Z Quest: One of the most Amazing Letterpress Business Cards Studio Z Mendocino Has Ever Created

Over the years, Studio Z Mendocino has created a lot of amazing business cards and letterpress printing, so you have to know we are not kidding when we claim this as one of the MOST amazing of all. Australian developer and general genius, Nathan Orbach, became one of our favorite clients, too, in the course of this very, very long process that involved quite a lot of Skyping in odd hours and quite a lot more, how shall I say, “translation” or “instruction” of the letterpress vernacular and techniques so he could really understand better and his designer could prepare the files properly. It was a tremendous and very fun-filled effort with a tremendous result.

After having discovered us online and subsequently receiving a big parcel of samples of our work in Australia via FedEx, Nathan had definite ideas about how he wanted the cards to look. Very specific about every detail, but without knowledge of the various ins and outs and weird limitations of what we do, his decisions made it necessary to work around numerous obstacles.

For instance, he wanted the paper to be exactly THIS dense black, but that exact paper only comes in eighty-pound weight, which was MUCH too thin for what he wanted. He wanted extra-extra thick cards with red edge painting. To accomplish this, it was necessary to print two separate pieces of the black paper and laminate them with something like chipboard sandwiched between them. This was just one in a lot of various negotiations that kept us in conversation pretty much the better part of six months. Or more.

In the end, we were all over the moon about the resulting cards.

The backs are as stunning as the fronts.

It all proves that we are always willing to go the last ten thousand miles. If a business card is going to represent you in the world, it really should say everything about you that can be said in two dimensions. In this case “Q” (Quest) to the Zed Power says exactly that: stop at nothing for the sake of perfectly what is wanted and needed in the situation. Plus, letterpress actually adds a third dimension of tactile depth and visual texture. Nothing more need be said.

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How Do You Spell YUMMY? Bolliver’s Fine Foods & Confections New Logo and Digital Business Cards

By anybody’s measure, Robert Goleman is a Renaissance Man: actor, amazing singer, magician, chef, pastry chef, wedding cake creator, nurseryman, chocolatier, orchid and cacti expert…the list is astoundingly long and his creativity endless. His most recent success story is Bolliver’s Fine Foods & Confections, take-home deliciousnesses — savories for dinner and sweets for whenever — that are flying out of his kitchen and farmers market booths faster than he can keep up. Robert came to me for a new logo and new look, and this is what we cooked up.

Stripes have been a long-time theme in his various businesses and shows, so we incorporated stripes, of course, in a pink and brown palette. We also did folding tags he attaches to his sumptuous candies. Soon we will have new labels, too, and his website is a work in progress, but we should have that within a month. (Studio Z Mendocino provides one-stop shopping for branding, just wanted to mention. From logo creation to business cards, ads and mailing campaigns to web site design and coding, stationery and envelopes to product labels, Studio Z can give consistency and elegance to every type of design and printed materials your business needs.)

We used digital printing for these, rather than letterpress. This design is not letteerpress friendly at all, but it shines with inviting color and typography at a fraction of the price. People say the new logo looks Foodie, and that is perfectly what we wanted.

We lucky locals get to have Bolliver’s treats every week. When you are in Mendocino County, look for Robert at Farmers Markets on the coast and in Willits and Ukiah. Bolliver’s is how you spell YUMMY.

 

 

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Fabulous and Chic Letterpress Business Cards for Meier Ferrer, LA Furniture Designers

Meier/Ferrer designs contemporary, modernist furniture that has been featured in a slew of national and international magazines. Their look is clean, hip and ultra-chic, which matches perfectly the design Andrew Cinnamon did for their business cards, and which Studio Z Mendocino printed on our venerable 1952 Heidelberg letterpress. It’s that meeting of the centuries that I love so much: the Twenty-first to the Fifteenth, to be exact — Thank you, Mr. Guttenberg for giving us the means to impress all these five hundred years.

We printed deeply the hard-edge typeface Andrew adapted for this purpose onto super-thick 600 gram Lettra paper. Dense black ink. One side only. And let the typography tell its own story with no fanfare other than its own audacity. We also made script cards for them. Four by nine cards that fit into a #10 business envelope or can be paper clipped to a sheaf of design mock ups with a little note. Love love.

