Maas Modern: Sleek, Sexy, Ultra-Moderne Black Business Cards With Gold Foil for Interior Designer

Dallas interior designer Sheryl Maas is best known for her perfect, inspired interiors, sleek lines, stylish furnishings and polished, contemporary combinations. She is one of Dallas’s top designers for both residential and commercial properties. We helped her decide on the name Maas Modern and designed her new logo, which, of course is very chic and simple and less-is-more, with sans serif font letterpressed in gold foil on super-thick black paper.

 

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Chevron? Herringbone? Debaun Studio’s Amazing Letterpress Business Cards Shimmer With Debossed Texture

Chicago interior designer Elizabeth Pasquinelli came to Studio Z Mendocino with a strong idea of what she wanted in new business cards for her company Debaun Studio. Her sophisticated design sense made it very easy and fun to incorporate her desire for a chevron or herringbone pattern and the logo she created herself into these gorgeous letterpress cards.

I reworked her herringbone pattern, and, with a die, deeply impressed the pattern into our favorite paper, Cranes 600 gram Lettra. See how sumptuous…

Even though the herringbone design is very deeply impressed on the front, the very thick paper barely shows any impression through to the reverse side, so there is no interference to the contact information.

Having the logo by itself on the front is my favorite way of keeping the branding message very pure and clean. A beautiful typographic layout is key to conveying a subtle but very strong message of attention to detail.

Elizabeth told me the cards exceeded her expectations and I have to admit that, although I knew they were going to be amazing, they did mine too. The actual tactile experience of this much rich texture on a little piece of paper is quite astonishing. This again was a great collaboration with a creative and exceedingly talented client. This is why I keep loving my work so much. Incredible people from far-flung places finding me and working together with me, and then receiving the benefits of our work together. It’s a beautiful big round circle. Every time Elizabeth passes one of these letterpress cards to a prospective client it is a spark that has in it a world of experience and beauty and connection.

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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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Coast Village Design: Extraordinary Letterpress Business Cards for Interior Designer

Coast Village Design Group‘s Wendy Carpenter contacted Studio Z Mendocino when she decided to re-brand her interior design company. Wendy is one of the most meticulous people with whom I have worked, with very definite ideas that, combined with her concurrent openness to collaboration, perfect sense of timeless style, and down-to-earth personality, made this card an incredible experience for me, with an extraordinary outcome. They perfectly reflect Wendy’s creativity and design sensibilities.

Printed on super-thick, cream colored museum mount stock that takes the impression of letterpress like nobody’s business, Coast Village Design Group’s cards were printed in a very pale cream color for the decorative flourish, a deeper khaki colored ink on the back, with rich charcoal gray for the type, and set off in gold foil for the script “V” on the front, and “Interiors” on the back. The back design was inspired by this ancient window arch:

We printed the back outside border around a hand drawn arch in this gorgeous khaki color. The pressure of the border visually popped the interior of the arch up, giving the cards an opulence of textural interest.

We feel very proud of the inventiveness and craftswomanship in these small, powerful pieces of art.

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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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Ana Pettus | Extraordinary | Black-on-Black | Laminated | Black-Edge-Painted | Letterpress | Business Cards | Studio Z Mendocino

Dallas style vixen, Ana Pettus is launching her new line of perfumes, candles, bags and other chic pleasures very soon. To hit the ground running (in her Rodarte stilettos), Ana chose Studio Z Mendocino to design and letterpress print her intensely fabulous business cards and stationery. 
Because Ana’s colors are BLACK and WHITE, we wanted to use a dense, super-dark black paper, but it was not thick enough to suit our taste. We often use black Museum Mount for our two-sided business cards, but it has a slight charcoal cast to it and won’t take white foil to save our souls. In order to get all the elements Ana wanted, we ended up laminating two pieces of our intense-black-but-not-so-thick paper, with a piece of chipboard between them. This created a very thick and luxurious card but with a bit of brown chipboard showing along the sandwiched edge. To remedy this we edge painted the 2.5″ square cards in matte black. The snake-y AP logo, which Ana brought to us already done, was foiled in glossy black, and her name, all in lower case, super bold letters, was put on in opaque white foil. The backs feature a block of white typography.

The extraordinary results are causing a stir wherever the peripatetic Ana finds herself handing them out: Dallas, Paris, New York, Rio, or some island you never heard of. Turning heads is something the irrepressible Brazilian is quite used to. You can find her in the society pages dressed in Balmain or Dolce & Gabbana, or giving interior design advice and where-to-find-it tips on her website. Next: Ana’s Stationery Wardrobe. YUM!

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What to Give Your Favorite Photographer for Christmas or Hanukkah: A Gift Certificate for Letterpress Business Cards from Studio Z!

We all know photographers are big Wanting Things. They want new lenses and backs, new programs and apps, they want chic cases and they want the latest and most extravagant everything. They all want STUFF all the time, I guess because there is SO MUCH STUFF TO WANT. It gets confusing, not to mention expensive, when you draw a photographer’s name for gift giving at this time of year. So, to make your coming few shopping weeks less hectic, may I humbly suggest you just call me up and order a beautifully letterpress-printed gift certificate, in a denomination you find most appropriate, for letterpress printed business cards. You know they’ve been ogling other photographers’ cards, just wanting away, like Kip Beelman’s fuchsia edged, super-thick square cards, designed by Ross Tanner and printed at Studio Z:

or Dana Goodson’s vibrant blue edged letterpress business cards AND stationery suite:

or dramatically fabulous Clark Bailey’s black and gold super thick museum mount cards with black gloss foil:

or Hiram Trillo’s big-sky-shiny-blue-foiled cards and stationery wardrobe:

You know she wants them. You know he has been yearning… Or maybe the photographer on your list has been hankering after a completely new brand. Like the ones I did for Alana Couch and Jonathan Chan and Maria Bernal — the sexy black ones with hot pink edge painting –  or Laura Gordon. You can apply a gift certificate to branding and/or printing, business cards and/or stationery, invitations and/or whatever. You can choose to make it for the whole job or just something they can apply toward the printing of their dreams.

