As of late, I am looking for the organic and simple answers. Not the easy-way-outs, but just letting things go or letting other very capable people handle something that I would take so much more time to accomplish. And there is great joy in seeing things come together, seeing things work out when I don’t stress out about every tiny detail.

Here are a few snapshots and sneak peek images until I find the time to update my site. Maybe I should find someone to help with that, too.

1. pick your envelope first
I live by this rule. You can find envelopes in so many shapes and sizes, and colors, but it’s really hard to find an envelope to match the light blue paper you may have fallen in love with in the discount bin of your local stationery store. Don’t even get me started with trying to match envelopes online. Do your research on envelopes and go backwards. Chances are, if you found an envelope, the paper used to convert that envelope will also be available for you. Once you have your envelope, you are already ahead of the curve because you will know what size to design to. See? It’s that easy.

2. design, redesign, refine
It’s addicting to add all the bells and whistles to every design, but make sure your look is not too cluttered. Is it hard to tell whose wedding you are invited to because so many printing techniques are used with every belly band, ribbon and pocket folder concept? I often design my invites in just black, as one color first. It helps me see the hierarchy of things. You wouldn’t start a logo by choosing four colors first, right?

3. allow for time
Let’s face it, design takes time. I know everyone outside the design business thinks we just “throw shit together” but you know it ain’t so. We think about stuff, we ponder it, we walk away from it. And sometimes we need to. How can you walk away from a project to see if it’s good if you only have a day to design it? Make sure you are doing your homework ahead of time and create a timeline that’s feasible with your schedule. Allow yourself to spend time with family or in down dog in your yoga studio. Both you and your client deserve ample amounts of time for things to marinate and get worked out. But do not slack—if you commit to a freelance job and you cannot meet your end of the bargain—hate to say it, but bad news travel fast. Just do your homework and create an honest timeline. Also, learn to say no. (This note is mostly for myself, but I am working on it. Not every project is worth our energy and time.)

4. talk to your printers
This is a huge one for me. As a designer and printer—letterpresser—you have to help your vendor. Prep your files. Don’t be an ass and let them sort it out. I started charging a hefty chunk of change for files that are not print ready. Time is money. Respect and love your vendors. If you do, they will throw you a bone, help you when you are in a time crunch or just may tell you about some new color, paper, or technique that will make your project even more amazing.

5. ok, add the bells and whistles
I did just say don’t add too much stuff into your design—and I stand by it. However if there is a cute way to tie a ribbon on your invite, or incorporate a bellyband—explore these options. Just question yourself—am I adding crap for the sake of adding it or am I doing it for a specific purpose? Don’t forget, some of these elements also add bulk to your invite and may make it hard to stuff the invite into the envelope at the end. Make tons of mock ups, preferably with the right cardstock paper so you are not wondering how many sheets of computer paper to glue together for the right effect. And never-ever-ever underestimate the power of a hand addressed envelope. If your client has sucky handwriting, offer a super stylish addy label. I actually do that very often. Still feels custom, but doesn’t overwhelm the client to address 200 envelopes. Have you data merged in InDesign before? It’s the bomb for addresses.

So I realize I can talk about these steps in my process for a lot longer, but it’s starting to sound like I’m lecturing instead of sharing how I work. So I will stop here. For now.

Here is an invite I had the pleasure of designing and printing recently. Enjoy!

Thankfully, 1.5 million pieces of wood type found a new home. I donated to the cause for the love of letterpress. Giving makes you feel good, makes you feel like you are part of something bigger.

There are many reasons why I love letterpress. The love of the craft, the beauty of a 100-year old piece of wood type, the gorgeous deep impressions that the paper allows for… I can go on and on. But few things are as cool as a kick ass collaboration between the cream of the crop designers and this letterpress coaster project that I was lucky to get a set of. Mama’ Sauce is a bad ass shop in Florida (hope to visit them some day) and their love letters project is even more amazing.

