Variable Data Printing That Won't Fail

It’s been days since the biggest mix-up in Academy Awards history, yet discourse over the upset/victory abounds online and around mythic watercoolers everywhere. Who should have won: Moonlight (yes) or Lala Land? Should LaLa Land have been allowed to keep that trophy? How could this have happened? Was it really an accident, or a carefully planned stunt? 

The Washington Post of all places has delivered a thorough blow-by-blow, explaining just how the legendary presenters ended up with a duplicate envelope for the Best Actress Award—bestowed upon a singing/dancing die-cut cardboard cutout known as Emma Stone just moments before—instead of the custom stationery for Best Picture. After a confident teleprompter read, Transphobic Father and Academy Winner Warren Beatty opened the envelope and paused. This is where his superior co-presenter, HRH Faye Dunaway, mistook his hesitation for a bit of humor and kept the show going, taking the envelope and announcing the “winner” with an overall sense of droll fearlessness we haven’t seen since Elizabeth Taylor croaked “Glaaaaadiatorrrr” ahead of the other nominees at the 2001 Golden Globes.  

As the LaLa Land creatives took the stage and gushed through their speeches, an official Academy Awards accountant in charge of the envelopes took the stage to correct the error. In a dizzying carousel of gratitude and awe, the talent behind Moonlight took the stage, the trophies, and our hearts. 

Spectacle and pageantry aside, our pressmen and presswomen were quick to clock the debacle as a Variable Data Printing mishap! Variable Data printing is a maximum-efficiency staple of digital printing. Cutting print costs to a wildly low rate, it allows for personal, targeted printing–changing certain textual & design elements again and again in a single print run. In other words: no need for endless sets of copper printing plates, each specifically acid-etched with a different name for every recipient. 

Need last minute Event Invitations? Custom Protest Postcards to send to senators all over the US? Garment Hanging Tags with assorted SKUs and prices? Our NYC Print Shop has you covered for crisp, clean, failure-free Variable Data Printing. 

Now, to conclude matters, it appears–as explained by the WaPost and Academy Officials–two sets of envelopes are printed with the winners’ names. The order of one of the sets was either shuffled to spectacular disorder, or there was a cataclysmic error in the Variable Data Programing. Whatever the cause, we’ll be hearing about this pleasant debacle as long as the Oscars exist.

To settle the dispute over Moonlight vs LaLa Land: we say F it. The true accolades clearly belong to Faye’s Always-A-List hands, ever reminiscent of the beautifully haggard High-Renaissance Mary Magdalene carved by Donatello. Dime!

Call our NYC Print Shop today and let us know your stance!

(Yay Moonlight!)

Peek: Christie's Old Master Prints, Fresher Than Ever

Anonymous, Fifteenth Century, The Pietà, Woodcut, circa 1450, printed in black, with extensive early hand-colouring in red lake, light brown, yellow, green, flesh pink and rose pink. Watermark Trumpet.

COLOR US THRILLED–or perfectly registered–to find this extensive and informative guide to the Old Master Prints housed at the distinguished Christie’s Auction House. The collection traces the foundation and eventual mastery of western printing: from medieval woodblock imagery to elaborate 19th century engravings.

Marcantonio Raimondi After Michelangelo Buonarotti And Lucas Van Leyden, The Climbers, Engraving, 1510, on laid paper. Watermark Small Cardinal’s Hat.

The art of print has its true beginnings in China, at least 1,000 years ahead of the European tradition. The west “invented” printing with the production of patterned textiles in the 14th century. Wooden blocks carved out with decorative patterns and painted over with ink were used to transfer images over and over on swaths of fabric, most likely as a facsimile of the more complex embroidered imagery found in fine tapestries.

Around this time, production of vellum, cloth, and paper were developing in unison with the woodblock stamps. The opportunity for creating and spreading imagery was ripe and ready, to say the least. These advances in trade and art brought master prints to light and the Dark Ages to a definitive close.

Francisco De Goya y Lucientes, “Quien lo Creyera!” (pl. 62) from Los Caprichos, etching and aquatint, circa 1797-99. Without Watermark.

As the public demand for printed imagery grew, so did the techniques for more complex renderings of pictures, and methods more durable. Engraving would soon emerge by chance from the workshops of goldsmiths and silversmiths. Christie’s theorizes that shopkeeps would keep record of their decorative metalworks by rubbing the surfaces with ink or charcoal. Within a few generations, many metalworking families would evolve into master engravers, carving elaborate linework into metal plates that could print the same intricate images over and over. With these developments, the broader imagery of woodcut printing would become passé, and the resilience of metal plates would eventually retire the easily-chipped wooden blocks. These advancements in achieving master prints would pave the way for books to become more colorful (and popular), while taverns would bustle under the invention of mass printed playing cards.

Lucas Van Leyden, The Dance of Mary Magdalene, Engraving, 1519, on laid paper. Without watermark.