From the most austere to over-the-top wild, a letterpress business card from Studio Z Mendocino, or a new logo design, can make a difference in the clients one attracts and the jobs one lands. Ask our clients this,  about what having jaw-dropping cards like the ones shown here has done for their businesses.

Here, for instance, are Florida photographer Audrey Snow’s pearl foil and chocolate ink ones:

And of course the gift certificate idea is not limited to photographers. Jennifer Chapman’s new brand and cards are an example of one of many “other” categories.

Lawyers and interior designers and Realtors want fabulous design and letterpress, letterpress, letterpress:

Well, you get the idea. A gift certificate in any amount from Studio Z Mendocino will put a smile on the face of just about anybody who’s in business on your list, and will help them get closer to their vision of passing out business cards that stop people in their tracks.

Call 707.964.2522 to order your specially printed gift certificate for a loved one…or for yourself! We ALL want stuff this time of year, don’t we? Tell somebody! Call Santa!

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Interior Designer Stacy Naquin’s Understated “Bling” Letterpress Business Cards

Stacy Naquin’s photo shoot of her recently completed business cards is completely like… VOGUE or something. I love it that the “models” were created by me and Studio Z Mendocino printer Rhea Rynearson. Stacy said the silver foil often gets lost in photographs and she wanted to show the amazing thickness of the stock, so she had Kim Ashford of AK Photography (another of my fabulous clients), take these shots. They are so gorgeous, I am in LOVE.

The backs are ingenious too…We had to avoid printing over the impression from the front side so this was my solution…

I wanted to capture the thickness, and also the silver leaf that sometimes gets lost in photographs.  I thought you’d be tickled to know: I handed my card to an interior designer, and he said, “Wow! you must be expensive!” I said, “i am!”  happy new year!” –Stacy

We printed the big rectangle in black ink onto sumptuous Cranes 600 gram Lettra then overprinted all the type, front and back, and the monogram I created for Stacy, in gleaming silver foil.

You can see all 31 images on Stacy’s Facebook images: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=366965&id=687980595&ref=mf

PS: I wanted to point out my NEW pix at the head of my blog. They are two photos by my son-in-law, Pablo Abuliak, which I adore. Yes, that is ME, singing Baby I Love You at Pablo and Alicia’s wedding. Pablo completely amazes.

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Gift Giving Dilemma? Consider a Gift Certificate from Studio Z Mendocino

Everybody is drawing names and worrying about what to get for so-and-so, who needs so many things (or already has everything he or she needs). Not another necktie! And slippers…nuh uh… Cozy jammies are always nice, but maybe there is something even more appealing and creative, don’t you think? A fabulous and elegant solution to the yearly dilemma could be a Gift Certificate for Graphic Design and Letterpress Printing from Studio Z Mendocino. You still have time to order one and have it delivered in time for the Holidays, all gussied up in a pretty colored envelope, letterpress printed on premium paper, in the amount your budget allows.

Your special someone will appreciate having personalized letterpress printing and creative work done up by the designers and crafts people here at Studio Z Mendocino. To get some idea of the array of work that is available, go to our web site www.studio-z.com or look around on our blog for more recent work. A calling card, correspondence papers, stationery, a new logo, extraordinary business cards for the entrepreneurs on your list, or even something toward the bride and groom’s upcoming wedding invitation.

Name the amount you wish to give, send us their names and addresses, and we will take care of it from there.

707.964.2522

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Stacy Naquin Interior Design Letterpress Business Cards

Stacy Naquin is an interior designer from Louisiana who found me on the internet and called me up. I love the modern world. She wanted a dramatic, sophisticated, show stopping business card that expressed her sense of style, which is traditional and slightly edgy all at once. It was fun to work with Stacy on this project because she was so open to exploring things she hadn’t thought of. The resulting card, she told me, was exactly IT, plus something she didn’t expect at all: it was SEXY… When she first handed her new cards to her girlfriends, that was the word that kept coming up. Who knew??? But now that I am looking at it through the camera lens, yes, I do think it’s kind of Oh La La, don’t you?

I designed the monogram SN to demand a second look, a little investigation, the S hiding out in the middle of the N in plain daylight, but somehow also a bit mysterious and not quite there. When we printed the card on 600 gram Lettra paper (our favorite paper as you probably already know), we pressed the black solids on the front, then overprinted the N and all information in silver foil that sparks and gleams in a discreet sort of way — but a discreet bit of bling never hurt anybody.

On the backs, we left room in the center for the inevitable bit of what’s called “bruising” if you press into the paper very much. It’s the monogram in reverse, which we kind of love for its rule-breaking, renegade quality. Most times we want to avoid that, but then we like to break the law once in a while…the edgy part, maybe. We could have eased up on the front impression, but the drama quotient there would have been lowered, so we compromised and ended up embracing the iconoclastic look. The typography on the bottom is pretty quotidian except for a couple of splashes of swoopiness on the numbers, which completely pulls it out of the daily and into something altogether unexpected.

Yes, the answer is yes. We design logos. We print by letterpress. We don’t object at all to printing other people’s designs, and we do that all the time. We can put ink onto paper in a lot of ways, and try to fit your budget with all our experience and knowledge gained over the years.

It’s awfully much fun working up designs that express what people do and are, collaborating with them on the Mark that will represent them. This symbolism called the alphabet, called design, called imagination.

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