 

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TRIBE! Seth Sirbaugh’s Incredible Charcoal-Gray-&-Orange “Sandwiched” Letterpress Business Cards

Seth Sirbaugh is a terrifically talented graphic designer whose new letterpress business cards carry the message of the new “tribe” brand he’s developed, in the most stylish way imaginable. We did two versions, which you see pictured above. The first was the more complicated. We used French’s Gray Durotone 80# cover, a mottled, slightly gnarly-in-a-chic-kind-of-way sheet. It’s not very thick, so to add substance (and mystery), Seth had us make a “sandwich,” laminating the backs and fronts of the gray Durotone, with a “filling” of pumpkin-colored Durotone. You can see the little, subtle, yummy orange stripe when you turn the card sideways.

The fronts of the cards were printed in black glossy foil with the “tribe” logo and the uber-hip tagline, “design. cultured.” I love that. The backs have the contact information foiled in white opaque foil. With darker colored papers, white ink will not block out the background color entirely. There is always some bleed-through, so to alleviate that, we always use opaque white foil, which is much more opaque.

The entire laminated card is still not as thick as, say, 600 gram Lettra, which we use most often here these days for our most premium jobs. He didn’t want them to take up that much room in his wallet. At first. But then there was a small crisis, which I won’t go into right now, which allowed us to make another, smaller batch of cards on white 600 gram Lettra. On this run, we edge painted them in the same pumpkin-y orange. And, oh la la, baby. How can he decide which version to pass out?

Working with a designer of the professional caliber of Seth Sirbaugh is a pleasure beyond pleasure. Collaboration is always necessary on a job (jobs) like this one. He had the vision and I acted as mediator between that and making the vision into something he could hold in his hand and be proud and assured that it represented him well. When the crisis occurred, Seth was gracious in the extreme. Often, with letterpress, patience is a virtue, and Seth’s virtue showed up in the form of little wings sprouting from the shoulders of his tee shirt.

It’s not usual to get to give a design two entirely different treatments like this, so as a way to show off the amazing versatility of letterpress’s many virtues, there could not be a better example. The entire mood is changed, the vibe, maybe even the clan, in these two very different versions of the same design.

We all wanna be in Seth’s groovy tribe!

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Chance Creek Dresses Up Its Bottles In Studio Z Mendocino Labels

 

4 of Chance Creek Wines Studio Z Mendocino Labels

Lou Bock is the Winegrower behind the crisp, gorgeous offerings from his winery, Chance Creek. Grapes from his own vineyards in Redwood Valley, California are raised and tended by himself, and the wines he creates express not just a refined palate but a love for and dedication to the land he has farmed organically for many decades.

I feel very lucky to have encountered him at a party some ten years ago. It was very funny because we actually had dated in high school over thirty years before our re-introduction. Life. Very crazy.

Lou happened to be looking for a new graphic designer right then and guess what…of course, it was perfect timing and perfect serendipity and perfect Universe falling together as usual. Since then i have designed and printed up many, many labels for Chance Creek and my old friend.

Not many labels nowadays get the hands-on treatment we give these. They are printed offset and then we go back in with foil on the Heidelberg lettrpresses in my shop.

This label is his new Terroir 95470 SangioRosso, a red table wine he just added to the Terroir 95470 white we loved so much the last two years. The Redwood Valley zip code takes center stage on this…what better way to talk about terroir, the essence of the land the grapes are grown on?

The new SB label looks wonderful on the golden hue of Chance Creek’ sauvignon blanc. They offer THREE sauvignon blancs, each with its own undertones, overtones and degree of yumminess. The gleam of gold foil against a dramatic black background enhances impact from the shelf.

Last year’s Sangiovese showed up on all the right tables. Another winning offering from Chance Creek and Lou Bock.

Lastly, this is Lou’s Chance Creek Classic Sauvignon Blanc, his most popular offering. We love love love it with salmon and especially crab, but i could drink it with anything. It is perfect.

Wine label design is only one of the areas Studio Z Mendocino exercises creativity. Call us when you need any sort of design expertise — from a new logo or branding to a website, we are certainly happy to speak to you about what you are dreaming up.

Here are Lou Bock’s business cards, which i derived from the above label.

