It's not often these days that we have an opportunity to build an entire stationery identity, so it was a delight when Jeff Story called in need of pieces to represent his new law practice. He loved the simple red and black sans serifs often used to represent the work of poet Kenneth Patchen and sent this image for inspiration:

Here are the three pieces we created, printed on lovely Oxford textured paper from Neenah.

jstoryfullset

Bernhard Gothic is the typeface that played a big role in this design, in various weights. I often refer to this as the 'house' typeface at Starshaped, as there is a large run of it in the studio. It was a favorite back at Fireproof Press as well.

The disappointing part of this project was that we were one 'L' short of setting Jeffrey's full name in this particular size. We played around with similar options but none seemed quite right, so we had to bite the bullet and order a magnesium plate. Hopefully we'll have more of this particular font the next time we're printing this job! I love this image which shows the mashup of new technology (the plate) and a very old (19th century) set of ornaments. In this photo, the ornament appears to be in pretty rough shape; it actually prints quite well despite its age!

I find really traditional cards printed in the studio to be particularly enjoyable as they blur the lines of the time period in which they were created; these could have been done last month, or 50 years ago. Clean lines are always in style!

Back in November of 2012, I had the pleasure of meeting Dennis Gilliam at the Hamilton Wood Type Wayzgoose. As someone with a past in typographic arts, we had a lot in common when it came to our passion for antique type and typesetting. Apparently, I 'won him over' with Starshaped's commitment to only producing work with metal and wood type, and after traveling home to Portland after the 'Goose, he contacted me about creating calling cards for both himself and his wife. For his own card, he pulled heavily from the silent film/ragtime-inspired print in our self promotional packet and pieced together what he thought would look great on the card. Here's a shot of the form. It has a combination of mortised multi-line rules around the name, and a tricky set of rules to create a box around the main text.

And here's the final card:

And since we were already working on one card, Dennis also ordered cards for his wife, an avid bonsai tree admirer. They provided this image, which I cleaned up to make into a magnesium plate and then combined with type. These are printed on 100% recycled stock.

One of great perks of collaborating with Dennis? He's currently working with the fabulous Bob's Red Mill and sent coupons for their fabulous products! Granola? Flour for cookies or cakes? Any which way, the studio will be stacked with delicious treats.