Magpie Press

Victorian Beauty

Shona Gow — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 23:43:03 +0000

In a gorgeous meeting of the traditional Victorian aesthetic and contemporary letterpress, this four-card set was designed by Sam Judson as part of his wedding suite. You can see more of his work here >> He visited while the project was on the press, and some of the ‘work-in-progress’ shots are shown below.

Creative Organisms

Shona Gow — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:51:40 +0000

Two design practitioners and a programmer based in the Ironbank building on K Road recently asked us to print their cards – all three projects took full advantage of letterpress capabilities and the results were awesome. The Fuman card is on Lettra 600gsm – perfect for the fully debossed pattern on the reverse, while the Creative Organism card was printed on two pieces of Somerset 330gsm which were laminated together and diecut to finish. We were especially pleased with the print of the illustrative work on both sides of this card. The Codezilla card is on 610gsm recycled stock. You can read more about Fuman here>> and Creative Organism here>> and Codezilla here>>

Drop of Sunshine..

Shona Gow — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:49:26 +0000

Thought I’d share one of the coolest projects so far this year – a beautiful duplexed card for Donnee Murray of GOOD Design. Each side was printed separately on GF Smith ColorPlan 270gsm paper, then laminated together and trimmed. We’re delighted with the result, especially with the glowing citrine reverse – just makes you smile! Go Good!

Split Fountain a-rama..

Shona Gow — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:21:50 +0000

Just before Christmas the great team at DesignWorks in Auckland came over to visit the studio. Their Christmas Project was a series of 12 postcards, printed using a ’split-fountain’. Basically two inks are run for each card, which gradually merge through the print run. As the trusty Heidelberg has oscillating rollers, you can imagine how quickly you have to work to take full advantage of the split, before it becomes a third colour! Here’s a sample of the results. Definitely one of the most fun jobs ever!

An Apple a Day..

Shona Gow — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:45:40 +0000

We loved printing this invitation and information card set – the apple just pops right off the page. It’s on Somerset 330gsm (designed to fit our Crane Lettra 140mm x 140mm envelopes).

Peachy Keen

Shona Gow — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 02:26:33 +0000

More gorgeousness utilising a blind press alongside a warm peach ink. We printed these invitations on the Somerset 500gsm, which is absolutely fabulous for the ‘no ink’ press. The typeface is the ‘gloriously decadent’ Memoriam Pro – so celebratory!

Sea Dream

Shona Gow — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 04:08:12 +0000

Happy New Year to everyone! We’ve been head down, tail up in the printing department. All manner of wonderful projects have come our way recently, and we’re well overdue in sharing some of the highlights. Here’s the first one – a gorgeous wedding invitation suite which features a blind (no ink) wave impression through four elements – the invitation, RSVP, menu and information cards.

Family Crest

Shona Gow — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:38:52 +0000

Here’s a beautiful thing – a crest composed of all the wonderful things that the couple have shared and a few of their favourite things thrown in for good measure – a total celebration of how good life is! The print itself is on Somerset 500gsm, which is perfectly suited to taking a good press, and the hint of ink gives a little definition to the design details.. check it out…

Kaimoana

Shona Gow — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 05:08:18 +0000

Walter Hansen has been busy and we recently printed this fab Kaimoana print to compliment the very popular ‘Chirp’ print produced earlier this year. Typographical work is brilliantly suited to letterpress, and we were especially pleased to see the work of New Zealand based typographic designer Joseph Churchward given a good workout in these pieces. Check out Walter’s website for more information on the series to date>>

If you were a Mountain..

Shona Gow — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:36:02 +0000

… and you wanted to know where you came from – check this out! We printed this charming series of cards (115mm x 75mm each) and envelope for Piha-based illustrator extraordinaire, Beck Wheeler. I urge you to go along to High Seas Gallery to check out this series, and her incredibly vibrant exhibition. The letterpress series sets (awesome nursery gifts!) are for sale there, or direct from Beck’s website here>