Metallic Ink on Dark Brown

I couldn't decide whether to post something more...I dunno...foolish today since it's APRIL FOOLS (Happy April Fool's Day!). But I couldn't think of anything so instead I will share some more awesome letterpress invitations for you to look at:

My latest craze is letterpress printing invitations with metallic inks on dark paper. I especially the look of the metallic ink on dark brown -- there is something just so rich looking and luxurious about it. Added to that, the metallic ink is a vegetable oil based ink -- totally eco-friendly!

The top pic is a housewarming invitation done with metallic pewter on some leftover brown paper I found laying around the studio. The bottom is a restaurant opening invitation we did for Bourbon Steak in Washington, DC, on 30% PCW chocolate brown paper -- double eco-friendly and totally chic!

The kicker is that since it's only one color, metallic on dark paper is on the whole CHEAPER than a two-color letterpress project because there's only one color. No fooling!

Enjoy!

Happy Earth Day!

You might have noticed that I've been labeling some of my posts "eco-savvy." Eco-savvy is not just about choosing something because it sounds environmentally friendly, like soy inks and baby oil. Being savvy is about being smart and making informed, educated choices. On Earth Day, I wanted to share with you all the ways Joie Studio is being environmentally responsible. I call it eco-savvy letterpress!

Environmentally Friendly Papers
Joie Studio isn’t going green – we’ve always been green! Joie Studio is proud that since our inception, the majority of our ready-made and custom letterpress has been printed on 100% cotton paper and cardstock. Cotton is a tree-free, renewable resource. The paper we use is made from cotton linters and rag from cotton ginning waste and textile cuttings. This recovered cotton is saved from landfills, and made into our ultra-luxurious, ultra-thick letterpress papers.

We carefully choose our other papers to make sure that our eco-savvy standard and our letterpress quality remain high. Most of our complementary papers are made with recycled paper. One paper mill we work with not only makes all their paper using 100% green hydroelectricity, they supply their surplus energy to their local energy company!

Reducing Waste
Joie Studio believes that being eco-savvy doesn’t stop at choosing environmentally-friendly paper. We have carefully chosen inks and solvents that produce the least amount of waste. It does Earth no good if by changing to materials that sound eco-friendlier, we produce more trash. So we have chosen the best letterpress papers, the least wasteful letterpress inks, and the best yet eco-friendly solvents to make our letterpress products so beautiful, our clients and customers won’t want to throw them away!

Eco-Chic Alternatives
Joie Studio recently introduced an eco-chic alternative to paper: wood! In April 2008, we started offering custom wood letterpress wedding invitations. Made from wood veneer, these small pieces of wood are cut from wood grown in private lots, are produced using less electricity and chemicals than regular paper, produce no VOC's in the process, and are recyclable!

Wedding invitation and special event clients looking to cut down on the amount of paper they are sending out can also employ Joie Studio to build custom event websites instead of sending out multiple enclosure cards. Custom-built event websites give event guests more information than a little card ever could, and they are a savvy way of reducing the amount of paper sent out.

Looking to the Future
In late April, Joie Studio will introduce our Nature’s Kiss letterpress collection, a collection inspired by nature with materials that are friendly to nature. The basis for the collection will be the wood invitations and 100% cotton or 100% recycled papers.

In the testing stages is plantable seed paper, which is 100% cotton and 100% recycled paper with seeds mixed into the paper pulp. We’ve got our fingers crossed that these papers are good enough to offer our clients and customers!

The 3 R's!

A couple weeks ago, I substituted for a 7th-8th grade class, whose topic for the day was recycling. I asked if they knew what the three R's for the environment were, and surprisingly, they only knew reduce and recycle.

Our educational system needs work.

I've lived outside the United States for a couple months at a time, and every time I was struck by how little waste other countries produce on a day-in, day-out basis. And it's not because they recycle more than we do, though certainly they seemed to be masters at recycling.

The third R is probably one that a lot of clients notice because I reuse packing materials that I receive. A lot of my larger orders are packaged in old shipping boxes from any of one of my suppliers. Sometimes, smaller orders will go out in Amazon boxes. I keep all those plastic air pillows and bubble sheets to pack things in. I keep a small amount of packing popcorn here and bring the rest to a local mailing station where they'll reuse it to pack other customer's items. It's just good business to do this because not only does it help the environment, but it saves me time and money, which I can spend on making my letterpress products the best that they can be!

But reusing things doesn't stop at packing materials. Around the shop, I reuse everything possible. Shop rags, bad prints, boxes, strips of paper, sometimes even pieces of tape. Every little bit helps!

Eco-Savvy Paper: Well, whaddaya know?

So, I was looking at some letterpress online with a friend of mine. We share with each other to critique, snark, learn from, get inspired, pass the time, whatever. Anyway, as she was critiquing a card, I noticed that it was labeled with a bunch of "this paper is green" information. Like, taking up a lot of valuable real estate "this paper is green" information. I found this interesting because the paper in the picture looked exactly like Crane's Lettra, the very same paper that we use as house paper here at Joie Studio.

So I went to Crane.com, and whaddaya know? On their "Green Since 1801" page, they list all the ways Crane is green. (This same information was condensed onto the backside of this little card we were viewing online, so yes, it was the same paper.) While I find Crane trying to covet chlorine-free by saying they don't use pure chlorine, only bleaches containing chlorine, laughable (ask me anytime about how I bitch to my paper suppliers about the extra cost for the bleaching of the bright white Crane's), I do love the fact that Crane's paper is made from recovered cotton and that Crane incinerates their trash for energy.

Joie Studio's as green as the other guys and we didn't even know it. Go figure.