The mastery of engravings served to spawn further techniques, closer to our printing methods in practice today. Aquatints, etchings implement the same intaglio (incised, or carved in) approach as Engraving, only substituting acid for carving tools. With each evolution, the process of creating, producing, and printing an image became more seamless and accessible.

From Bottom Left:
Blue Offset Branding Booklet on Vellum, Red Offset Custom Stationery, Gold Metallic Offset Black Business Card, Offset Business Card, Full Color PostCard (medallions), Foil Stamp Engraved Print on Black Paper, Full Color Portrait Postcard.

TODAY, digital reigns as the standard printing process. But just as contemporary demands for artisanal foods and handmade goods suggest the value of craftsmanship over impersonal mass-production, Offset printing and Letterpress printing offer peak quality with a sense of human care and attention.

At our NYC Print Shop, we uphold the tradition of master printing by utilizing the sharp tools of today to improve upon the fine techniques of yesterday. Offset printing brings your imagery, logos, design, or type to life by a careful balance of ink-attracting-and-opposing chemicals. Where a woodblock would be carved out, or an engraving carved in, an Offset print is made with an acid photo emulsion onto a plate. Waxes and oils are used to block out the areas of the design suited for color. From there, the plate is rolled over with ink and transferred to a rubber blanket and then the final printing surface. The results are a finely textured print with flawless registration, and turnarounds to rival digital.

Check out our in-depth services for Letterpress Printing & Offset Printing and call our Midtown Manhattan Print Shop for your next masterful project.

Shop Stars: Adorned

Lori Leven’s bi-coastal, multishop empire has consistently provided the means for New Yorkers to create a fashionable spectacle of themselves for at least two decades. Her East Village tattoo shop, New York Adorned, has stood longer than New York State’s sanctions for inking. In the wake of such success and credibility, Leven opened Love Adorned: your one stop-shop for impeccably wrought jewelry & unique home goods. At either location, one can get pierced/tattooed by the finest in the business, with the purest of materials.

We are proud to say their unparalleled standard of quality extends to the eco-friendly letterpress business cards they commissioned from our NYC Print Shop.

Spec It Out 

 

First, they selected environmentally conscious Kraft paper as the foundation for their custom business cards. For recycled paper that’s as durable as it is eco-friendly, textured Kraft paper offers a vintage look & homespun feel with a pulpy, hand-crafted aesthetic. We relish a sustainably minded choice, and highly recommend other business owners take this approach to their printed materials.

If the OG papyrus vibe fails to resonate, a duplex finish will eradicate all visible traces of your earth-first decision. (Duplexing is the process of gluing another piece of paper-stock to the card: for prestigious thickness, or a custom finished facade).
 

For the New York Adorned card’s front-facing side, they selected a vellum cover, CMYK Pantone color matched to the signature scarlet of their shop walls.

They made a similar choice for the Love Adorned calling card, evoking classic New York and stainless steel with a smooth pewter cover.

As for the identifying brand imagery, the NY Adorned card features their streamlined, sparkling diamond logo–in clean black letterpress, suggesting the permanent fine lines of their own ink work.

For Love Adorned, they opted for a double pressing of a resounding white foil stamp, lending the typography & design a luminous effect. (Shop tip: white ink printing is more fabulous than it is possible. Thermographic UV spot gloss and/or foil stamping will offer astounding amounts of readability, style, and staying power the average lot of white ink simply cannot provide.)

Has looking permanently incredible ever been so easy? At Adorned, at Publicide: you’re in the right hands.

Shelved: Book Comercial Printing that sells Itself

Typography and Illustration in full force, on Display at MoMa. By Vasili Kamenskii.

Full Color, Typography, Repurposed Books: Oh My.

We truly love a great Book. We’re obsessed with these printed treasures on display right now at MoMa’s exhibition Revolutionary Impulse: Rise of the Russian Avant Garde. The stunning show hosts a great number of Modern works spanning scores of years & mediums heretofore unseen in one cohesive collection. Each stunning piece displays the strength and ingenuity of a progressive class of artists using their voice & vision against decades of limitations. These beautifully repurposed, handcrafted letterpress books are presented with an array of print work, sculpture, painting, and film through March 12th.

Hardcover Book Sleeve, White Foil Stamp

Full Color Custom Hardcover Book, Raised Ink bookmark

A few avenues west of MoMa, our NYC Print Shop is proud to stock our print sample shelves with an immersive volume from Rubinstein Partners. Bursting with as much custom character as the 20th Century masterpieces at MoMA, this fully illustrated real estate book is a fabulous example of how far custom touches will go in your commercial printing. The book is packed with full color CMYK imagery and typography, showing every corner of Williamsburg in its brightest light.

