new designs. I had to take the cards outside to be photographed, any excuse to spend some time lounging in the grass.

This card is a little tribute to my plasma physics husband and his lovely retro glasses. It was printed in black ink with a touch of silver but it's hard to tell in the photograph.

This design has been waiting patiently to be printed now for months. I did a whole series of ocean life in this pointillist/color blindness test-inspired style. Keep an eye out for turtles, octopi, and crabs. :-)

This design goes out to my friend Danielle who, like me, spends way too many hours in front of her Mac. When you're spending most of your waking hours in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and the like, these two keys become embedded in your mind. To the extent that when you, say, drop a purseful of belongings in the subway, stub your toe, or ruin a set-up on your letterpress the first thing you think is "Apple + Z" as if you could go back a step and it'd all be okay. Unfortunately this doesn't work in real life.

What to say? Who doesn't like elephants? I think this card will be perfect for sharing with all the new parents out there – it definitely seems to be baby season on the farm and in my neighborhood.

Last, but not least, a design for the lovely & talented lady of Cicada Studio & Cicada Home, who it sounds is on a creative adventure of her own. I hope you approve! :-) This design was based off of a couple of public domain illustrations from a children's book.

Type: the common & the gold-plated

2008-04-17T21:05:00.007-04:00

As I get busier my blogging gets rarer. :-( I've been busy printing, doing some freelance design work, doing illustrations for my cards (sheep card to come soon, I promise) and of course, working my day job.

I've finally done some wood type cards. I had done a bunch of wood type t-shirts (mostly proclaiming "Rachael Ray eats kittens") but this is my first card. :-) To be available soon on Etsy.

I also ran across this jewelry artist who is breathing new life into worn out lead type by transforming it into jewelry. If you're thinking "Lead... jewelry?", rest assured, these pieces have been artfully dipped in 14k gold to keep heavy-metalness in. Check out more of Erica Weiner's work at www.ericaweiner.com.

Down on the farm & other notes on this past week

2008-04-08T10:24:00.007-04:00

NEW ITEMS: It's been a busy last week (recovering still from sheep-shearing) but I thought I'd share a few of my new cards. The "Mother Hen & Chick" card went up today on Etsy and the "Pink Piggies" will follow soon. Have any farm animal requests? I hope to make some more farm characters in the coming weeks.

FEATURED: Three Red Hens also had a lovely mention on Etsy ceramic artist Amy Esther's blog In the Night Kitchen. Check it out!

FUN DESIGN: I'll leave you one last illustration that I made in the past weeks for a new t-shirt design in Three Red Hens' CaféPress store. This crazy idea came from a friend who wanted gag t-shirts for an upcoming farm conference. A little silly & girly I know, but still lots of fun. Enjoy! :-)

Three Red Hens on Eighty8Words blog!

2008-03-27T09:22:00.003-04:00

The multi-talented artist & blogger behind Eighty8Words shop & blog will be featuring Three Red Hens on her blog today! As always, accompanying her crafter/artist interviews is a lovely haiku contest to win some goodies (this time it's spring cards from yours truly). Go check it out; give her a little love. I look forward to seeing your haikus! Click here to be redirected to the interview. And don't forget to check out Chelsea's latest typewriter-inspired necklaces here at her Etsy shop.

A little academic inspiration: Pop Matters

2008-03-24T20:02:00.004-04:00

I love my Google Alerts! It's how I came across a posting on Scott Hansen's inspiring graphic design blog ISO50's recent post about NYC-based designer Nikolay Saveliev's Pop Matters project. These witty pieces were put together for a viral marketing campaign for indie radio stations – I love their minimalist design & smart copy. Enjoy!

Check out the rest of Nikolay's portfolio here.

A hot cup of tea

2008-03-21T23:04:00.003-04:00

If this damp chilly spring has got you down, warm up with nice new card from Three Red Hens. Stay warm!

Fun custom invitations

2008-03-11T11:42:00.009-04:00

I was approached by a client seeking unique & fun invitations for her father's retirement party, in a small quantity (25). She was looking for a tongue-in-cheek tribute to her father's years of work, between law enforcement and a famous food manufacturer. Although it took hours of brainstorming, back & forth, sketching & illustration, and of course, the printing, I'm very proud of the final result. Thirteen hours, three plates, three colors and some hand cropping later we arrived at some beautiful invites. These invitations were printed on Crane's 110# Lettra paper with matching envelopes in Natural White. As a note, I've used dummy text for the illustration and blacked out the names, dates & places on the photographed final.

The illustration was done using a photograph I took of a can of tomato soup. It is paired with some Helvetica Black I mapped around a (3-D) cylinder in Illustrator and then traced by hand (for the "Bureau Shapes") and hand-drawn icon noodle shapes for the fedora, badge & gun. Text around the outside is dummy text but layout is the same as in the project.

Close up of the finished product. In the original Illustrator file I tried hard to make the text on the can look sketchy, but in the finished product it ends up with a more refined smooth look.

Another close up. Note the trapping I used to make sure all the colors overlap with no white showing. It's much more noticeable in this picture than it is with the final product in your hands.

The whole final product. I did black out the information along the edge but the text of the invitation runs around the outside black border in white (much like the illustration).

Chip Kidd: The Learners

2008-03-09T18:51:00.015-04:00

I was intrigued by the New York Times' review of book jacket designer & obviously also book-writer Chip Kidd's latest novel The Learners. It wasn't a stunning review, but the premise of the novel is interesting & excerpts I've read seem entertaining & well written. It's still on my list to read.

As per Amazon & the Times, the book details the experiences of a recent graphic design graduate in the "real-world" of office work and his unexpected involvement with the experiments of Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram. The name may not ring a bell, but I'm sure you've heard of the experiments in which participants were coaxed by a "Teacher" to give "Learners" what they believed were dangerously high electric shocks.

