It may be that, over the years, I have lost all perspective on what is good design. Perhaps I am just running on the joy that I experience standing at the press every day putting ink onto paper.
Then again it could be that this business card, designed by Leslie Plesser, is just a beautifully thought out piece.
In this simple, but stunning card, a well proportioned use of white space lays the solid foundation for a soaring asimetric architecture of airy typography and classic ornamentation.
Is it a serious work? Or maybe just a lark.
AIGA Minnesota is a group consisting of consummate professionals who are very clear about what they like and what they don’t like. So when I was approached about printing the business cards for their Board of Directors, I knew that I needed to be on top of my game.
This project was an enjoyable trip to take.
When Gutenberg was working on perfecting his printing process in the 1450s the major source of power was water (well, that and draft animals). In mills across the world water power was used for, among other things, the grinding of grain and the beating of pulp for the making of paper. In 2010 French Paper is still using a water powered mill to create perfection in the form of their delicious whip cream 140 pound cover stock.
In the 1920s and 1930s there was a movement which, in retrospect, has been called the Harlem Renaissance. Having its origin in the Harlem neighborhood in New York City the movement has had far reaching effects.
As the elevated rumbles by overhead I step into the shade of the rail structure, its steel lattice flaking rust and decades of grey-green paint, and then down a half a story into the flower shop. A bell over the door sparkles audibly and welcomes me in.
Ok, usually I try to discourage people from including in their designs flood prints or large coverages of ink.
Here is a piece that I printed back in about 1898 after first carting our new Chandler and Price platen press up the hill to the print shop from the railway station. The color palate was all the rage that year and the cut was an electrotype block which I purchased from Messrs. Badoureau and Jones of Fleet Street in London.