Full Color CMYK book printing

Interactive element: Fold out map and die cut folder pocket

For maximum success, attention-grabbing details are key: the book hosts a number of interactive design features to snag the reader and ensure a devoted customer. Informative and stylish custom specs include: offset printed maps, sleek & sturdy pocket folders pantone color-matched to brand-specific hues, raised ink bookmarks & buckslips, and on. This fresh tome is finished off with custom red thread binding and a white UV gloss foil stamped hardcover slipcase. The book simply demands to be flipped through- if not read cover to cover. Whether you’re in store for lookbooks, cookbooks, press kits, vanity printing, or a unique gift, Publicide’s custom book printing and binding is sure to have you turning page after page.

Stacked! Custom Hardcover Books & Die Cut Slipcases

Ensemble Cast: Publicide and Sally Lapointe Gear Up for NYFW

The frenetic pace of our in-house printing schedule is not unlike the exciting bustle of design studios anticipating New York Fashion Week. The New York Times recently profiled downtown fashion designer Sally Lapointe, giving readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of her impending collection's fittings. Behind every designer lies a letterpress and print company dependable enough to produce business cards, letterhead, invitations and presentation folders to be handed out at moment's notice.

At Publicide we specialize in transcribing the shifting moods and influences of our neighboring New York fashion luminaries into sumptuous and gratifying print materials. Our expertise in printing CMYK lookbooks is exemplified in the lifelike atmospheric and runway photos of Lapointe's Spring 2012 collection, printed on sleek semi-gloss ultrawhite cover stock as seen below.

Black letterpress on solar white duplexed thick business cards hold court with atmospheric full-color lookbook

Tactility is crucial to the realms of fashion and printing. Smooth, semi-coated stock makes a perfect canvas for vast swathes of full-color CMYK printing. Business cards and letterhead on eggshell, uncoated stock lend themselves beautifully to gently-kissed letterpress. We yield to ingenious multi-fold layouts, too: Lapointe's look book opens initially to brooding, in-profile scene-setting runway images, and when opened further reveals the entirety of her stunning collection in frontal view. 

21st Sentry Fox: An entrancing sylph in Sally Lapointe stands guard over the designer's custom letterpress stationery

Naturally, we can't divulge the Spring 2014 runway collection, but rest assured that Publicide is hard at work printing and lettepressing her newest print creations.

Playing Games with Foil

When preeminent online gaming impresarios High 5 Games needed new business cards—a special set made expressly for their Chinese team—they had two objectives: The cards needed to be as eye-catching as the fantastical imagery of their games. And they called for a palette of red and gold—colors that symbolize good luck and wealth in China.

From their cool metallic glyph logo to their bevel-and-emboss game signage to the points of light glinting off the innumerable precious metal elements and fantasy scenarios in their gamescapes, High 5 Games' branding calls for the shine and depth only foil stamping can provide in identity printing.

So many eye-popping gold gradients and glowing jewels;

so much dazzling digital gold leaf. 

The best way to translate 3D metallics and gradients from the digital realm to an IRL product is to print with a metallic foil stamp. Rather than printing out a full-color facsimile of a computer-designed gradient—which can look a little unconvincing—printing with a foil stamp provides an interactive element that brings the "hardware"to life. As you turn the card back and forth and see light hitting the foil from different angles, the gradient and the shine springs alive, glinting off the opaque metallic material heat-stamped into the paper. 

In addition to its shine and dimension, foil stamping's natural debossed quality also contributes to 3D effects on a business card. When you run your fingers over a foil stamp, you can feel how the foil actually pressed down into the paper—and since it's an opaque, separate material that sits on top of the paper rather than an ink that absorbs, it has a texture that feels precious, substantial and unlike any other printing technique. (Foil stamping can be combined with embossing for an extra raised and shiny effect, of course, but it stands on its own to luxurious effect.)

For this run of cards, the High 5 design team chose to pair their gold foil stamping with brilliant red Touché paper, a specialty matte stock with a suedelike finish that works stunningly with foil. It comes in a few extra-thick versions and can also be duplexed to any weight, as seen here in this double-thick duplexed incarnation for High 5. 

Well played, High5—this thick slab of velvety texture with luxury gold stamping is sure to turn heads in any country. 

Project Gravitas Launch

Congratulations to Project Gravitas on last week's launch! To mark their official debut, Manhattan's newest purveyors of the perfect LBD transformed the Site / 109 Gallery with an exhibition illuminating the process of crafting their made-in-NYC dresses. 

With an ironclad concept and a beautiful website in place, all Project Gravitas needed was custom business suite printing to complete their identity launch. They tapped Publicide to translate their designs to print with a personalized corporate branding kit, including these crisp 2-color letterpress business cards. 

We love helping translate passionate ideas to print, and we get a special thrill from working with startups, local businesses and NYC manufacturers like Project Gravitas. Nothing beats a fresh letterpress calling card for making a startup feel official!