The following is part of the New York Times article:

"...The Learners is a funny novel, if one that doesn’t always do grief as convincingly as comedy or succeed in evoking both at once. For an Image guy, Kidd has infectious fun with words. “Some people spoke volumes,” Happy says of Tip, his glib co-worker. “Tip spoke leaflets.” Sometimes Kidd strains too hard, but he’s set his novel among advertising people, who strain too hard with words for a living. One of them waxes about the transformational power of the suffix in a cereal brand, Crispy Cornies: “By adding three letters to the word ‘corn,’ it’s no longer made by God, it’s made by man. Amazing.”

But Kidd’s use and explication of graphic design — Happy’s means of expressing himself — is what’s most striking here. “Typography,” he writes, “is truly the invisible art of the last 100 years.” It’s ubiquitous, influential and too often ignored. (Especially, as Happy quickly learns, by the damn Word people: “Make it bigger.” “Make it smaller.” “Cut some of the copy? You’re joking.”) In several digressions — sometimes enlightening, sometimes pedantic — ”Content” gets monologues to describe how it can appear as deception, irony, metaphor and so on. On one tour-de-force spread, Happy gets an assignment to design a small newspaper ad — for the Milgram experiment — and breaks down the mundane-looking block of text to annotate the subtle messages of every typeface, punctuation mark and column grouping. These digressions don’t always successfully connect with the story, but when they do, they poignantly show Happy trying to find the words — and the typeface — to adequately express his emotions."

You can read the whole New York Times review "The Medium and the Message" by James Poniewozik here.

You can also listen to the recent interview with Chip on Minnesota Public Radio here (accessible through Real Player & Windows Media Player only unfortunately).

Or go to purchase The Learners or his first book in the series, The Cheese Monkeys, on Amazon.com here.

You can browse Chip's latest work and learn more about him on his website http://www.goodisdead.com.

Remember to eat your vegetables!

2008-03-03T22:27:00.008-05:00

After [visually] indulging in my last post and its chocolatey goodness, it's time to get your serving of healthy veggies. This brand new letterpress card was just printed today and will be posted soon on Etsy. Sprouted just in time for spring – which seems to be coming soon for NY. It was in the 50s today! I actually saw a few bare legs and hopeful spring outfits.

Bon appétit!

A time when it's not so bad to eat your words...

2008-03-01T18:55:00.008-05:00

In the print shop there's definitely not much eating, especially not any of the type. Cast metal type (as opposed to wood type), whether antique or new, contains a large percentage of lead, from the mid-50s to over 80%.

Right now I'm trying to figure out the best way to clean all the old cases of type I've "inherited" via E-bay in way that is sensitive to the dust that's accumulated - lead-filled & otherwise. I'll probably try to do it outside when the weather is nicer. Even if type is clean, you should make sure to wash your hands after handling it.

Anyway, my troubles aside, I wanted to share a little treat with fellow typophiles and letterpress printers. This is a German company called Typolade who makes chocolate "type" that can be assembled to spell out a special message. I'm doubting they ship international, but I wouldn't know because I can't read German. :-(

Click here to be redirected to their website.

Letterpress Step 3: Making a photopolymer plate out of your illustration

2008-02-28T18:52:00.016-05:00

So here we are at the third installment of the process of getting from illustration to letterpress product. In the first installment we made a simple two-color illustration on the computer using a favorite photograph. In the second step of the process we prepped that file for printing. At the end of the second step, with the consideration of the unique requirements your personal printer or plate-maker might have, you were ready to send your file off to have a plate made for you. In the case that you are sending your files off to be made into a plate, this information will be purely for your curiosity about what's going on behind closed doors at plate-makers' shops. (If you'd like more information about the process vis-a-vis working with professional plate-makers, check out Boxcar Press.

If you are interested in using a photopolymer plate making lab which may be available in some printmaking departments or studios, this information will be valuable to you. While I describe the process that I use to make the plates, I'll inject a few interesting resources I've found on the web that document inexpensive ways to set up a plate-making operation in your own home, although I have no experience doing it in that fashion.

Step 1: At the end of the last installment we had separated the two colors but had left them in their appropriate Pantone colors. In this step we need to convert each colored portion into plain black. Remember that grays or halftones do not work well in this process, so make sure everything is either black or white.

Step 2: Resize the images to be the same size as they will appear on your final letterpress product. If you'd like to use the same image in multiple sizes, you'll need to make multiple printouts and multiple plates. I've combined both images onto one 8.5"x11" page and printed a single copy. If you are interested in drawing something by hand with traditional pen & ink you can skip to this step in the process and use that illustration to make a negative directly.

Step 3: A negative needs to be made from your printout. Using a film negative service will produce a superior negative, but if you're doing it low budget or doing it at home, a transparency from a copy machine will work just fine. Load the transparencies into the copy machine and select "Negative/Positive" (may differ from machine to machine) and create a negative of your printout. Since transparencies are not quite as opaque as film negatives it's a good idea to make two copies, line them up exactly, and tape them together (being careful not to cover any of your art).

Step 4: This step needs to be done in a darkroom environment because the plates are light sensitive. If you decide to set up shop at home, you can purchase virgin plates from Boxcar Press in various sizes & widths. If necessary, cut a plate to fit the size of your negative – it can be smaller but make sure all your art is on top of the plate. All the photopolymer plates I've worked with have a side with a protective cover on it. Peel that off when you're ready and flip your negative face down on top of the freshly peeled side. Looking at it, your art should now be backwards.

Step 5: In order to "burn" your image onto the plate, you need to expose the plate to light. Thankfully I have access to a lab with a big expensive machine that has a vacuum action to pull the negative tightly against the plate and expose the plate to the light needed. With any machine or even in your own home if you don't have resources with recommended exposure times, you may have to do a little experimentation to get it just right. Exposure times can also differ depending on the weight of your lines or the intricacy of your design, I've found.

