Printing Holiday Cards on Our Letterpress

by noelhenneman | Nov 28, 2012 | Broadside, Culture

This year’s HB Design Holiday gift has an extra special hand-made touch. We printed holiday cards on our new in-office letterpress. “New” being a relative term. The cards were printed on a Vandercook Proof Press circa 1936. Check out a few shots from the process.

Setting up the plate

Laying out the plate

Anita - Setting up the plate

Setting up the plate

Kristi - Mixing the ink

Mixing the ink

Matching a color chip

Matching a color chip

Checking plate alignment

Checking plate alignment

Still checking plate alignment

Still checking alignment

Making adjustments

Making adjustments

And more adjustments...

And more adjustments…

Applying the ink for the first test runs

Applying the ink

Spreading the ink on the rollers

Inking the rollers

Checking the ink coverage on the plate

Checking ink coverage

First one off the press

First one off the press

Cranking them out

Cranking them out