I got these puppies in the mail a while back, and I just can’t decide which letter I like the most or where the heck I am going to put these coasters. Fore sure not under glasses where they can get ruined. Either way, they look amazing, and I am proud to be a part of something bigger than me.

I submitted 3 things this year, and all 3 projects got accepted.

First, I had the chance to win in the collateral category. You may have heard of this “little” project called the 12 musketeers: I rounded up 11 saa grads to collaborate on an epic calendar to defend the honor of letterpressing and everything hand-made. The calendar from concept through execution was a huge undertaking with lots of help and late nights. My friend Vitamin T was my design side kick, second set of eyes, and amazing web designer and developer. 10 other designers also poured their hearts and souls into a design and a few even helped with production work in the final hours.

It was an amazing challenge. Not only because I have never done a project this scope, but the calendar could have totally failed. We could have just ended up with a few calendars sold to our friends and family who felt bad for us—instead, we sold out in a little over in a month. We got posted on a few pretty awesome blogs, and our amazing video was just the cherry on top.

Well, two of the awards, for the actual letterpressed calendar and its promotional video got a gold Addy—a.k.a. Hermes Head. A weird, curly haired dude, with very little expression in the face. I accepted these awards with close friends near by, co-workers cheering, and my school clapping. It is cool to win things. Not going to lie, but the moment you stand among professional designers, you the small biz shop, with a big dream to just letterpress everything that you come in contact with, the Hermes were amazing validation to my (our) efforts. And that’s what I wanted to take away. That’s what I am thankful for: a community of designers who will support each other and clap for each other, for friends (old and new) who will always push me to keep getting better.

Our calendar video also received a Judges’ Award but I only partially consider that a paperreka award. The award exists thanks to Tyler Morris’ bad ass efforts: his ideas, scripts, song selections, cinematography and editing. He is pure magic. End of story.

My third submission, the woodland creatures cards got a silver Addy, and I am proud of those little creatures standing up to some pretty heavy lifters in the design field.

It was a great night, with lots of well-deserved celebration afterwards.

Yupp, that’s me, my life and I love it.

A dear co-worker hooked me up with a relative who had tons of wood type in buckets and many more metal pieces in boxes. I spent the better half of last fall trying to clean everything up. Unfortunately I don’t know all the typefaces I now own. Yet. I did get some books and online help…

Of course now I am in need of a new type cabinet (see how quickly this gets out of hand?) and for better or worse this process has forced me to organize and sell some of my existing type. I am also in the process of completing these alphabets with replacement letters and hoping to print pretty posters of these gorgeous full alphabets soon. I also have some random stuff for sale, so hit me up if you are interested in buying type, or have a cool type cabinet for sale.

Below you will find one of the many typefaces now in my possession. Based on some digging around I think alphabet is 18 line Gothic Condensed. Please correct me if you know something I do not.

I am thinking of a pretty epic alphabet poster series, since this is a full set… we shall see.

Push paper.
30 artists explore the boundaries of paper art.
Curated by Jamie Zollars.
Published by Lark Crafts

Jamie Zollars started a blog called Paper Forest with the intent to catalogue the best of paper art that she could find out there. Much of what she found was from artists all over the world and paper practitioners (her words, not mine) with the most diverse of backgrounds. She curated this awesome book with some mind-blowing works of art. I thought I loved the Xacto knife…

My top favorites (all ladies it turns out) from this book:

Bovey Lee, from China.
She makes complex compositions from single sheets of thin rice paper. Turns out she has an exhibition in San Fransisco until March.

atomic jellyfish
49×27.5 inches

Yulia Brodskaya, from Russia.
Crazy collection of quilling works can be found on her website.

Elsa Mora, from Cuba.
Using acid free paper and glue, Elsa hand cuts and sculpts her pieces to tell a story with every character. Visit her website for more.

Jenn Stark, from the US.
I have seen her photos on all kinds of blogs, but never knew who she was. Jenn creates mathematically organic paper sculptures. Mind blowing.

burst
12x12x3 inches

Now go forth and inspire!