There's a DIY tutorial for making photopolymer plates in your own home by Maggie Bergman that I've found at Silver Clay Art. She details some of the above steps as well, but most importantly talks about how to clamp a negative to the plate using clips, expose using fluorescent or halogen lights, and how to make test strips. All very important things if you're interested in doing this at home.

Step 6: (This step should be done in a darkroom environment.) If you have a plate-washing machine you can use that (I do about 6 minutes this way), but if not use a soft brush and water to rub away the part of the plate that was not touched by light coming through your negative (aka the white space in your original). The plate will feel slimy (and be kind of smelly) during this process. You want to continue lightly scrubbing until the details of your design start to feel sharp-edged under your fingers. If there are little bumps in the middle of white space areas or the plate still feels really slimy, you need to scrub a little more. Don't scrub too vigorously or too long – you may end up with no design at all! Maggie Bergman recommends 2-3 minutes of scrubbing to get it cleaned out when doing it by hand. When you're all done you'll see what will be the colored part of your design raised in the plastic.

Step 7: (This step does not need to be done in the dark.) Before you use your plate it's important to firm it up. I use a little plate oven that's at about 80 degrees Celsius for 5-6 minutes, but Maggie Bergman recommends using a blow dryer or fan heater at home. I've seen someone somewhere talking about nail polish hardening machines, too. :-) You don't need to completely dry out the plate – it should still be flexible when you're done and not overheated. Sometimes over drying can warp thin lines or even make the plate start to split into layers.

Step 8: This step is more of a precaution to make sure that all parts of the plate have been exposed by giving it a little more light.

Blue Iris #18-3943, Pantone Color of 2008

2008-02-27T18:41:00.014-05:00

Maybe like me you read the New York Times late December article "Pantone's Color of the Year is..." And maybe you weren't moved by Leatrice Eiseman's quote that Blue Iris "brings together the dependable aspects of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast. Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic.”

If you felt that the color spotted on frocks on Milan runways really had more depth & heart, you'll be pleased. A recent "interview" on the Colour Lovers blog with 2008's forecasted trendy color brings the mysterious personality of Blue Iris out of the shadows, with hilarious results.

Click here to read the interview.

What is graphic design?

2008-02-23T18:45:00.009-05:00

I just wanted to share with you a few of the winners from Veerle's recent "What is Graphic Design?" poster competition. You can see all 15 of the winners here on her latest blog entry, or even check out the whole Flickr pool of entrants here.

The following poster entries are my favorites:

Above: The winning entry by Juanma & Gabriele. This one is tied for my favorite with the following entry.

Above: Second place entry by Gravitymachine. Tied for first place in my heart.

Above: This entry didn't place but I enjoy its tongue-in-cheek response to the "What is design?" question. You can see this entry as part of the Flickr pool for the competition or on designer Jay Faircloth's photostream here.

I hope you enjoyed these. They definitely inspired me!

Letterpress Step 2: Prepping Files for Photopolymer Plates

2008-02-22T15:02:00.012-05:00

In the first post of this series we turned a regular photo into a two-color computer illustration. For the next step, we need to get this image ready for printmaking. For those of you familiar with prepping files for offset printing some parts of this process will come naturally and others will be counterintuitive.

Most of today's letterpress printing of images/illustrations is done using photopolymer plates. Photopolymer plates are light sensitive plates onto which light "burns" a negative of your desired image. The area that light touches remains raised and the rest is washed away, leaving you with a surface akin to linoleum or wood carvings (in the sense that the raised part represents a flipped image). I'll talk about the process of making plates a little in my next post.

I think it's safe to say that most letterpress printers do not have access to plate-making equipment, but rather order their plates. One of the most notable photopolymer plate-makers is Boxcar Press here in New York state. Other businesses who offer letterpress parts & supplies sometimes process plates as well, like NA Graphics in Colorado.

Let's get our illustrations ready for new plates!

Step 1: When deciding on an illustration to use for letterpress, you need to make sure that it fits the limitations that letterpress presents. If you are designing your first project for letterpress, take a look at Boxcar Press' "Seven Easy Steps to Photopolymer Perfection" for some tips. I've outlined a few of their more general tips above.

The major reason that letterpress printers ask you to use Pantone colors is because letterpress printing doesn't work in the way that offset printing does – a 4-color [layered] process using CMYK cannot be applied the same way. Pantone inks used in offset printing can also be used for letterpress printing, so custom printers will have them on hand. They can often find your ink color on their shelves or get it mixed for you. An unspecified color would have to be matched to a Pantone color or in some cases, hand-mixed. Each different color, even different screens of Pantone colors that you would consider a single color in offset printing, are a unique pass through the letterpress. This leads us to the next step...

Step 2: Looking at my illustration of the holly, I have two distinct colors Pantone 1805 (the red) and Pantone 4625 (the brown). If I had originally had more colors than this, this could have been the time to simplify the illustration. An example of simplification could be changing Pantone screens into 100% color or white to eliminate the need for more colors. Each distinct color requires its own photopolmer plate & a unique pass through the letterpress, so the fewer colors the better.

Getting the files ready for making plates takes a little bit of pre-press work. In off-set printing many of the following decisions are made for you by the printer's pre-press department, but when you're making plates you need to decide how to treat your files. Registration (or the alignment of multiple colors) is tough in letterpress & takes a lot of time to get right. That's why you'll see many designs that avoid perfect registration by not having objects overlapping or intersecting. I designed this illustration early on and hadn't considered the difficulty of printing it.

The following are some pre-press methods for separating your colors....

Knockout: Knockout creates a white hole underneath the object on top. This way colors that appear to the eye to be overlapping are both being printed directly on the paper rather than one on top of the other, each showing its truest possible color.

