Sometimes it’s not gold. Sometimes it’s a really, really, gorgeous paper stock… And a few tricks of the trade.
With that being said, we’d like to introduce you to one of our favorite paper manufacturers, Legion Paper.
About Legion Paper
Legion delivers a tactile quality to their paper, inspired by artists, that’s intended to help them imagine the unimaginable… and then to create it.
“We want to enhance the art works of creative people, whether it’s a photographer, painter, designer or printmaker. We are proud to have designed papers that have enabled artists to create what they were limited in creating before.” – Ginsburg
Legion traveled the globe to study paper. Studying cultures, papers and techniques that have proven their value through time. They traveled to all of these mills, not to bring back what already existed but to make what was needed. What was needed to deliver the quality techniques of the past to the artists of today.
The Coach Gala Invitation
All of this, and more, is the reason Legion had the perfect stock for producing this gorgeous invitation and envelope for The Coach Gala.
A Look at The Invitation
When you see a full stack of these invitations together, the glitter is seamless. Moving from the edges of the paper to the face of the invitation as if the invitation was made out of a block of glitter itself.
But that’s not necessarily the case. The seamless beauty is by design and by the magic of production.
So let’s dive into how we made this happen.
Stock: For the paper, we used Legions Mirri Sparkle. Mirri Sparkle uses an extremely smooth and amazingly sparkly metallic film that is laminated to a white box board base. The thickness of the stock holds a tactile definition of quality in itself. When you hold it, you’ll know.
This paper was perfect for the over-the-top sparkle that was needed for the Coach Gala invitation.
Gilding: Believe it or not, this invitation is not made out of a solid block of glitter. The face of Mirri Sparkle paper stock is gorgeous, but it’s laminated onto a white board stock, so when it’s cut there’s a white edge by default.
This is where our gilding techniques really sparkled. We first spray painted the edges with a silver base to mask the white the edges, and then we dipped the edges in glitter. To create an absolutely seamless wrap of edge to edge sparkle.
Print process: At our shop, it’s rare that the printing process is the simplest part of the design, because of all of the capabilities we have available. But this piece needed nothing more than a one color black offset run to perfect this job. The paper stock and gilding did most of the heavy lifting to make this job a real stunner.
Coach Gala Envelope
Simplicity at its finest.
The overtop sparkle of the invitation was complemented by the beautiful blind embossing of the logo on the Miri H Gunmetal Metallic custom built envelope.
Stock: For this stunning envelope we looked to Legion yet again. The envelope was produced in the gunmetal color from their Miri H line. The line is defined by its bright metalized mirror-like finish and laminated to a white stock base.
You can see gunmetal featured between the gold and copper metallic colors in this swatch book.
Process: The only process on this envelope is the blind embossing on the face. This kind of paper is absolutely perfect for blind embossing. The metallic nature of the paper causes the light and reflections to define every curve, every indent and every highlight to make this logo look as amazing as possible. Giving the logo the effect of being jewelry in itself.
Construction: Envelopes like these aren’t typically for sale in bulk, neither is the ability to emboss a logo on the face of a pre-made envelope. We made these envelopes ourselves from scratch.
The paper gets passed through once flat for the blind embossing and then a second time for die cut and scoring. Once the envelope was embossed, cut and scored we put our gloves on and put these together by hand. To then prepare these for hand delivery.
Accompanying Items
Insert: This invitation was sent with a vellum insert to accompany the invitation with a list of the chairs, benefactors, patrons and supporters of the event. The velum insert provided a soft overlay to the sparkle texture already defined by Mirri.
Vellum overlaid over invitation and envelope.
Reply Card and Envelope: Along with the invitation and insert, was a simple black offset reply card and envelope in the Mohawk Superfine Ultrawhite line. The white stock with black ink paired well and was perfect for the practical application of the reply card intent.
Alternates
If a hand delivered and hand constructed envelope are not in your projects plan, there are so many alternative options to make some of these techniques practical for your next project.
For instance, while blind embossing on the face of an envelope is only available for hand constructed envelopes, we can blind emboss on almost any back envelope flap of premade envelope.
Need custom addressing too? A lot of times we see clients build invitations like this and send them in an outer envelope. This outer envelope is perfect for custom data merge addressing. The outer envelope would also protect your product from some of the inherent wear and tear that happens within the mail process.
Inspired?
