Magpie Press

Wedding stationary is my favourite aspect of a wedding… tied with the food! (After the beautiful ceremony part of course).

It’s one thing to have your wedding invitations beautifully pressed, but lately we’ve been getting orders for whole packages! From Save the dates, Invitations, Map and Info cards to RSVP slips (some very neat postcard ones!) and Love Notes, Menus and Order of Service along with Place Settings then Thank You cards (phew, there’s a lot you can get!) If you are going the full hog the most exquisite finishing touch is getting your emblem/name printed on the matching envelopes. It really personalises the mail and showcases your beautiful design and perfectly pulls together all elements to one. Even if you’re not getting the whole shebang, it’s a beautiful finishing touch that really says how much effort and thought you’ve put into your special day. It’s such an honour receiving an invite, what better way to award your guests than with beauty in paper? We stock a variety of sizes in envelopes that match our paper stock wonderfully. For such a small detail it really does make an enormous difference having the envelope match your invitation, an even bigger one having it personalised with your design. We only offer one colour press on our envelopes, as registration is impossible with no trim space for registration marks!

Printing on an envelope doesn’t have to start or stop at weddings! It’s a great for businesses and personal stationary. I have gathered a few photo’s so you too can see what a great personable difference it can make.

Jestine and Jake Envelopes beautifully designed by Jeanine Apoderado

These Arturo 165mm x 165mm envelopes perfectly match our Somerset stock, and this particular typeface (in this size) printed in a deep ‘jean’ blue holds the press very well (so very lovely to touch). Such a beautiful simple addition that really makes this invitation set stand apart from the rest. A very well thought out and wonderfully designed invites by Jeanine Apoderado!

Simple personal message to your recipients by Juliet and Clemens

The simplicity and lovely personal touch of printing a small message is such a wonderful idea! An inside joke I suspect. The grey/blue looks so wonderfully gentle on the Lettra Pearl White envelopes. It is understated yet recognisable and what a way to make your invitation receivers feel like they are V.I.P.

Boarder design to tie your envelopes to your invite by Rebecca Mead and Christopher Dickson

This beautiful wedding set had a floral border throughout, by drawing this element right through to the envelope it really made it feel like a whole, well thought out, set. Printed on our Lettra Fluorescent White 300gsm stock and matched on our Lettra Fluorescent White envelopes. I love all this matching!

Envelope print designed by Gwynne Davenport

A stamp-like logo print on the back of these envelopes is a great way to get your brand seen. It’s a great business plan, and free advertising (the posties will probably be your next client!) These were printed on our Conqueror Wove Brilliant White envelopes to match the crispness of the Colourplan stock their greeting cards were printed on.

So in conclusion, it is obvious printed envelopes not only stand out visually they add that extra special personal touch that will make your guests feel as closely knit with you and your clients feel important enough to receive such a gift!

At Magpie Press, we are conscious of the world and it’s demise especially after the passing of 22.12.2012… (lame joke) but we are very serious about doing what we can to reduce waste and choose eco-friendly materials where we can. Most of our paper is 100% cotton, our Lettra stock using 100%  fibers reclaimed from the garment industry, even their factory’s power supply comes from municipal waste.  Our Colour plan papers and recycle board is FSC accredited. We stock two recycle boards, Muda 700gsm and the 610gsm. It is slightly difficult on such grainy stock to get a print to stand out but these designs in particular really prove that recycled board can be just as modern looking as our other paper stocks.

Printing a stark black ink against the greyish tones of the 700gsm Muda board really gives a clean fresh look—and since this is a card for Terrazzo + Stoneworks this stock conveys just that. The design for this, by Ginamarie Hufton, is modern using a font with thick and thin contrast which makes the press seem more obvious with a pleasing texture to touch.