Knockout Problems: The problem with knockout is that it doesn't give you any margin of error in registration. If registration is the slightest bit off then white space will show up between the two objects that are supposed to appear to be overlapping. This problem was inescapable for me with the Christmas cards since I chose this method of preparation. In the end, I really enjoyed the off-kilter effect, but that's not to say you will in your work.

Overprint: Overprinting can create some really cool effects in letterpress (which I look forward to exploring myself in the future), although it's not always fun if you don't mean for it to happen. Rather than creating a white space beneath the top object, overprinting does exactly what it sounds like it'd do: one pass of ink goes right over the other. Click on the picture above for more detail and you'll see the darkened areas that result on the berries because of the red ink combining with the brown ink.

Trapping: Trapping can sometimes combine the best of both worlds by creating a margin of error for the knockout method. By slightly increasing the size of the object on top, it is able to move slightly from perfect registration without exposing any white below. At the same time, you'll have a tiny bit of overprint effect on the edges where the colors overlap (overprinting is exaggerated above for visibility).

Step 3: For my image, I've decided this time to overprint the brown ends on the berry and use trapping to make sure branches & berries meet. Step 3 involves separating the two colors. What I do is draw an outlining box or create crop marks to remind myself later how the two images align (this can be very important when trying to get things lined up on the press). Sometimes it's even required by plate-makers or letterpress printers who'll be using your custom artwork for printing.

Once you have an outline around the whole image you can copy & paste so you have two identical images. I chose one image to represent the plate that will have the brown ink, so I convert all the red berries in that image to white. Then I did the opposite with the "red plate" image. Now I have two images that represent the two plates I'll need to "reassemble" for the final letterpress product.

Step 4: Aside from the color separations & initial considerations for your image, getting your files to your printer or plate-maker doesn't differ greatly from what you need to do for offset printing. Each printer may ask for different things, but I've put a few common requests above. If you're a letterpress printer looking to make plates for home, or if you're just curious about the process, check out Boxcar Press' tips on preparing your files (including an elaboration of some of the tips in Step 1) or their pricing & turnaround info here.

If anything needs clarification or correction, please let me know!

Letterpress Step 1: Make an illustration from your favorite photo

2008-02-18T22:13:00.023-05:00

For me, the first step to a new letterpress card is the illustration. I keep an "idea notebook" of sketches, and most of my illustration is done by scanning sketches & tweaking on the computer, or by using my photographs as the basis for a new design. Over the course of several posts, I'll be showing you all the steps from idea to final product for the latter.

Along the way I'll include some links to similar tutorials & tips that I've found very helpful as I've learned how to use the computer to draw. Some of the tutorials use Adobe Photoshop and others use Adobe Illustrator. I am more familiar with using Illustrator, so that will be my reference here.

Step 1: The first step is to select a photo that you find visually interesting. It's good to remember that not all great photos make great illustrations and some truly mediocre photos make perfect illustrations – the more you use photos to draw, the better feeling you'll get for it. In general you want to look for a photo that is simple with high contrast. I also try to choose one that presents an iconic view of the subject; a photo that is straight-on or more shallow in it's depth will be easier to convert and the final result will be easily recognizable. In letterpress, each unique color is a separate run through the press so I try to use as few colors as possible.

My love of photography is what segued into design & now letterpress, so I have a stockpile of photos. This particular photo is of deciduous holly growing in central Minnesota. It wasn't taken with such a great lens, so you'll see some chromatic aberrations. The great thing about converting to an illustration is that those kind of flaws disappear. If you can't find any photos in your own library there are public domain photos & illustrations you can find on the internet and some really great ones you can buy at sites like iStockPhoto.

Step 2: This step is pretty straight forward and incorporates the same tips from Step 1. You don't necessarily want to use the entire picture, so choose the best part. Crop your photo according to your taste and save a copy in an easy to find place on your computer.

Step 3 (click for more detail): In this step it's time to bring your photo into your illustration program, in my case Adobe Illustrator. Create a new layer for your tracing or lock the photo onto the art board; you don't want it moving around during the process. Make sure to keep saving throughout the process, I've had more than one illustration eaten by my computer.

For the tracing process I always choose a bright colored line with no fill. This way I can see what I've done and not miss any of the remaining details. Mentally break up your image into smaller manageable parts. In this case, I'll do each berry separately, the brown end of each berry separately, and the branch in several pieces.

Since I am using my computer's mouse as my drawing tool, the Illustrator pen tool (circled above) makes the most sense. The automatic Bezier curves (see in action above) also help keep things looking natural and not ragged. To utilize the Bezier curves, click your first point and then click a second. On the second point do not release your finger while moving your mouse a little away from the point. You'll see the curve appear. Move your mouse around to get it just right. The next point you make will take lead from this curve, hopefully helping to create a natural line. If you don't want the next point to follow it's lead click once on the point before proceeding (you'll see the control handle & tangent/directional line disappear on the active side). Keep making points until you are able to close the object (meaning last point & first point meet) – this is very important if you want to fill your object with color later on.

This type of illustration took me a while to get used to, so don't be disheartened by your first attempts. Try as much as possible to use the Bezier curves to your advantage – they can really help your drawing look natural. Single points strung together without any curves can end up looking jagged; this was my issue when I started drawing this way.

Depending on your level of expertise, here are a few good tutorials to get going in vector illustration, with more details & tips than I've provided here:

Mike's Sketchpad: The Anatomy of a Vector Illustration
This tutorial is perfect for beginners & intermediate illustrators using different programs. Mike takes the time to introduce all the tools & definitions for you in a very digestible way.

Lemontea: Definitive Vector Guide
Beginner/intermediate with a focus on Photoshop.

Adobe Illustrator Techniques: Imitating a Scanner Darkly
Advanced Adobe Illustrator tutorial for converting a photo into a piece of art, in the style of the movies A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life.