Let us know! If you love this piece and want to incorporate some of these techniques into your next project, give us a call or contact us and we can talk about how we can make your next project really sparkle.
Our team of craftsmen and women have worked hard all year, designing, planning and producing our 2022 calendar to showcase the many ways that we make print exciting. Letterpress, Intaglio, Foil Stamping, Digital and Offset Ink, Thermography and beautiful design are what we love doing here at Sunset.
To add to the fun of this calendar, we have created a hidden message within it.
By finding the hidden single letter in each month and figuring out the message
you can enter our contest to win an iPad!
As with every year, we combine the minds at Sunset and bring new perspective to the processes we use every day. This year with our Letterpress processes, we over printed leaves already printed using a split fountain technique for November. For August we took UV ink and created a glow in the dark effect that is out of this world.
Our Intaglio months highlight just how lucky we are to be able let our imaginations take over and get creative while mixing inks on press to help enhance our design.
The Foil Stamping designs included in this year were something we took our time to evaluate, both before press and once our stamping dies were up to temperature. The simplicity of blind embossing vs registered embossing is a process we love to showcase.
Thermography is always something that we enjoy sharing with the design community on how to properly utilize as an embellishment. With the ability to use glitter to highlight October, it was spooky in the best way!
We have both Offset and Digital printed pages included in our calendar. With the addition of our new HP Indigo 5650 press with White Ink capability, a whole new world of printing was opened to us. We are now able to lay down multiple hits of white on dark stocks and print white under CMYK allowing us to create vibrant images on any color stock that we like.
If you would like your desk to become more colorful please Call or Email and we will send you your very own calendar to enjoy!
Our team of craftsmen and women have worked hard all year, designing, planning and producing our 2021 calendar to showcase the many ways that we make print exciting. Letterpress, Intaglio, Foil Stamping, Digital and Offset Ink, Thermography and beautiful design are what we love doing here at Sunset. You can enter to win a calendar for you and a friend so you both have 365 days of color!
After a year filled with all of the insanity that was 2020, we are more excited than ever to turn the corner!
We worked hard to create simple images that transform into beautiful works by the many print processes that we use here at Sunset. The end result is something special that we can enjoy every day of 2021.
This year’s Sunset calendar is the first time in 10 years that we have utilized colored paper stocks for our calendar. This was a challenge that we welcomed to showcase both the beauty of various paper stocks as well as the many ways we can print on colored stocks to enhance their inherent elegance. Between our friends at Mohawk with Keaykolour papers and our friends at Neenah with Astrobrights® papers, we had a hard time narrowing down which colors to run wild with.
What we loved about the colored paper stocks was the way it bought new perspective to the processes we use every day. Considering Letterpress, on stocks other than white, added a new element to color theory, we had to reinvent the wheel and really challenge our creativity!
Some of the original ink chosen for Intaglio just didn’t pack the punch we were looking for, so again we let our imaginations take over and got creative while mixing inks on press to help enhance our design.
The Foil Stamping designs included in this year were something we took our time to evaluate, both before press and once our stamping dies were up to temperature. Foils can give you opaque and translucent effects and the use of holographic foil on a detailed offset ink print did something beyond our expectations.
Thermography is always something that we strive to show the design community how to properly utilize as an embellishment. We used Matte Thermography and Gloss Thermography on the same month both in black over black ink, highlighting different effects within the same tonal range. A lot of these designs are things we’ve never done before and we see as our opportunity to experiment and share with you the results. Some of it doesn’t work and some of it exceed expectations.
We have both Offset and Digital pages included in our calendar and we needed to think outside the box when it came to expectations and reality. Some of the darker stocks we used had us questioning what could be done. With the addition of our new HP Indigo 5650 press with White Ink capability, a whole new world of printing was opened to us. We are now able to lay down multiple hits of white on dark stocks and print white under CMYK allowing us to create vibrant images on any color stock that we like.
For our cover, we wanted to feature every specialty process we do here but within the realm of metallic silver. We have Intaglio, Letterpress, Thermography, Foil Stamping, Embossed Foil Stamping, and Offset printing. Every different process had one thing in common, we wanted to show different techniques to highlight the varieties in the process that Sunset Printing is capable of!
Our Themes:
There are two themes we chose to highlight with our artistic direction this year, the first is celebrating women. All of our images are of females and pay homage to the many female printers, designers, press people and industry leaders that we work with every day. Sunset’s own team is made up of a majority of women and minorities and we are very proud of that fact every day.