Simon Thornley designed his own business cards, on one side a blind emboss (over white stock as well as a batch of black stock) with an illustration printed over the recycle stock. The press is light and the brown/grey ink gives an organic feel. Simon also had stamps made with his contact details (very clever in a world we are always moving about in!!) this stamp looks great against the recycle stock.

In all my time at Magpie Press I have never seen more than one colour printed on the Recycled stock and what a striking effect a three(3!!!!) colour print has. By using recycle board, designer, Stephen McCarthy achieves the point of ‘just the good stuff’ against the organic look of the recycle board and having the logotype pop in a teal blue and blood red. Brown bread isn’t a bakery but I really wish it was, I would visit them every weekend for fresh baked delights.

Here at Magpie Press, we print many business cards that get us talking about both design and the construction process, but none so much as these SALT. business cards. When we were sent the job, I was so intrigued as to what these cards were for. There were two business cards, both laminated duplex (this means a lot of gluing for me to do, my favourite process *said with a tinge of sarcasm*), and a coaster.

Designed by Ben Ashley at Benzine for SALT. Eatery

SALT. COASTER:

Printed on our 500gsm coaster board stock is the word ‘SALT.’ standing alone. Because of the simplicity of this design, it showcases best the debossed effect that letterpress is famed for. The less information (image/inked area) the more ability for a deep press, and because of the thickness of the text this was easier to achieve. I absolutely love this coaster in it’s bareness, but I would never place my beer glass upon it (unless I wiped the glass clean first). CLUE #1 These items must be for a place that serves drinks.

Designed by Ben Ashley at Benzine for SALT. Eatery

SALT. BUSINESS CARD:

Printing blind on black stock can be a nice little treat as in the right light all is revealed but in a little shade it can be concealed completely—almost like a magic eye game. These cards are duplex with black Colour Plan 270gsm on the back (again with ‘SALT.’ bottom left aligned) laminated with a fleshy pinky cream Colour Plan 270gam stock, they make me want to have a slice of Apricot Meringue pie accompanied by a glass of watermelon and mint juice whilst sitting in front of a fireplace at sunset with the amber glow tinting everything my eyes land upon. CLUE #2 SALT. cnr Beach Road & Castor Bay Road on the North Shore… (could do a drive by)

Designed by Ben Ashley at Benzine for SALT. Eatery

LITTLE SALT BUSINESS CARD:

I know I should never pick favourites but this is my favourite. A little because it is the ‘little’ SALT. and I always try to back the underdog, but mostly because of this particular stock colour combination. The bright mint green Colour Plan 270gsm stock sits up wonderfully against the Kraft 410gsm speckled board. The emblem for ‘Little Salt’ is playful as it’s name and sits centered on the back as do the front details (in which I particularly like the use of fullstops as gaps in the phone number). Because of the back to back placement of the text, laminating these stocks together was done after printing as to not affect the press—which made alignment extremely important (therefore the gluing was extremely intense) The end result in one word: ‘amazingsuberbulouslygreat’ CLUE #3 It is described as an ‘eatery’.

After the weeks I had been curious, it came to me that SALT. was a new restaurant and these business cards and coasters were for it’s grand opening. All these wonderful designs were created by Ben Ashley at Benzine for SALT. and Little salt on the corner of Beach Road and Castor Bay Road in Auckland.

One more summery post, as we begin to see/feel the not so bright hues of Autumn approach. -(although who doesn’t love a pile of crunchy leaves and good sweater/scarf combo – am i right?)

Brett and Clare’s wedding invitation and thank you notes are: fresh, cool, inspired and cool cool cool cool! Too much love for this nautical-themed invite. The couple chose a super clean sommerset 330 stock to help off set the gorgeous navy blue and aqua. (Two plates used)

It’s all in the finer details -  the scalloped border, anchors, and sail boat (the cutest one i’ve seen in a while) makes this design perfect for letter press. The text also feels amazing pressed into the subtly textured paper. I am positive this Yacht club wedding had a beautiful turnout – from the invitation alone it looks like it would have been a boat-full of fun times. (terrible joke..)

