We’re glad that people are taking advantage of our calling card deal and using them not just as personal calling cards, but for business as well.
If you are unfamiliar with the deal, for $150 you get 300 cards chosen from one of our pre-designed templates.
Here are a few recent calling cards we printed:
This year marks the year of our first Sudbury client! We were very glad when Merrill found us (through a rather complicated way) and signed up for letterpress wedding invitations. She chose our Wrought Iron invitation to be printed in black and metallic silver, on St-Armand Ivoire and matched with a deckled envelope.
Could Merrill be the first bride in Sudbury to ever order letterpress invitations? Aside from me (Chantal), she might be. Although if I’m wrong please comment below and tell us why you didn’t call us? 😉
Our Wrought Iron invitation printed in black and metallic silver
A note on handmade papers: This was the first invitation suite we printed on St-Armand handmade paper. However, we’ve since removed St-Armand papers from our paper list simply because of the level of difficulty in trimming handmade papers. Most handmade papers do not have machine-cut edges, meaning the sheets are all different sizes and this makes trimming difficult. Also the rough surface quality of the St-Armand paper meant that it had to be dampened before printing to ensure that the solid areas of colour printed well. Merrill and Peter’s invitation looked fantastic, but all in all it was too much trouble to trim and print for us to continue using St-Armand papers for letterpress jobs with large quantities.
We’re so thrilled to have the chance to be working with more local clients lately. This custom invitation comes courtesy of a lovely couple living in North Bay, Claire and Robert. They came to visit us with the idea of having the chapel where they were going to be wed featured on the invitation. They also loved our Hivernale invitation and so wanted some of the elements of that invitation incorporated into theirs.
Chantal gave three sketches (below) each of which featured a different aspect of the chapel.
Initial sketches for Claire and Rob's invitation
Claire and Robert chose the 3rd sketch, which features an illustration of the chapel and a lovely decorative border, printed in light grey ink with the text in fuschia. The result is a lovely, soft invitation with matching envelope. Thanks for being such fanstastic clients, Claire and Rob!
Printed on Crane Lettra, 300 gsm, pearl white in light grey and fuschia. 6.5×6.5″.
Final letterpress invitation for Claire & Robert
Yes, we were finally discovered in our hometown! The National Post discovered us first but hey, who’s keeping track 😉 This article appeared in the Sudbury Star and, although a fine article, features one of the most unflattering photos of Chantal ever taken (she’s writing this wondering where her chin went).
Could this mean we finally get a Sudbury client? Not yet, but you never know!
Read the article online or click the photo below.
Papillon Press in the Sudbury Star
We feel very privileged to have 2 of our Christmas cards featured in The Weekend Post this past Saturday.
Festive Reindeer and Aurora Borealis were featured in this fantastic full page spread alongside some of the finest handmade greeting cards around.
We love the tagline:
“Holiday cards they won’t discard. This season, if you care enough to write, send the very best”.
You can’t ask for better than that!
Festive Reindeer and Aurora Borealis in The Weekend Post
What do you have to do to have an article written about you in a national newspaper?
Design a Twilight wedding invitation!
We’re lucky to have been found by Nathalie Atkinson, style editor at The National Post, as she came across first our Troublemakers boxed set in person at Kid Icarus and then our Twilight invitation in our Etsy shop.
The article is fantastic! It’s amazing how a writer can take a 20-minute phone conversation and organize it into a concise piece of writing. I guess we are no longer closet Twilight fans!
You can read the online version here. And of course, buy the invitation!
Papillon Press in The National Post
Papillon Press was honoured locally this week by being the recipient of Sudbury’s first ever design award: the Good Design award. A ceremony was held at City Hall and we got to shake the mayoress’ hand. “The Good Design Award honours annual achievements and/or commitment to the practice of professional graphic design, with emphasis on quality design of the highest form, function, and aesthetic—a standard beyond ordinary or typical.”*
We were told we would have the chance to say a few words, so I wrote down a little speech. Unfortunately the mayoress was not aware of this and so we weren’t given the chance to say anything. But I thought I’d publish my speech anyway:
We would like to thank the Sudbury Design Society, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund and also our families for all the support they’ve given us over the years. We are very grateful for this award, thank you.
Joel and I made the decision long ago to make our livings being illustrators, he with editorial and I with letterpress, and while it’s not always easy it is ultimately the most rewarding for us.
Art and design in a society are 2 very important things that ensure a culturally vibrant place to live. On a municipal level, it is what makes a city a great city and a destination for others to visit. It’s important for people in creative industries to be surrounded by other individuals also in creative industries and we hope the creation of this award will highlight the importance of art and design in this city and encourage younger generations to stay and pursue their creative ambitions in Sudbury.
We’re glad that there is now an award in Sudbury that celebrates the importance of art and design. Once again, thank you. We are grateful for the recognition.
Good Design Award recipients. From left: Peter Zwarich of the River and Sky music festival, Mayor Matichuk, Chantal and Joel, Ron Beltrame and Mark McAllister of the SDS
From the Sudbury Star
*taken from the Sudbury Design Society
Here a couple calling cards we printed for our $150 for 300 deal. In this deal you get to choose one of our calling card templates, choose a colour from our palette, plug in your info and voilà! A calling card all to yourself.
Our Twitter contest winner Vanessa choose this template and customized the colour to blue:
Calling card template #5
Vanessa's calling card
Melanie, another Ottawa-area photographer, choose to have this template printed in gunmetal grey:
Calling card template #4
We’re happy to have our first bilingual (français, english) invitation under our belt! This is a custom invitation we designed for Sarah and Charles, a fun bilingual couple. The one-colour modern design is complemented by a fun envelope liner with a custom monogram.
Printed on 300 gsm Lettra in ecru, 6.5×6.5″. Liner printed digitally.
Merci Sarah et Charles!
We receive quite a few requests to have photos printed on our letterpress. Oftentimes people want their photos featured on cards without having to insert a photo into a frame card.
Most letterpress printers do not offer digital printing services (including us) therefore we won’t print a full-colour photo on a letterpress-printed card. However we do offer an option: convert the photo to a halftone.
Converting to a halftone simply means converting the image to a series of tiny dots, which we can then incorporate into the artwork for the rest of your card and print it all on our letterpress.
Here is a quick example of a digital photo of Joel and Chantal* converted to a halftone (85 lpi):
Original photo
Photo converted to a halftone at 85 lpi
Halftone image with a colour overlay
So while we don’t offer digital printing, we can still incorporate photos on a letterpress card in a way that doesn’t compromise the aesthetic of the card.
And for something completely different, Joel and Chantal can illustrate your portraits using your photo as reference.
*Joel is very photogenic while Chantal always makes stupid face in photos
Buy cards here
Papillon Press 