BirdDog im{press}ions


othersday
2010/03/11, 8:40 AM
Filed under: Design, Inspirations, Letterpress | Tags: , , , ,

I love typography and woodtype, Bethany Heck and her End Grain blog, fulfills a void for me where I want to run out and spend my entire life savings on all the gorgeous wood type I can find, but realistically shouldn’t. It is a wonderful exploration of letterforms and letterpress. End Grain found a niche and I love to fall right in it everyday.

ps. I am thinking of changing up what I blog on Thursdays, obviously I love typography and letters, but I am also currently over inspired by the others out there doing handmade. Etsy has stolen my heart again lately and I am finding a lot of things that I would love to chat about … we’ll see where it goes … it may turn into oTHURsday around here for a while.



let the Great Depression cheer you up

After two photoshoots at the end of last summer, a pow wow or three with my wonderfully smart entrepreneurial woman-friends, a test-market run to my marvelously smart media professional friends, and countless hours the think tank, at the sewing machine, glued to the computer, among piles of crafty ephemera, on the press, … I am finally ready to send out my first batch of press/media kitsRecession got you down? Let the Depression cheer you up! These feedsack inspired bags of goodness are far from gloomy even though the vintage fabric comes from that era. They are pattern filled, colorful, overflowing with flattering photography {by Julia Vandenoever} and best of all they tell a story, the tale of my greatest inspiration and what makes the BirdDog Press tick.



little liam
2010/03/09, 12:32 PM
Filed under: BirdDog Press, Design, Friends, Letterpress | Tags: ,

I really needed that two-week hiatus from the blog, and now I’m back in full-swing folks! So much In Progress to share. My photographer friend Julie who is doing the photo session this weekend that I mentioned yesterday, just had a little one herself. Here is his announcement as it was in production and here is his finished hello to the world!



graphy

C and I went hiking on our Thankful Thursday right after music class last week. I had been telling him that we were going to take photos. He has this little plastic one-time-use style camera in the toybox at his Agi’s house and is always chasing us around beckoning “Say Cheese!” I loved photography class in college and had a great teacher, Baldwin Lee. This was real 35mm film photography, developing my own photos in a darkroom, I remember a high grain Illford film being a favorite. I loaded up the old Pentax K1000 with some film that I found, who knows if it is any good {or really where to even get it developed?} We set out and I taught him how to advance the film after each shot. He struggled a little with the weight of this metal beast, but was thrilled with the sound of the shutter. I am thinking of getting him one of these Diana Minis for his birthday. Digital cameras are great, I love the technology, but there is still something special about a limited number of frames and waiting to see the image.

Now for the professional side of photography, my dear friend Julie Afflerbaugh, who has taken photos of C since he was just sitting up, is launching seasonal mini-sessions starting this weekend, email her and get professional shots of your little one at a great price. Check it out:

Julia Afflerbaugh Photography is excited to introduce a Limited Edition shoot for every season. This 15 minute mini session is a great chance to creatively document your kiddos for an entire year!  Keep your eye out for new dates announced each season held at my favorite outdoor locations around Boulder.  Each session will have a fun theme and we will help you make choices about clothing and accessories to get the cutest results.
Cost $75 for two kids, Additional family members $25/each
Upcoming Session: Cozy in Color {Dress the little ones in colorful hats and scarfs for some outdoor play.}
Betasso Preserve, Boulder, Saturday, March 13
Drop Julie a note to hold your spot.


a little something, something

Must take some time off from blogging to catch up on designing and printing WEDDINGS! I have too many ideas and need to focus. So I leave you with the video from Friday, illustrating our letterpress printing process, a photo of one of our favorite local event venues, Planet Bluegrass Ranch {complete with a chance to vote for Lyons to win America’s Coolest Small Town} AND this:

Something old represents the couple’s friends who will hopefully remain close during the marriage . Traditionally this was an old garter given to the bride by a happily married woman in the hope that her happiness in her marriage and the stability of married life would be passed on to the new bride.

Something new represents the new adventure the newlyweds’ are embarking on as a married couple along with a happy and prosperous future.

Something borrowed is often lent by the bride’s family and is an item much valued by the family. The bride must return the item to ensure good luck. This symbolizes the love and support of family and friends

Something blue originated in ancient Israel where the bride wore a blue ribbon in her hair to represent love and fidelity.

And a sixpence in your shoe was to ensure wealth to the couple in married life. Today some brides substitute a penny in their shoe during the ceremony, as silver sixpences are less common.



tying one on

a feedsack apron, that is …
I suwanee! Beyond thrilled to announce this BirdDog Press Super 8 film by the great Kevin Von Qualen. The process of letterpress printing vintage wood type stationery on a Chandler & Price platen press. Ta-Da!

ps. the skirt is made out of feedsacks too!



wedding keepsakes

letterpress framing

Speaking of weddings, we have collaborated our way to a unique wedding keepsake with our studio neighbor, Valerie Combs of Mon Atelier, who is a brilliant bespoke framing artist. Letterpress matting, french line details and handmade frames are her specialty and preserve wedding stationery suites with heirloom quality. The paper goods are mounted in a shadow box style and the border hand painted on an archival rag mat to set off the typography-heavy design. Then, using vintage wood type, we pressed the wedding date into the mat and finally the frame was custom constructed with a distressed finish to complete the ensemble.

This has been such a successful collaboration, we have begun crafting a line of photography-ready frames with letterpress patterned mats. Stay tuned for more on these designs soon.

letterpress frame mat



printing blind
2010/02/16, 11:32 AM
Filed under: BirdDog Press, Green, Letterpress | Tags: , ,

blind deboss

Now that you’ve heard all about our opinions on ink, here is the lack thereof! A popular technique in the art of letterpress these days is to actually print “blind” with no ink at all. How’s that for green? It creates a wonderful texture on the right type of paper and is something that the world of offset printing cannot reproduce.

This is from an engagement party invitation that I printed late last year. Weddings are on the forefront of our minds these days and we have to point out how lucky we are to have such wonderful, innovative, out-of-the-box thinking clients this season. So much to share coming soon!



Eco Ink ?
2010/02/16, 7:55 AM
Filed under: BirdDog Press, Green, Letterpress | Tags: , , ,

soy vs. rubber ink

Continuing on my stream of consciousness, since we mentioned ink colors yesterday, I want to bring up something about the inks that we use in the studio. There is such a buzz with the whole soy ink thing and I like that consumers are demanding that businesses be earth conscious. However we have found that soy is not necessarily better than some of the other inks we use. We have inks in our studio that fall into each of the Oil, Soy and Rubber categories. We have what we like to think are educated opinions about all of them and have decided that what works best for us is actually at Rubber/Soy combination, here is a synopsis on how we have arrived at this conclusion:

Soy inks dry when exposed to air much more quickly than Rubber-based inks. This means two things, they crust over and dry up, which results in wasted ink AND if they dry on the press, we have to use harsh chemicals to clean the rollers. How green is that? Rubber-based inks stay open on the press longer allowing us to use our favorite Crisco & Seventh Generation cleaning combination and the inks are not wasted in the can because they don’t crust over. We have found a happy medium with using a half-soy/half-rubber concoction that seems to be the best of both worlds and keeps our letterpress rollers happy.

Also, here’s what Spark has to say about the subject, It seems that they have a similar sentiment : INK: Soy vs. Oil vs. Rubber