In Edwin Abbot’s 1884 novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, a story is told of characters who live in only one or two dimensions. The three dimensional world that we live in is, for them, almost impossible to imagine.

Most Graphic design for print is conceived of in a flatlander’s world. Side to side, up and down but no back and forth.

When designing for the letterpress printing process one must cast off the restrictive thinking of two dimensional existence and embrace the third dimension. The impression, which is one of the endearing qualities of relief printing is the third dimension.

The piece shown here is a nice example of three dimensional graphic design.

Printed on (into?) a sheet of 190 pound blotter paper, the first and lightest impression is of crosses inked with a transparent ink. The second, deeper impression, is of a separate group of crosses blind stamped into the paper (which is to say that they have been printed with no ink, just impression). The third impression, the type,  presses even deeper into the paper. Finally, there is a single cross which is die cut out so that it passes completely through the paper. 

Abbot’s flatlanders would be horrified.

Luckily there are graphic designers who are able to think beyond the surface and take their designs to a deeper level.

It used to be that one would go visiting and leave behind an indication of having called. This was the calling card.

Usually it was imprinted with just a name and perhaps the name of the club that one was a member of. If the person you were visiting was not at home when you called, then the calling card was left on a silver tray for them to take up upon their return.

The position of the card’s placement on the tray, and the bending over of one or another of the card’s corners, held deeper meanings.

These days, the modern business card is printed with a persons name and title, the name, address and logo of their business, their telephone and fax numbers, email addresses, twitter addresses, and facebook and linkedin information. Whew.

In practice, there is so much information contained on a modern business card that it is a wonder that they have remained  2 by 3.5 inches in size and have not ballooned to the size of greeting cards.

The custom business card shown here is understated in its simplicity. Printed in one color, it has an abundance of white space which shows off the letterpress impression nicely and lends a calm and professional air to the image of this company.

Now where did I put my silver calling card tray?