Paper & Chocolate

That's right folks, friends, family and fans - after the huge success of our first collaboration, we're teaming up once again with Taza Chocolate and La Tene Chocolatier for another Paper & Chocolate event.

To promote the weekend long (yes, all weekend!) open studio and Mother's Day celebration, I typeset and printed the postcard above. It's a little warmer in color than I think it appears onscreen (but I suppose that depends on your screen), and has a white version as well (though I'm partial to the lavender).

The top "M" collage is also the basis for a limited edition card (only 95 available) that we'll be selling that weekend. Taza and La Tene will also have special Mother's Day gifts to spoil your mom, in addition to their regular (though far from ordinary) delicious selection of goods. And of course, we'll have loads of cards, plus the new coasters, and a few other goodies for sale.

The whole event is in tandem with Somerville Open Studios (in which I'm a participating artist), so make a stop at our shop and then carry on to over 150 artist open studios all over town! Tell your friends, bring your mom (both of mine are coming!) and join us for a fun-filled weekend of Paper & Chocolate!

A-wash in color

Would you believe that the color on the palatte knife is the same as the leftmost swatch on the pantone book and the name on the notecard? How a color that looks so rich and dark can be so delicate and subtle in print never ceases to surprise me.

Hot off the Press(es)

I've been a busy bee at the shop lately - finished several print jobs last week, and we've been crazy prepping for the Stationery Show in just a few short weeks. But before that, we're teaming up with Taza Chocolate again for another Paper & Chocolate event, to coincide with Somerville Open Studios May 5th and 6th. More on that soon. For now, here's a look at the produce from the past week.

Our first poster commission was printed last week - a concert poster for a choral group at Harvard. I love the swashes and ligatures on the small font - look at the Ch, The and ng! Simple, elegant, and totally luxe on Lettra stock... it's a shame they'll all be torn down by the facilities services folks only a day or two after they go up.



I found this herald cut in a box and it added just the right amount of levity to the understated design.



Next there were a couple sets of business cards. Ooooh, I just adore these - the retro typewriter, the markups, everything! It's always exciting when a client lets you go hog wild with design, really come up with something new that suits them to a T.



And another set of business cards. Scribe is a great stationery shop up in Marblehead, MA, one of my favorite retailers! So when Grace, the owner, asked me to reprint their business cards (and revamp the layout) I was delighted to accept. They really came out beautifully.



That's all the new printing for now. Next week two sets of postcards and maybe, just maybe, the new website will be up and running.

Mum-sa!

This is an invitation that I designed and printed about six weeks ago, but for obvious reasons, couldn't post until now. I love any excuse to play with wood and metal type and I'm just in love with the way this turned out.



Daphne and I spent the bulk of the day over at Stu Rosner's photo studio (just down the hall!!!) where we (he) painstakingly photographed each and every greeting card that Albertine Press carries. We even managed to squeeze in some group shots before going cross-eyed from all the strobing flashes.





These photos will be fully integrated into the new and improved website, which is well on it's way with many thanks to an old down-under roommate, Shannon.

There is still the matter of photographing the custom printing ensembles, but I may have to call in favors from other photographers for that one... (let's just say that I think we've worn out Stu's patience for product shots for the next fifteen years or so).

This weekend is going to be a very exciting print weekend - some uber-fabulous business cards, a few sets of notecards, and our very first ever poster project. Not to mention three custom designs to get on top of. Stay tuned for details and shots next week!

Secret Codes

After much hemming and hawing I've finally redesigned the website (I wanted to go sleek, chic and with some serious cheek). Okay, rhyming aside, web-geek friends have convinced me of the virtues of CSS (cascading style sheets) as opposed to bulky tabular html, and in hopes of a more streamlined site I've decided to take a bite out of the CSS apple.

Now, I'm a fairly proficient hand-coder (for non-webdesign people that means I write out the code for my website in text edit with no help from dreamweaver or any other webdesign software), so I figure, sure, I can learn this CSS stuff, right?

Right...

The concepts and theories I understand, but spending late evenings (after long days of printing and general business-ing) trying to make things look "just so" has me exhausted and totally flummuxed, and less convinced than ever that this is the perfect solution to all of my problems.

So, here are some snapshots of the site (as composed in InDesign) as I would love it to be. Yes, I can make this with tables, etc., but I'm still willing to give this accessibility/flexibility thing a chance. If there are any CSS whizzes out there who'd be interested in a little one-on-one tutorial, or perhaps a little barter for your expertise (letterpress printed business cards, anyone?), please please please: save me.



The home page. Left column a mini "Hot off the Press" with all the latest news.



The page highlighting the greeting card designs.



And of course, most importantly, where you can find our fabulous wares!

The rest of the pages are also "designed", but I don't want to give away everything before it's done.

I'm sure it goes without saying that all designs above are (c) 2007 Albertine Press. Steal the site and I'll hunt you down and sic upon you very very bad things.

A-Round of Applause

Looky-loo! The finished series of "paper cut" coasters.

Now to decide whether to sell them as six of one color, or one of each color in a pack.