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“Getting to Know Me” : New Interview About Me and Letterpress on Chaviano Couture!

I love love love Annette Thurmon’s wedding dress designs. They are sooo dreamy and gorgeous, and I am lucky to say that Annette is also a dreamy and gorgeous client of mine.

I got to work with Annette when I did her business cards a while back, and today she posted an interview with me on her beautiful website: Chaviano Couture.

I hope you will go see her beautiful designs and read my interview!

xo Zida

 

 

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Fabulous New Branding for Danny Kash Photography: Edge Painted Letterpress Business Cards, New Logo Design from Studio Z Mendocino

Danny and Loreta Kash are the principles and great talents behind Danny Kash Photography, which operates out of Connecticut and is available for worldwide destination shoots. It was an incredible experience working with them to develop their new brand because they were so specific about the tone they were looking for, and at the same time so ready to listen to my ideas and inspirations. It was an ideal collaborative experience. Loreta was amazing…she sent me a kind of vision board to work from…showing colors and passions and attractions, moods, and just things that made her heart beat faster. She is so organized and creative at the same time. Look how fab:

It was always fun to confer with them on the phone, always excitement, curiosity into the mysterious process of creation. When I sent them this design, we all just KNEW: this was IT. They definitely wanted this gorgeous pale Caribbean blue-green color, and there were other accent colors we considered, like a sunny orange-ish shade, but in the end we opted for a charcoal gray as the second color.

We deeply impressed the type into 600 gram Cranes Lettra, with the contact information on the back to keep the brand really pure and important. This is my favorite way to make a card really sing. The edges were painted in the same watery-green-blue color, a little accent that pulls the WoW factor up several thousand notches, as we all know.

O, EDGE PAINTING!!!

And yummy shots of the business cards by Danny.

The flowing lines and swooshes of the “dk” monogram set an elegant, celebratory mood behind the classic-yet-slightly-quirky Roman typeface. It’s a fresh, distinctive look for two very special people. And it is always a big treat for me to participate in redefining a company’s graphic look from the ground up. An honor, and a super-fun and exciting adventure. I love the creative trance that brings me to a finished product like this. Do you like it?

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Large, Luxe, Letterpress Business Cards for Photographer Leo Druker

The great big “L” monogrammed  on Leo Druker‘s oversized letterpress printed business cards strikes as bold a statement as the Washington DC photographer makes with his work. Leo came to Studio Z Mendocino with his logo already designed. We conferred with him about the best materials to use, how to give the cards their majorest WoW factor possible and came up with these beauties.

Printed on a 2.5 x 4 inch sheet, and weighing in at 600 grams on super-thick Cranes Lettra luxurious stock, these are not cards to fool around with. They mean business. We printed them in two tones of charcoal gray ink, then, to put the upper cut into the already big punch, we edge painted them in the darker of the two grays. As Leo has told me several times in emails: they “are getting rave reviews from every person who looks and/or touches them.” Well, we are not surprised. They are stunning.

I wish you could feel them. Substantial. We love strong beauty and these are that.

If you really want to make an impression that lasts when you leave, you could not choose a better vehicle than cards like these. You will not be forgotten easily.

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Letterpress Business Card: How Long Does It Take? How Much Does It Cost?

The two most-asked questions I get from email inquiries are what you see in the title of this post. The answers depend on so many things that it’s almost impossible to pin it down. But I want to address these questions because having these cards is a kind of spendy proposition, and it takes more time than most printing, but it can be so worth it because the cards say such good things about you when you are out of earshot.They tell a big story about your talent, your attention to detail, your fabulous aesthetic and hipness quotient. They get more attention and they get more jobs. They are audacious and they are convincing. They are worth it, in other words.

As beautiful Lara Rios said the other day…”Everything goes up and nothing ever goes down.” That is too true. Paper costs have been out of sight the last couple of years. And we use such extra-special papers that it’s even truer for us.

So, what does it cost to get your hands on some of these fabulosity-drenched business cards? Let’s say you already have a logo that you love. Let’s say it is a two color design, which can translate to two ink colors or two foil colors or one of each.

If you get 1000 cards made up with two color runs, printed front and back, on super thick 600 gram Lettra or on even thicker black or colored Museum Mount, it will usually come in around $1100 or $1200. Adding a third color run will add about $225 to $250 for extra dies and printing to that price. Edge painting is additional too.

