Business cardology 2010 à la NSS: Feel the letterpress love

Lots of letterpress, natch: on square cards with square corners, square cards with round corners, square coasters that invite you to taste letterpress sweetness. Round cards that you can play with: make the blackbird fly; dial your letterpress fortune.

Look how handsome these two two-sided cards are together: Czar Press and Boxcar Press. By the way, Nic at Boxcar has just published a great interview with the founders of the Ladies of Letterpress, Kseniya Thomas and Jessica White.

Several of the Ladies shared a double booth at the Stationery Show, and three of them had two-sided cards (directly above). The motto Letterpress triumphant sums up the energy in the booth. I think the Flywheel Press card is a petite confection of perfection. Love the name Hazel & Violet Ink — if I were capable of writing with a fountain pen, these would be my colors. The other Ladies had single-sided cards (directly below).

We boldly corralled all the Ladies, in their official tee-shirts and pearls, for a photo, momentarily displacing umpteen shoppers. We think it’s dandy, no lyin’. (Pun: Dandy Lion Press is the letterpress shop of Maia de Raat, in the red sweater.)

You could well wonder why the trio of cards below is sharing  a photo, as they appear to be a study in contrasts. The g-for-gorgeous letterpress-printed card from Gilah Press has its own luscious little envelope. (“The Gilah g itself almost bowls me over,” she thinks, descending into low pun gear.) The Letterpress Things “card” is light on heft and long on fact, which is to say, super-simply printed and highly informative. Letterpress Things was not exhibiting at the show — I happened to be visiting the Let {her} Press booth when John Barrett was there. (I also like the g in “Letterpress Things.”) And the Bananagrams card, though it has nothing to do with letterpress, is all about letters — they just happen to be plastic rather than lead or polymer. I arrived at the booth too late to get an official pen, but I did get a bright yellow shopping bag. And an opportunity to chat with Sandi Nathanson, who designed the pouch. (Abraham Nathanson, who invented the game, died earlier this month. Big obit in the NY Times.) I hope I’ve made my point — that these three cards, stylistically diverse as they are, all do a superb job of putting their owners’ personalities on paper.

And littlest but not least: This snippet, or perhaps snippette, from Bellamuse, barely bigger than a fortune. (Sorry I didn’t think to put a standard-sized business card next to the Bellamuse one for comparison!) I love the sentiment, and I love that these cards ran on the edge on a press sheet — which is its own luxury!

Alyson Kuhn also gave out many of her business cards at the Show, an average of 2.3 cards per person. If you haven’t seen them for yourself, this might be a perf opportunity.