CASPAR! Not Just Another Pretty Face — new issue of Real Estate Magazine Explores a Community Like No Other!

There is no place like Caspar in all the world. I am so proud to have published this article written by my great friend Judy Tarbell as the cover story in this months issue of the magazine. If the world were run by Casparados there would be no war, no poverty, no pollution — only love and fun and supportive friends working hard to make everyone’s life happy and good. It’s as close to Utopia as anything I have seen. It’s the community of my heart and I am so proud to be an honorary Casparado. Go read it online if you can’t find a copy — here.

Studio Z Mendocino: Not Just Letterpress — Mel Cabili’s new digital cards rock in 2-D

ForEVER Studio Z Mendocino has been associated almost exclusively with letterpress printing. The truth is, we have always provided all types of printing services to our clients. Sometimes letterpress is not the perfect solution, and we know how to accommodate that. Sometimes people will order a wedding invitation with the main piece letterpressed and other pieces done offset or by laser printer. Sometimes the $1 or $2 a piece business cards don’t fit the budget of a start-up company, so guess what: we can find another way that doesn’t break the bank. Because I’m a graphic designer with a pretty strong letterpress aesthetic, I can determine the best solution for whatever issues come up and deliver a beautiful product in a big range of prices. A good design will work in many ways, and the third dimension of letterpress, though so very fetching and desirable, is not always necessary to make a great impression with your printed work.

Photographer Mel Cabili came to me for a new logo and we made these fantastic, eye-catching, very strong business cards for him. These cards would not work as well if they were letterpress printed. Big solids just don’t. Having the two-tone effect on either side gives them extra punch and personality. These glossy, thick cards are smashing when handed over to a prospective client — modern, snappy, and affordable.

Mel Cabili Business Cards

strikingly different front and back colors give an interactive feel to the cards

a moving moving moving moving experience

Making progress on the seemingly never ending schlepp of moving my shop after twenty-five years of making and archiving a zillion letterpress jobs. Every file drawer and shelf presents yet another little jog down that old Memory Lane. Good thing the Kelley House came in with their SWAT teeam last week, Carolyn and Betty, to go through the flat files and many nooks and crannies to find the most historically relevant pieces for their archives. WoW — were they efficient. And they loved everything so much that it made me feel very happy to have done what I have been doing all these years. They ended up taking boxes and boxes of my design and printing work with them and, guess what: there will be a Zida Borcich Collection there, at the Kelley House, and at the Guest House Museum in Fort Bragg, as well as an expanded collection at the San Francisco Public Library Rare Books Room.

There is still a ton of paper and stationery and cards and whatnot downstairs but the free scrap paper left the shop yesterday, headed for grammar school classrooms. Several file cabinets, a huge desk and many, many pounds of type and ornaments have found new homes, but OMG there is still so much more to do. People will be coming in this week to move the heavy equipment out. I have been going through the galleys of standing jobs and collecting fonts that need their families back, putting into boxes type for people who have bought up my larger collections to finish them off. Extremely time consuming, may I say. But what treasures. I was struck the other night about one a.m. at what beautiful typesetting we have done over the years. Complicated, exacting, persnickety to the nth degree. So much care and love in the knowledge we keep in our fingers, our eyes. All the work that has filtered out into the world, creating who knows what ripples in people’s lives. Someone just sent me an email about having sent one of my Ladies Who Lunch cards to a fellow and now they are going to get married. Ripples!

Today I will tackle my desk with the help of my friend indeed, Cynthia Wall, AKA Angel from Heaven Girl. She helped me so much all day long yesterday. My other Angel from Heaven Boy, Ed, will leave for a day or two but he worked so hard and lifted so much heavy stuff over the last days I don’t know what I could have done without him. All of this is arduous and satisfying, wistful and joyful, disappointing and elating all at once. Itis a process I would not want to miss for the world. So happy to be doing it now and getting ready for whatever comes next. Many good-byes: Good-bye, little 1924 C & P. You are so beautiful. I hope you get to work more than you have in my shop the last years.

Good-bye type all dusty and gnarly and elegant. Good-bye little yellow house with all your memories. Good-bye Good-bye Good-bye. I know you aren’t supposed to put a hyphen in Goodbye anymore but I am feeling old fashioned to-day. But anyway, it’s not good-bye to everything at all. I will keep designing and Rhea with keep printing, just like before, only in new places. I am just feeling a bit nostalgic today so thank you for indulging me.