Melissa Clifton: Turn Photos of People into Line Art
Melissa has a lot of great tutorials, but I'm especially impressed with this advanced Photoshop tutorial. I frequented her site when I was just getting started. Even though her focus is on Photoshop, many of the ideas can be transfered to Illustrator.

Please feel free to add other pertinent links to the comments section.

Step 4: This last step is a lot of fun because you get to see everything come together. Click on any finished shape (or multiple shapes that need to be the same color) and choose a new color for line & fill. You can even use the eyedropper tool to pick up a color from your original photograph.

Making sure everything is layered correctly can be tricky. This is why illustrators dealing with complicated images will use multiple layers in the beginning to separate out bottom, mid & top layers & even different colors. If you did everything in one layer, just select objects and move them as needed. For example, I would select one of the brown seed ends and go to Object menu>Arrange>Bring to Front so it's on the very top where it can be seen. Check out the short cuts in the Arrange menu and it'll make it a lot faster.

Step 5: This step may not be necessary. I like to simplify certain aspects (like the bumpy, out-of-place berry) or in my recent asparagus illustration I actually stretched the asparagus to be wider. Follow your artistic instincts.

Step 6: Now your image is ready to be used for design projects you may have. Above is one of the roughs for the Christmas card (slightly scaled) that my husband & I used last year. The other is a business card, just as an example. Notice that I decided to rotate the branch for these uses.

Getting this image ready for use in letterpress is another step that I'll go through in a another post very soon. Do let me know if you have any questions! :-)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As a last note, here are a couple of other transformations from photo to illustration that I've done. The first is of my cat, Ushi. The second is of asparagus I expressly bought from the store for this purpose. I put the asparagus on a sheet of lined paper and quickly snapped the picture without much concern for lighting, but I'm quite happy with the final product. Enjoy, and happy drawing! :-)

New teapot letterpress card in Three Red Hens Etsy store!

2008-02-12T22:05:00.006-05:00

In the coming weeks you'll see lots of new designs in the Three Red Hens shop. I have a whole lineup of plates waiting to be printed with and a box of Crane's Lettra paper & envelopes that came in the mail today. I'll be printing at least two designs a week!

This design was inspired by all the tea-drinking I do. I have a couple of other tea designs up my sleeve, so let me know what you think!

2008-02-09T21:04:00.000-05:00

To celebrate the second printing of my Hazel cards, I've compiled some of my favorite pieces from Etsy that feature man's best friend. Click on any of the pictures for a closer view and see below for direct links to the items in their respective shops.

Title Banner: "Amusing Dachshund Pillow" by Naked Decor

1. "Bulldog" Notecard by Small Screen Designs
2. "French Bulldog" Stuffie by Craftpaca
3. "Dachshund Dog" Wood Leash Holder by Art4MilkBones
4. "Petite" - a Yorkie in the Dog Series by Studio 1212
5. "Two Friends" Print by Kandi Shop
6. "Bruno" Bag by Kaching Design
7. "Blue Puppies" Card by Winifred Studios

Surprise visit from Saturn Press

2008-02-06T21:22:00.001-05:00

The non-profit I work for also has a "museum" shop attached that sells some wonderful letterpress cards (none of mine yet). One of my favorite printers from our selection turned up today to take a look around.

Saturn Press is made up of two parts: Jane Goodrich who does the illustrations, many based off old public domain images, and James van Pernis who does all the printing. It's amazing that the two of them (and one person to help process orders) are able to print a million cards in a year. It's inspiring to someone just starting out.

Saturn Press makes its home in Swan's Island, Maine, a peaceful, beautiful & sometimes painfully remote-sounding place. They don't have a website so instead I'll leave you with a link to Cronin & Company, an online greeting card company who carries many of their designs. I've posted a few of my favorites here to show off.

My absolute favorite is the carrot-carrying rabbit. Jane said she based the wonderful print off of a Victorian era illustration. She reworked the rabbit, by changing the wilted flower he was originally carrying into a carrot. As a note, she does all her illustration the old-fashioned way, with pencil & paper – not a computer in sight! Well done!

A couple days of printing

2008-02-06T20:46:00.000-05:00

So this Monday & Tuesday I got a lot of work done. I printed all the envelopes & Love Nest cards for the special order, I printed a second edition of Hazel cards to sell on Etsy, I made up plates for my newest designs, and I even had a chance to print these cute little onesies & toddler shirt using wood type.

Ojiah is the newest son of a couple from work. Their older son (almost 3) is Sedge. I made a onesie for Ojiah professing his love for his older brother and a matching/reciprocating tee for Sedge.

Santino is the name my friend upstate has chosen for her first child. I wanted to make her something special to celebrate. I may end up making a lot more of these onesies and shirts – it seems that everyone's having a baby!

2008-02-03T21:48:00.002-05:00

I know I am not the first one in the world to discover these cute little kitchen gadgets, but I just thought they were worth sharing. Today at Target, amongst a wall of stainless steel corkscrews, spatulas & oven mitts were these super cute animal-themed kitchen tools.

Click for more detail...

Title banner) Octopus soap & scrubber
1) (My favorite!) Bird veggie/potato peeler
2) Toucan can opener
3) Starfish jar opener
4) Swordfish bread knife
5) Punk-u-pine scrubber
6) Shark bottle opener

The packaging for each product was great too, but I haven't been able to track down any pictures. :-(

See the whole collection online or shop for your favorites at Target.com.

Final designs chosen by Must Keep Knitting

2008-02-03T11:45:00.000-05:00

I realized after trying to get everyone to weigh in on the different banner options I created for Must Keep Knitting, I never showed what her final choices were.

Etsy Banner
This is the banner she chose: dark brown knit pattern with light (almost teal) blue and pink (both by request). I think the colors work well together, although I wasn't sure at first.

Blog Banner
A slightly larger banner of the same style for her corresponding blog, Must Keep Knitting: The Blog.

Etsy Avatar
This is the final avatar that came about after some tweaking. For some reason Etsy cuts these square icons down unevenly so the outlined versions only worked at full size (in forums & other posting situations) and really nowhere else. So I just took away the border...

Header
A cute little header, with the same feeling, for patterns she will sell via Etsy. This will top off a printed piece of paper.

So all in all, making all these designs was lots of fun, however extremely time-consuming. There are a lot of very talented banner makers on Etsy who have banner-making down to an art, I'm sure. Maybe I will offer a custom designed package with options (like business card template, stickers, letterhead, etc.) or just the banner & avatar as a small thing once in a while. I'm less interested in the money and more interested in keeping my mind & skills sharp. I need to learn more about trading on Etsy, because that could be a fun option too.

In the meantime, check out Must Keep Knitting's shop on Etsy!

A day out & about in NYC

2008-02-02T18:04:00.000-05:00

So while unknowingly missing my card on the front page of Etsy, I was doing plenty of fun things...

Firstly, I did the proof of the return address for my first ever custom order (for someone other than myself/my friends/family). This wonderful buyer connected with me through Etsy and is getting 85 Love Nest cards with personalized envelopes to use as wedding thank you cards. If the response from her friends & family is anything like the hubbub over this past year's letterpressed Christmas cards, everyone should feel especially appreciated with that extra handmade touch. :-)

After leaving the print shop, I headed to Billy's Bakery in Chelsea to pick up some cupcakes. I had had THE best ever red velvet cupcake in the office the other day and had to go back. There were no red velvets in the display case, but thankfully the friendly folks there were happy to frost me a few. I'm still on the fence about cupcake shops in general, because it feels like it should be something you could do for yourself so simply. Maybe it's just been too long that I've been living in New York, but I'm starting to be able to justify the $7.00 I paid for someone else to make the cupcakes. :-) I will say that my oven is not a substitute for closet storage – I do actually make a mean carrot cake from time to time.

Anyway, one thing I really love about Billy's is their identity design – and not just because we share the same taste in font pairings. :-) The whole shop has a relaxing & inviting retro feeling, and cupcakes aside, just the colors make my mouth water.

I met my husband in Union Square and we walked to get some great authentic Japanese on St. Mark's. We did not go to the vending machine restaurant for a slice of apple pie. :-(

After lunch we headed to NY Central to pick up more Arturo Magnani cards & envelopes. I'm not quite sure if I cleaned them out, but it was close – I went home with 10 boxes of great stationery! Now you know more designs are coming soon! I hope to print some more Hazel cards tomorrow at home, since those seem to have sold pretty well on Etsy.

Love Nest card on the front page of Etsy!

2008-02-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

After days being sick, it was such a wonderful surprise to find out that my Love Nest card was featured in "A little bird told me..." Etsy treasury (curated by Villa Design) that made it to the front page (a first for me!).

I had been out all day and was surprised when I came home and saw I had made 4 sales in my absence. Now 4 sales may not seem like a lot to veteran Etsy sellers, but for me this represents almost a third of the sales I've made in the last 3 weeks. :-)

Of course I thought that was a little odd. Thankfully a couple of sweet Etsy friends had sent me messages alerting me to the front page status & giving a link. I was a little late to see it on the front page, but did get a chance to see the great treasury it was part of.

Click on the left hand image for more detail.

Bringing home the bacon: delicious meaty goodies from Etsy

2008-01-30T15:15:00.000-05:00

So here I am, at home sick today – surviving off of bland-tasting fluids & Tylenol. In the back of my (mainly vegetarian) mind I have become fixated on bacon. Rather than take a walk down to the grocery store to purchase a vacuum-sealed pound of the artery-clogger, I thought I'd satisfy my cravings on Etsy, by sharing some of the meaty goodness available there. All these items are 100% handmade & fat free!

Strip O Bacon: A Piece of Crochet Happiness
Among Yummy Pancake's Shop of delicious looking (and mostly low-calorie) crochet items, you'll find these sizzling strips up bacon up for sale. You have to check out the product description! The possibilities are truly endless – you won't know how you ever lived without with your own Strip O Bacon.

Yummy Pancake "Strip O Bacon: A Piece of Crochet Happiness" $3.50 for 1 strip

Mr. Toast Button Set
This adorable set of mini buttons from Mr. Toast's Store is truly part of a complete breakfast. Along with Shaky Bacon, you can indulge in Mope the Onion & Joe the Egg, and their delicious friends.

Mr. Toast's Store "Mr. Toast Button Set" $5.00 per set

Hambone
This cuddly cut of meat makes a perfect companion for you, your child, or your dog. Sweet Meats Store will even sew in a dog squeaker for your little canine friend.

Sweet Meats Store "Hambone" $33.00

Three Red Hens featured in "Etsy's Best Kept Secrets" Treasury

2008-01-28T10:35:00.000-05:00

I was very happy to see that my "Love Nest" card was featured in an Etsy treasury of "Etsy's Best Kept Secrets", curated by Little Whims: Handmade Paper Goodies shop.

Treasuries expire quickly, so if you're not quick enough to visit it in person, click on the thumbnail on the left to see up close what was featured in the treasury.

Banner design for a fellow Etsy seller

2008-01-28T10:05:00.000-05:00

I haven't been doing a lot of designing or letterpressing lately so I happily volunteered to help out a fellow Etsy seller, Must Keep Knitting, with her banner & avatar. She was looking for something "girly", "country/farmy" and her favorite colors were blue & brown. She also needed something that represented her work: knit accessories, hand spun yarn & knitting supplies. After finding some solutions I was happy with, I'm thinking about redesigning my banner – hopefully I'm on the right track to something she'll be excited about too. Take a look and let me know if you have any favorites or ones you don't like at all. Click on each thumbnail for a larger view.

