Getting oohs, aahs & OMGs with laser cutting

[Carrie Hamilton] This holiday season, I stumbled across a special process with all the impact of die cutting, and as luscious as letterpress: laser cutting. The paper I chose was equally luscious: Strathmore Vellum Cover Bristol.

The theme for my studio’s holiday cards is usually the date of the coming year. It’s culturally inclusive, and because it consists of a maximum of four characters, it allows me to explore a wide range of typographic solutions. 2010 in roman numerals translates to MMX, a configuration of characters so sexy, it practically designs itself.

While jotting down the phrase on my to-do list, “MMX for XMAS,” I noted that the MX could be cut out of a surface and made to read as XM when flipped over, thus creating a dual-purpose greeting. The idea seemed straightforward enough, but the execution was a mystery. I couldn’t justify the expense of die cutting for a self-promotional piece with such a limited life.

With the guidance and expertise of Joe McGrath at Prototope, a laser cutting and fabrication studio in New York City, I discovered that laser cutting is a more flexible medium than die cutting, in that it requires no startup preparation. A computer, working from a vector drawing, directs a high-powered laser at a surface to be cut. The precision of the laser beam (kerf) can create cuts of vastly greater intricacy than die cutting is capable of.

The intensity of the laser can be adjusted to allow for etching — that is, when the laser cuts into the surface of the paper but does not penetrate all the way through — or engraving, when the laser passes back and forth over the material to render a solid form. Best of all, laser cutting is priced according to the time it takes for the laser to cut the design into the paper, and some laser cutting services require no minimum order. It’s an ideal medium when you want to produce something truly special in a short run.

The final effect of the design — laser cut, engraved and etched into Strathmore Bristol Vellum — was so tactile and delicate that I almost couldn’t bear to write on it. It also generated many oohs, aahs and OMGs from those who received it.

Carrie Hamilton is sole proprietor of Kismet, a design studio in New York City, and an instructor at Parsons The New School For Design. She also creates droll tote bags. Photos by Joe McGrath.