Off to the move again. Please tell yr friends to come by and get some stationery for Xmas presents or whatnot, OIK? There is so much beautiful stuff and it’s so crazy cheap you won’t believe it.

I love you.

 

Black & White & Edgy: Brookstreet Pictures Letterpress Business Cards with Black Edge Painting

Brookstreet Pictures, Ottowa and LA movie company, had designer Chad Harber design their new business cards, and Studio Z Mendocino printed them. They are amazing: Black gloss foil on the front of the extra-thick 600 gram Lettra white card stock for the logo — so that got a little shine — and matte black ink on the back for the contact information. We finished them off with round corners and black edge painting.

Fabulous, edgy, chic and professional, deluxe business cards for a very edgy movie company.

Alexia and James Letterpress Wedding Invitations — Modern Classics for Mendocino Wedding

Alexia and James got married in Mendocino last month in one of the great celebrations the town has seen. We were so happy to work with them on their invitations, which they wanted to be very luxurious and traditional, but with a modern flair. We kept a very muted palette of cream, cappuccino and chocolate brown, and of course printed everything by letterpress on our thickest, yummiest paper, 600 gram Lettra Pearl White. The motif of a graceful olive branch held it all together beautifully.

Everything about the wedding was so romantic, happy, fun and gorgeous. The whole wedding party went out on the headlands then paraded through the village back to the big white tent at the MacCallum House for dinner and dancing to a totally get-down funk band. Very much fun working with this beautiful couple on their amazing day.

Their folding thank you notes finished the wedding suite and they got lots of extras so they could use them long into their marriage for many purposes…invitations to dinner, thank you notes, quick messages to loved ones, announcements of important events, condolences, congratulations and happy birthday missives. There are still times when a nothing but a hand written note on real paper, with a stamp, in the mailbox, will do. Yes, really. And it’s great to have some beautiful paper to grab when the moment strikes. No more going to the store to look for that perfect message: you make up your own and put it on your own personalized informal, which is what this smaller folding note is called.

Perptual Indoor Yard Sale — Everything Must Go!!!

Please tell everyone locally that we really have to vacate the shop asap and there is so much stuff to get. Please come over with your pickup!

Perpetual Indoor Yard Sale In Progress!! Paper! Cards! Cuteness!

So much going on my head is swimming. So, as you may have heard, we are moving out of my shop at 711 North Main after twenty-five years of printing, and relocating to several new spaces. Design in one office, printing in a different one, and Real Estate Magazine in yet another office. Coordinating all these moves, just getting the PHONES straightened out is a crazy deal. I don’t think anyone can imagine how much STUFF a printer like me can accumulate in twenty-five years. I can’t even imagine it. So, I am having an indoor yard sale of my paper and card inventory. There is a ton of great stuff. Ladies Who Lunch cards (fifty cents each!), Miss FooFoo Tiny Books (little business card sized, one of a kind books you can use as cards or silliness $1 a piece!), lots of Christmas cards and Holiday cards ($5 a box) and cute stationery (ten cents a card, ten cents an envelope!). I also have lots and lots of scrap paper, like long, skinny pieces, left over from doing jobs, that I am GIVING away to teachers or whoever wants it. Great for art projects for kids and things like that. Come get an armload!

Please come in and shop around for your stocking stuffers or holiday cards at super rock bottom prices!!!

 

SOLD!! 1924 C & P (Chandler and Price) Printing Press

I just sold my 1924 C & P to a young printer named Morgana. Lucky girl. I love this little press so much!

I have a lot of type for sale too, and ornaments and paper and many things. I have to leave my building very soon, so please call sooner than later to get in on all the twenty-seven years of accumulated fabulous letterpress STUFF.

Perpetual (until we are out of my shop) Indoor Yard Sale!!! Many fabulous things at rock-bottom prices!!!

Yes, friends, the sun is setting on 711 North Main. But Studio Z Mendocino will keep on pressing away in another venue soon.

I am moving my shop and have to get a zillion things I have accumulated over the past 27 years OUT of 711 North Main, Fort Bragg, ASAP. Please come by to the perpetual indoor yard sale and see if there are any stocking stuffers or cute things you can pick up for a song.

Lots of Graphique de France Christmas and Holiday Cards as well as Studio Z cards. $5 a box!

Stationery, notepads, thank you notes and Ladies Who Lunch cards all at a fraction of retail.

A C&P letterpress, vintage 1924.

Lead type and wood type.