20 Outstanding Letterpress Business Cards
The letterpress business cards featured in this post are a great example of how effective letterpress business cards can reflect you or your company. The stylish and elegant look of letterpress printing combined with the luxurious quality of the paper used will surely make your business card and yourself stand out from the rest. Letterpress is traditionally used for printing old-school stationery and wedding invitations. However, it is lately finding its way into other personal printed assets such as business cards, often combining traditional and modern graphic elements.
(For those who are not familiar with letterpress printing…) Letterpress printing is actually a technique in which a plate containing all the graphics and text elements of a design is physically cut, then mounted into a big mechanical contraption and then rammed into thick soft stock or paper, leaving not just ink, but depth on the card’s surface.
But because somebody has pointed out that my own non-technical simplified definition of letterpress is not accurate, here’s a more politically correct way of describing how a letterpress printing works. According to Wiki, letterpress is a term for the relief printing of text and image using a press with a “type-high bed” printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. It was the normal form of printing text in the West from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century, and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. In addition to the direct impression of inked movable type onto paper or another receptive surface, the term letterpress can also refer to the direct impression of inked printmaking blocks such as photo-etched zinc “cuts” (plates), linoleum blocks, wood engravings, etc., using such a press.
In the 21st century, commercial letterpress has been revived by the use of ‘water-wash’ photopolymer plates which are adhered to a near-type-high base to produce a relief printing surface typically from digitally-rendered art and typography.
If done right, it can look absolutely gorgeous. However, the hipness and respect that you can get from owning a letterpress also come with a price (at a dollar per card or more). So if you are frequently handing out a lot of cards, then you would be thinking twice before getting a letterpress business card.
If you happen to like this post, we recommend that you also check out some of our related posts about business card designs:
- 40 Best Business Cards from Around the Web
- 35 Inspiring Typographic Business Card Designs
- Business Card Designs that are Simple Yet Elegant
- Free business card template designs you can edit and print
- Free Business Card Templates You Can Use to Design Your Own Cards
20 LETTERPRESS BUSINESS CARDS
Letterpress Business Card 05
Thanks for posting our some of our press work. Could you please contact us right away regarding this post, we need to request an edit. Thanks.
Ah, Letterpress… can’t seem to get enough of it. I love it. The cards the beautiful and some have exploited the Letterpress effect very judiciously. I’m eyeing Caroline Myers’ card with much envy. Thanks for the lovely collection.
Nice cards. I also recommend http://www.cardonizer.com for inspiration.
Lovely examples!
I will confess, though, that I’ve never understood why someone would print business cards and include a yahoo.com or gmail.com email address. Especially if they have a website, or should have one.
Sorry…it’s just a pet peeve.
@Jacqui -
Well, Maybe convenience and accessibility are the main reasons why people prefer to receive emails via yahoo or gmail. It’s also a permanent thing. Like for example, if you’re working for a company, you are not likely to take the email address you have with that company once you leave. Same with your email address that’s attached to your dot-com website. What if you decide to give up your domain or sell it? Thanks for the comments, anyway. It’s very much appreciated.
Please please please fix your description of letterpress printing. The design is not “cut out”, nor should you describe such an elegant machine as a “metal contraption” or printing as “ramming” paper into the plate.
@Murray -
I already revised my description. I hope that makes you feel better. Thanks for pointing it out. I am not an expert in letterpress printing.
Thanks very much for including some of our work in your selection!
Your posts just keep on getting better and better
@PLR eBooks -
Thank you very much!
[...] Before you have your card produced, put some extra thought into it. Think about elements like: fonts, paper weight, colors, maybe a photo, card size & shape…these criteria are ways you can [...]
sch?ne und einzigartige wordpress templates.
Nice work indeed!
Please take a look at our letterpress site at http://slowprint.com!
Thanks!
peter
This is a great entry. I’ve in most cases been a supporter of this kind of thinking. I’m hoping that this starts a revival of this kind of thinking along the same lines.
Great examples. The question I always have after reading these business card posts is… where in the world can you get stuff like this done? If the examples had more details next to them such as the vendor and approximate cost, that would be great. I looked at slowprint but also want more options. thx