Yes, I know. It starts around one dollar per card, plus. If you think you would like to save money by getting fewer cards, it is something you need to think hard about because, in printing, it’s always “cheaper by the dozen.” I mean, cutting the quantity in half does NOT result in half the price. This is because the prepress things are in that price no matter if you get one or ten thousand. In the end, getting MORE cards actually saves money in the long run.

Five hundred of the same sort of card will not be $600, but will be more like $800+, so the unit price, in this case, goes up to $1.60 per card. This will make you really think hard about giving your cards away, which defies the whole concept of getting your name out there. So we recommend doing more than less, if you possibly can.

Now, the question of how long it will take: I have done cards in one day, in five days, and I have taken a YEAR to get cards out the door. This usually depends on the customer’s ability to make a decision and we were not working on the card every minute of that time. I promise.

We usually like to say it will take between two and half to four weeks, depending on what is lined up on our press schedule and what processes have to be done to the card, how long it takes to get paper and dies lined up and so forth. If they will be edge painted, that adds one and a half to two weeks to the timeline. Sorry this is so nebulous, but it is the truth. We can really go fast if everything is in place but sometimes it is not so super fast.

If you need a new logo, that too is not easy to pin down. Everything is custom, so we would need to talk about your needs before venturing an estimate. But we do logos and branding and websites here, too. Just ask.

I hope this is helpful and that you will call soon. 707 964 2522 We would love to work with you on your next business cards and stationery, your invitations or announcements, your website or branding.

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Letterpress, Foil Stamped, Super-Thick Black Business Cards for Enchanting Planting Garden Design, in Orinda, California

Enchanting Planting, a garden and landscape design company in Orinda, California, has been my customer for decades now. I designed their logo back in the 1980s and we all have really loved it through numerous reprintings. Recently they came to me for a reprint of their business cards and also needed new stationery and envelopes too.

Prepared to reprint with minimal changes — adding the URL and email address were all they wanted added — I sent some new paper samples down to them because their old paper had been discontinued from the mill. While I was at it I threw in a few other samples of business cards and other work we have been doing at the shop, just to let them in on what we have been up to recently, which, if you follow this blog, you know has been pretty thrilling.

Well, imagine my surprise when they called back completely gaga over everything, especially the very thick black cards with foil stamping. They didn’t even know anything like that existed in the world. WELL! You have to know how I love to bite into something like this. A complete updating of their look was in order all of a sudden, yet they did still lovethe motifs I had used initially, which you can see below.

This is, you know, a conversation. To redesign or design from scratch a new logo and branding requires some introspection…What do you love? What do you want to ditch? What’s different about what you are doing now as opposed to what you used to do when the first logo was created. What is the mood you want to set up with your cards? Who are your customers now? What are they like? What should the color palette be? Etc., etc….These questions guide the direction of the logo design process.

We chose to keep the happy image of the flower basket, but to put it on in a gleaming apple green foil. We chose to use thick, thick Museum Mount black paper instead of the former cream colored, much thinner stock, and to lose the jungle patterned border. I redesigned their logotype, too, using a more modern font. This, and the contact information, we stamped on in gold metallic foil. And I put the phone number is a swoopy, romantic type that calls to mind the movement and grace of leaves in a breezy garden. Then, the coup d’gras — EDGE PAINTING in the same apple green. Look:

It’s quite clear that there is NO garden design company in the world with cards that look anything like these. As distinctive and gorgeous as the work Enchanting Planting does all over the Bay Area, they now have business cards that set the stage for what they stand for and what they create in people’s homes and yards.

It’s so much fun to work with my clients, many of whom have been with me since I opened in 1984, and who feel like old friends to me. I’m always so happy to hear from them again and again over the years. They are clients AND friends. Makes my life very grand. Knowing they are proudly passing out the work we have done for them here at Studio Z Mendocino and helping them to get their names out in the most elegant, edgy, beautiful way…why does that give me such a thrill? But really, it does. I love them and I love the work we get to do for them, and they are excited and proud of their printed things…it’s such an interesting, engaging, creative relationship. How much better could it possibly get than this?

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