Magpie Press

Invitations in envelopes

Shona Gow — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 06:55:10 +0000

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

Newsflash: Williams Warn winners

Shona Gow — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:18:09 +0000

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!

New work for the new year

Shona Gow — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:06:58 +0000

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

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.