Learning how to Letterpress

With Verity and ready for acton in the print room.

Jen putting the next plate in place for print.

Over the past few weeks I have started joining Jen and Verity in the letterpress room learning how to letterpress on a beautiful Heidelberg machine.

Letterpress has become the go-to printing technique for greeting cards, business cards and wedding invitations. Invented in the 15th Century, it was the most reliable and widely used method of printing. This printing method originally involved manually arranging words and images before pressing them into high-quality paper.

Although this is still common practice for many designers, at Paper Dove, we create card designs digitally and have metal plates made from them to then print onto beautiful paper. 

It is great to design for letterpress, but it is even better now that I am learning to print for it as well.

Geek Squad range for Cherry Moon

Four of the cards from my Geek Squad range

Jen changing the ink on the letterpress machine

Verity in production 

Here is a sneaky peak at 'Geek Squad', which is my very first range for Cherry Moon.

These brightly coloured designs showcase familiar retro objects and games that we've all loved. They have been beautifully hand printed by my friends Verity and Jen using one of our amazing letterpress machines. This old printing method is perfect for this range, adding to the retro feel.

This NEW range of twelve cards, is set and ready to go to the Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham next month.