Friday, May 2, 2008

Friday Eye Candy

I love visiting my friend Dianne at Crane. There's always something interesting to chat about, and Dianne shares my enthusiasm for both history and design. Dianne works in Crane's Business Papers division, so she gets to see great stuff printed on Crane papers. And she is very kind to save things for me, especially since I've got this Friday Eye Candy thing to do every week.

Earlier this week, she showed me a really beautiful piece of letterpress printing by Foils & Dies/Vintage Pressworks in Denver, promoting the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) conference in 2007.
The design and its letterpress execution on Crane's Lettra are extraordinary, beginning at the bottom of the piece with flowers melding into the Denver skyline, then the imposing Rockies with massive snowflakes descending.

But as the eye ascends to the snowy peaks, their outline against the western sky is further defined by a pair of threads, perfectly stitched into the paper, adding a delightful texture both for the eye and the hand.

As I note in my blog profile: I make pulp, I make paper and I marvel at what the creative spirit can accomplish with such humble materials. This is a great example.

And by the way, the model I asked you all to identify in an earlier post? Martha Stewart! Thanks for all the guesses - both right and wrong - and I'll be drawing the names of our winners this weekend.

2 comments:

  1. I have also seen this piece and think it is extraordinary. In the small design circles in Denver it was noted that Maura Schmidt from The Paper Guppy did the graphic design for the piece. You can see her signature in the lower left corner. Very well done and a great example of how to spice up your paper creations. I love the stitching at the top and the letterpress printing is very, very well done.

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  2. I enjoyed reading through your blog entries. Heh I would of never guessed that was Martha but now that you point it out do see the similarities.

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