The second theme is simplicity. In a year filled with chaos and uncertainty, we have found beauty in the simplicity of life, the simplicity of the images we shared. We tried hard to focus this year on simplifying our artwork, our approach to printing the artwork and really showcasing each specialty process without the clutter of complex illustration. We hope that you have found the beauty that we have in the simplicity contained in our pages.
2020 brought many challenges to the printers around the world along with many of the businesses that printers support. We ask that you support your local printers, support the need for print and continue to create exquisite artwork that stands out in an ever-changing world. We look forward to all the beautiful things we can make together in 2021.
If you would like your desk to become more colorful please Call or Email and we will send you your very own calendar to enjoy!
It’s that time of year… The temperatures dropping, hot coco sounds amazing, and our presses are working around the clock so you can ring in the new year with our 2018 Calendar!
This Year’s Theme:
Vintage Encyclopedia!
If you have ever attended a Mohawk Event at Sunset or stopped by for a press proof, you can see and experience the dedication to craftsmanship that we have at Sunset. Our aim is to meet the quality standards that past generations of pressman have set before us.
Our team of craftsmen and women have worked hard all year, designing, planning and producing our 2018 calendar to showcase the many ways that we make print exciting. In an age where everything is expected to be faster, better, cheaper, we are making things slower, better and beautiful…by hand and by heart.
And so we thought…What better way to honor the history of printmaking and the effort that went into it, then making this year’s theme a vintage encyclopedia? Our 2018 theme was set!
Paper to Match:
Mohawk Strathmore Impress Line in Soft White, Ultimate White, Light Pink and Light Gray
The paper we used was a perfect match for this year’s theme. We used Mohawk’s brand new Strathmore Impress Pure Cotton Wove Line in a mix of different colors to help give the book a more vintage feel. We used mostly “soft white” that naturally gave our design an aged feeling and ultimate white which made those white details pop!
What we loved about this year’s paper choice, is that it printed offset beautifully as well as creating an in-depth impression on our letterpress and some of our sculpted emboss pieces. It truly held its own on the press and each color of paper complimented the print in its own way.
The Inside Scoop:
This year we have an embossed deer that has been sculpted by hand, a two-pass split fountain letterpress print, the earth revolving on its axis, some dragonfly wings that will leave you mesmerized and a giant blue whale diving right into the page! We could tell you everything but it’s better if you see it for yourself.
Don’t Miss Out! Be Sure to Pre-Order Free Today!
And come with us to discover the extraordinary world of print.
On Wednesday May 24th, 2017, Sunset Printing opened its door for the 3rd Annual Print Designers Workshop sponsored by Mohawk Paper.
The Event
This event featured an exclusive hands on workshop in our factory bringing together designers, marketers and print enthusiasts from some of New Yorks most prestigious names in fashion and design including Tommy Hilfiger, Ann Taylor, L’Oreal, Coach, Stuart Weitzman, Harry Winston and West Elm.
The event featured in depth discussions on a wide variety of printing processes, how they are best utilized and most importantly how to design for each process. Our main focus was to help designers get the most out of their print. Not to be outdone, the team from Mohawk Paper was on site as well. They came showcasing their many beautiful lines of paper and showed us how each paper type, combined with the right process, can take any design to the next level.
The Workshop
The day began with introductions from the Sunset team, Mohawk team and of course our attendees. We divided into several groups to tour the facility, review samples, and get a closer look at the extensive Mohawk library. The tour went through each of the printing processes, press by press, with each press setup to print on the same worksheet for the day featuring a beautiful design of a butterfly collection.
Butterfly Samples of our Presses in Action!
Each single sheet of butterflies featured CMYK offset printing, Spot Color offset printing, Foil stamping over offset, Offset printing over foil, Letterpress, Engraving, Blind Embossing and Thermography. Actually being able to see the ink on press, the dies and how they transfer the impression with the various materials in action was a valuable experience for all. All of our dedicated print designers that came were able to really benefit from watching the process of production, from start to finish.
The Swag and Samples
After a delicious lunch and a presentation of certificates for attendance at Sunset University, attendees returned to their office with a collection of samples, a custom CMYK winebox and Rose’ and a vast new knowledge with which to create their next amazing print project.
For more information on the next Sunset Print Designer’s workshop or to order a sample of your own multi-process butterfly collection, please contact – Deron@sunsetprinters.com