Banner options (760px x 100px)
I'm adding this 7th option because the contrast seems to be so low on #1 & #2.
Avatar options (75px x 75px)With a little feedback, some new ideas have been sparked. Using her favorite colors (which were a little lighter than I had started off with) we're off in a new & exciting direction... Oh yeah, I put an asterisk by my favorite – I almost said "an asterix", I can't spell!

ReadyMade: Make your own letterpress

2008-01-24T21:33:00.002-05:00

Want to get into letterpress? Have a do-it-yourself mantra? A drill press and table saw lying around the house? Well then, I have a great how-to guide for you. ReadyMade magazine has featured two articles. One detailing how to construct your homemade letterpress with parts including a bottle jack, bungee cords & plywood. The second article details how to attach your photopolymer plate, ink it up & [slowly] churn out some nice prints.

If you try it out, you have to let me know how it works! It's definitely an interesting concept. I would wonder how quickly someone would be able to run this contraption & also the depth of bite that the plate would make into the paper.

Oh yeah, FYI, you may have to sign up in order to view the articles at ReadyMade but it's well worth it.

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Another DIY letterpress guide is available on Instructables.com here, although from the looks of it, while it seems much less expensive to assemble, it will be more time consuming to print with. See below for the fully assembled "letterpress" and resulting wedding invites.

Beware of the Design Police

2008-01-22T20:45:00.001-05:00

I came across this at Veer this evening & just had to share. I know at least one person who'll appreciate this printable resource for designers brought to you by the clever minds at Design Police. Download these five pages of mini notes (containing gems like: "Helvetica was an unimaginative choice") that can be easily cut out (or better printed on stickers) and affixed wherever poor design needs to be flagged. Let me just make sure that I don't commit any design sins in this short paragraph. Just looking at all the possible pitfalls shouting at me in bright red, I feel nervous. Don't use up all your stickies on me! :-)

My favorites are by far:
"Comic Sans is illegal" (But, hey what about Papyrus?)
"Microsoft Word™ is not a design tool"
"This type has been bastardised!" (Yes, the design police seem to use British spelling)
"Do not use clip art!"
"Hire a copywriter"
"Turn off the CAPS LOCK"

Three Red Hens featured on Anything Indie's Valentine's Day Gift Guide

2008-01-22T13:47:00.001-05:00

Three Red Hens is thrilled to be featured today in Anything Indie's Valentine's Day Gift Guide.

Anything Indie pulls together gorgeous handmade products for your enjoyment from across the web & the world. Go take a peek at their V-day guide to see beautiful jewelry & original artwork, not to mention my card. :-) I hope you enjoy it!

If you're reading this well after Valentine's Day, don't worry, Anything Indie's got plenty of wonderful posts to satisfy your handmade cravings all year round. Click here to be redirected to their main page.

Express your love in letterpress

2008-01-21T22:48:00.000-05:00

I thought it would be nice to share a few of my favorite Valentine's Day designs from fellow letterpress printers on Etsy.

I Wheelie Like You
Chewing the Cud has three different, beautifully designed cards for Valentine's Day. Here's my favorite... for all you pun lovers.

ChewingtheCud "I Wheelie Like You" Card $4.25

Have a Cupcake

Creative, delicate & poetic illustrations characterize Ink + Wit letterpress cards. In this card, two cute birds share love & cupcakes... what could be better?

Ink + Wit "Have a Cupcake" Card (Set of 5) $14.00

Love is for Suckers
Not so into everyone's favorite chocolate & roses holiday? Celebrate Valentine's Day with a little humor with this letterpress card from Alcove Press.

Alcove Press "Love is for Suckers" Card $3.50 for 1, $12.00 for 5

Love Nest

I suppose I should use this opportunity to make a little shameless plug for my Valentine's Day card... I originally designed this one for a friend who was getting married & moving across the country. I meant for it to be a celebration of their love & their new LA "love nest". I was so happy with the final product, that this design became the very first available in my Etsy shop: Three Red Hens.

Three Red Hens Press "Love Nest" Card $4.00

Honorable Mention: I Want to Barack Your World
I just have to include this one from Alcove Press, even though it's not letterpress. Remind your Valentine to get out and vote in the primaries with this clever card. Guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone's face, no matter which way they'll be voting.

Alcove Press " I Want to Barack Your World" $3.00 for 1, $9.00 for 5

Machining a "Boxcar" style base

2008-01-20T18:46:00.000-05:00

So, after the initial expense of the press, we've been trying to fix it up on the cheap (hence why we're still only running on 2 out of 3 rollers).

Last night, my husband machined a "boxcar" base for me to use to prop up my photopolymer plates on the press. Just like the fancy new trucks we have, this was machined out of scrap plastic.

The final plastic base was measured with a calipers to make sure it would bring the plate to type high (.918 inches). We estimated that the plates I've been using are about .037 inches thick, although thickness varied across the plate. Even with the Boxcar bases I used in class, I'd need to add a little paper or tape underneath any given plate to bring it up high enough. I don't know whether that was due to inconsistencies on the press, the plate, or the base. Maybe a little of everything... though their bases are quite tough. I'm hoping this plastic one will stand up to printing. And, even if it's a tiny bit off, I think I'll be able to get it to work decently.

Here are some more pictures from the whole process (click for more detail)...

Initial set-up of the Pearl press

2008-01-14T16:46:00.000-05:00

*Click on the thumbnails to see detail & read my notes.*

So last night I finally got the press set up for printing – I've just been so lazy! It wasn't really as difficult as I was expecting, but as with many antique items, we discovered some parts needing repair. It had also been so long since we had touched it, so it needed a good oiling to run squeak-free.