Happy Easter to all of our delightful readers! Stay safe and eat a lot.

Katie

It’s coming into wedding season and spring is in the air – we love this time of year! And we love special mentions – the Herald’s Wednesday lifestyle magazine, Viva, have recently published a guide to wedding planning “How to plan a wedding” beautifully collated and written by wedding planner Erin Lovich. Mentioned in the piece, is this invitation set designed by Kate Slavin at Cotton Wood Studios and printed by us at Magpie Press!

Annaliesa Folder

Annaliesa invitation

Another mention was made on Style Me Pretty (an online wedding inspiration magazine) which details, with plenty of photographs, the wedding planned by Erin Lovich for Annaliesa and Matias – a beautiful white wedding.  In case you’re wondering, the invitations are an elegant 160mm x 160mm, printed on the gorgeous 535gsm paper, with matching pointed flap envelopes.

We’ve had the most amazing time producing the cover for the fabulous new album from Luckless. It was an excitingly rewarding project for us to tackle as it had quite a process (a two colour print and duplex, so there was a lot of gluing involved!) Check out the ‘making of’ clip at the end of this post thanks to Northwest Digital (who also supplied the photos for this post) – with a gorgeous Luckless soundtrack, of course!

Aimee Carruthers from Paper Cut Designs was behind the beautiful moth illustration and design of the CD cover which came out with an almost 3D look with the overlay of the black and silver ink. Aimee gives Idealog an insight on her creative process on this project here.

The Luckless album release is this Thursday (24th May) at Wine Cellar – doors open from 8pm. We’ll be there! But in the meantime, here’s a video they made documenting the process:

It’s autumn (my favourite season) and we are still working at freshening the website – or at least keeping it up to date – time is moving too fast!

I thought I’d share with you some business cards that have recently been added to our business card gallery on the Magpie Press website. Creating a business card that not only stands out but expresses your business appropriately is a tough job for a designer – I think Leanne from Vanilla Hayes did an amazing job on Pink Poppies business card. It’s rare that you see a business card with a touch of colour, let alone pink! Here are some other standout cards that really showcase the deboss our big old press is capable of:

Just a note: clicking on the image will send you to the designer’s website.

Enough to inspire me on these chilled evenings!

Sarah

Finally back here again, it’s been a little while. Hope you all have been enjoying this rainy season. We’ve been so busy working away that time has just flown by!

I feel pretty darn lucky (doing the packing here) as I always get to have a good look at the wonderful designs that come through Magpie Press. I’ve noticed one way to make your wedding invitations really jump out amongst the crowd is through designing a wedding invitation set that carries a theme or a reoccurring motif throughout. We have seen a lot of these over the past season and they really do ooze specialness. AND just to top it off, at Magpie Press, we stock the loveliest 100% cotton envelopes that are designed to fit various standard printing sizes. We can even print on them, keeping to the theme!

I hope everyone gets to have a break over easter!

Sarah

There’s no better way to start the year than with a bit of good news.  We were stoked to hear that the brand identity for Williams Warn personal brewers by Studio Alexander has won a gold award in the international Graphis 100 Best in Design and will feature in the 2012 edition of the International Journal of Visual Communication.  We are proud to say that we printed the coasters, business cards and letterhead for this project.  You can read more about it here in Idealog>> This follows hot on the heels of a Silver Award in the Best Awards 2011 Brilliant!

I have been privileged with the task of being a guest blogger. Hi, my name is Sarah. How are you? We have been extremely busy here at Magpie Press (despite and hence the lack of blog posts!) From business cards to wedding invitations, from blind prints to duplex – you name it! Here is a little taste of what we’ve been up to…

Here is a black/white duplex card for Kris at Klim Type Foundry

A lovely love note tag…

And a good blind deboss…

Hope everyone had as wonderful a start to the new year as we have!

Sarah