Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

This year I decided to do something a little different for my Holiday cards. Having access to a printing press gave me the opportunity to do something a little more hands on than I typically get to use for class.  I decided that since I was going to be using a printing press, I wanted to do something that would look different inside than it would outside.  To create the level of visual contrast I designed the exterior of the card in Adobe Illustrator (CS3) and printed it on 80lb recycled gloss stock.  The interior is on a textured 100lb paper that I got from a paper supply store called Hollo’s in Brunswick, Ohio.

I spent quite a few hours picking out all of the fonts and characters I was using for the press, as well as doing the research into various Christmas/Holiday greetings across the world.  I used French, Arabic, English, Korean and various others and set out to find an interesting arrangement of them for the top piece of the card.  What I like about the printing press is that there is a high demand for perfection, but the simple fact that it is all done by hand and that the errors give it a human touch, makes it feel uniquely crafted.  So, instead of meticulously fine tuning it, I decided that the extra step of visual contrast was the goal.  So, though orderly, I let the press move certain letters and change some of the spacing each time I rolled the ink on, or ran the paper over the type making each one a little different than the one before it.  

After that, I cut everything down to the sizes I had pre-calculated and mounted them to each other in a marathon run to get them all done. Below are some screen caps and photos I took of them being created, as well as the final inside version of the card.

front:

back:

I’ve decided that my independent and freelance projects I do on my own are going to be going under the label of blacksparrow now. Projects that I create with Jes Mellen will be Undead Design. (for those of you who know)

outside:

inside:

In all, I created 27 of them this year. It took 1 hour doing research, 6.5 hours at the press, 2.5 on the computer, 2 building all of them and another hour preparing everything to be mailed and sending them off.  A little more work than I was expecting, but worth it in the end.  Sorry to all of you who did not get one this year, I only had enough time to get so many of them done. Next year I will see if I can do more.  Shoot me and email and maybe we can exchange cards if anyone is also creating their own.  It’s the right kind of time of the year for sharing and giving.  

So I hope everyone has a fantastic end of the year!  I am wise to the fact that it isn’t just a particular holiday that owns precedence this time of the year, it can easily be viewed as an end of the year celebration no matter the religion (or lack of one) you may have. We are all on the same planet together, and at the end of every year I think it is only appropriate to celebrate our hard work and each other!  So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and may you all have the best of luck in the coming year! See you next time!