The first thing I did load up the chase (a frame that holds the type & is attached to the press for printing) with some sorts (lead letters). My instructor from class recommended placing a single letter close to each corner of the chase to check that the platen is touching the type evenly. I put the chase with the type in it on the press and did a dry run with the rollers. I just wanted to make sure the rollers were not hitting the type too hard (or, as I thought before, hitting the ink plate). Thankfully this was not the case.

I placed three sheets of tympan paper (an oiled paper I purchased at NA Graphics) on the platen. I've heard you can also use butcher paper, but I just wanted to do proper set-up for my first time. The other good thing is that tympan paper has a very exact & even surface. Hopefully this means next time I need to change out this paper, I can do the same set-up, with the same good result.

We found that one of the screws of the arms that hold the tympan tight has sheered. We're still trying to think of how to fix that. This means the tympan I put on there is probably not as tight as it should be. In the future I need to also get a top protective layer of some sort – probably vinyl. I also want an expert to take a look at the press and double check what I've done. I'm still learning. I feel like the previous owner(s) didn't know what they were doing and ended up damaging parts – either through misuse or neglect. :-(

I inked up the ink plate with turquoise ink and my husband started the press going. It takes a couple minutes for the ink to distribute evenly on the ink plate – and then you're ready to print. I decided to forgo gauge pins (pins that hold the paper in place) since this was just a test. Also, it occurred to me that I really need to buy new ones since the ones I have a bent & rusted (not a good combination).

We ended up not needing to adjust any of the screws on the backside of platen (for precise calibration). The impression seemed just fine. We will have to do it again when I get a vinyl cover sheet.

A NOTE ABOUT THE PLASTIC TRUCKS:
My husband had machined (out of scrap plastic!) new trucks (pieces on the end of the roller on which the rollers turn) because the rusty ones that came with the press were too small. When trucks are too small, rollers hit the type and get damaged. (And rollers are quite expensive!) I had him machine the new trucks to the exact size of the rollers, which has solved the problem. A lot of folks have great luck with Morgan Expansion Trucks available at NA Graphics – these trucks are expandable, meaning they can be more flexible to your needs. Any adjustments I need to make will have to be made in a less technological way – ie. tape & paper. :-)

A few examples of experiments from my letterpress class

2008-01-07T23:47:00.001-05:00

These are a few examples of work I did during my letterpress class. Everything I did in class was inspired by someone and/or made as a gift for a friend. Even though I will probably do mainly cards through Three Red Hens, I really fell in love with making t-shirts during class. Working with large wood type is reminiscent of playing with children's wood blocks. It's a feeling of physical construction & creative expression in a very concrete way. Letterpress, in general, has a very hands-on feeling that you don't experience when using a computer to construct designs. It is rewarding to finish a product, though it can take many hours (at least for a beginner like myself) to churn out a satisfactory print.

The holiday cards were made for my husband & I. I traced a photograph of deciduous holly that I took while I was working & living in central Minnesota a few years ago. The larger text was created on the computer. Both the illustration & larger text were made into photopolymer plates, while the italic text was hand-typeset. I printed about 100 cards and matching envelopes with a handset return address on the back flap.

"Roosters don't lay eggs"? Just trying to make a [fashion] statement.

Hazel, a Jack Russell terrier belonging to a friend, is the inspiration for the second card. This inquisitive look is the one she gives me whenever I'm trying to enjoy my delicious lunch or if she suspects you may have a b-a-l-l in your possession.

I made "Rachael Ray Eats Kittens" shirts for a few people – the original test for my shirt was the one where I spelled her name wrong. The quote comes from a coworker, although I think we all know it's not just Dunkin' Donuts keeping that girl going. :-)

Impulse buying on E-bay, or the story of how I came to own a 400+lb piece of cast iron located in Ohio

2008-01-07T16:49:00.000-05:00

A good friend of mine who is also a great graphic designer introduced me to some of the most amazing examples of letterpress while she was hunting for invitations for an event. It was her love of the uniqueness of letterpress that prompted me to take a class on letterpress -- with the hopes that I would be able to make an awesome set of stationary as a wedding gift to her.

The class inspired a months long search for a table top press, many of which were out of my price range, too far away, or in questionable working order. Then one day I came across a beautiful antique standing press on E-bay that was reasonably priced and came with everything someone getting started would need -- granted it was a few hundred pounds heavier than I was bargaining for. Along with the press, I inherited cases of type, leads, some old printing blocks, a composing stone, new rollers, etc. In the 45 minutes left in the auction, I researched the press itself and tried to figure out how it would make it's way from Ohio to Manhattan.

A kind pickup-owning friend from work offered to make the road trip out to Ohio with me, so she, her Jack Russell terrier, and I set off to the Buckeye state. Unfortunately our grandiose plans of stopping at every mini golf course, outlet mall, cavern, and world's-largest-dinosaur-type monument were dashed by an unexpected spell of chilly weather. This trip became a journey from hot soup to hot soup. We were especially propelled by her family's "legend" of a restaurant named Pufferbelly's, which was supposed to have the best clam chowder in Ohio (& the world), at least back in 1989 when she visited at the age of 11. We never found Pufferbelly’s but we did sample all the hot soup Highway 80 has to offer.

Loading the letterpress into the pickup wasn’t terrible with all the high school-aged help provided to us. The previous owner even employed some of his boy scout-esque knot-tying skills in helping us secure the letterpress to the back of the pickup. (His knots sure beat those we tied that needed to be checked every 50 miles on the way out.) The ride back to NY was still slow; with all the weight we were cruising at least 6 inches closer to the road than on the way out. Unloading was another story – it took two physicists to figure out how to get it out of the truck. Let’s just say it involved balancing on the axle of a dolly and the scraping of metal.

I also found out that some of the cases of type had spilled in transit and the thousands of tiny sorts (or letters) within each drawer would need to be rearranged. I’m still saving that for a rainy day.

At this time, the press is safely within our apartment, with just a few minor adjustments to be made to get printing.