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The Beautiful Art Form of Letterpress Printing

Oh, thank you, Johannes Gutenberg, for letterpress printing!

Oh, thank you Johannes Gutenberg for letterpress printing!

Though I might be called a hipster, I am in love with this beautiful art form.

Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing using a type-high bed printing press and movable type, where a reversed and raised surface is inked and then pressed into the paper which creates an impression.

Most commonly, wedding invitations are printed using this process, but nowadays it is not uncommon to see businesses cards, posters, and greeting cards printed using a letterpress machine.

The Utley Brothers is an excellent Michigan company that uses letterpress to create beautiful pieces of work for their clients. They have a great Made-In-Detroit story which includes the brothers redesigning the business cards of their local car dealers and received 300 orders in just one year alone using their letterpress machine.

Have you worked with letterpress printing? What do you need to consider when using this technique? What do you like most about it? Let us know in the comments below!

Did you know?

If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva (the newly hatched baby insects) and feeding it a special food called "royal jelly". This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen.