A design + analog printing studio in Los Angeles

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design + letterpress printing in Los Angeles, California

Satsuki Shibuya's business cards

We've slowed down on business cards in the studio lately, but recently we helped create some unique business cards that we can't help but share. Aiming for business cards that felt like an extension of herself, watercolor artist Satsuki Shibuya came to the studio looking for a solution to combine her artisty in her business cards.

We first thought of maybe painting on each card but that's too painstakingly time consuming. We also wanted to be mindful of the function of the card being careful to not obstruct contact information. The solution was to letterpress print her contact info and have the backside with her watercolor. A blind deboss of her name was the perfect mark with her watercolor.

We came up with the solution of creating large sheets of her watercolor and then cutting it down for letterpress printing. 

A large sheet of her watercolor before cutting

A large sheet of her watercolor before cutting

cut to smaller sheets

cut to smaller sheets

We mounted sheets of the watercolor painted sheets with GMUND's cotton stock in 111# and blind debossed on the watercolor side and letterpressed in black ink her information. The best part was yet to come. As we trimmed the card, each card created a special vignette of her watercolor. No two cards are completely alike and each one, in the end, was hand painted by Satsuki. These are worth framing!!