Author: Travis Friedrich
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Tonal Letterpress Bonanza!
Tonal letterpress! Think of it as the sophisticated cousin to blind letterpress. Rather than use no ink at all, with a tonal letterpress impression we ink the plate with a little bit of color — usually a mix of transparent white ink plus a dab of the paper color. Sometimes it’s barely noticeable (see the…
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Botanical Green & Gold Wedding Invites
We worked closely with Samantha and Devon to come up with this invitation design for their New York Botanical Garden wedding. The color scheme and primary typeface are nice and bold, but the tonal letterpress details are super delicate. We printed on thick custom duplexed Colorplan stock so that it would hold up nicely to…
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20 Years of Parklife Press
I almost missed the anniversary! It was September 28, 2005 when I was 25 years old that I bought a 5×8 Kelsey tabletop press, having zero training or experience with letterpress. And it was just six weeks later on November 14 that I was apparently confident enough in my abilities to go ahead and claim…
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10 Years of Letterpress Halloween Cards
In 2025 we’re celebrating 20 years of Parklife Press and 10 years of letterpress Halloween cards! This year’s design is an homage to the original card that started the tradition back in 2015, but this time with an even longer (!!) lamp cord. FRONT: Black, Opaque White, and Pantone 1655U letterpress on 270g Colorplan MistBACK:…
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September in New York
Oversized letterpress wedding invitations for Kiera and Patrick’s fall wedding in NYC. We pressed tined white and black inks on thick 600g Lettra paper. Blind letterpress is an option here too, but the tint really helps the detail pop on the paper.
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White Foil Duplexed Business Cards for Skornicka
Beautifully designed business cards by Sophia Studio. Honored to help execute the vision with white foil on Colorplan Stone paper for the front, off-black letterpress ink on Fluorescent White Lettra paper for the back. White foil on colored paper is such a great choice when you want reversed text. Opaque white letterpress ink doesn’t tend…
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Letterpress Wine Labels for Pasxa
This is one of the most ambitious projects we’ve ever taken on. In 2020, Pasxa Wines in Walla Wall asked us to produce labels for their first vintage for about 5000 bottles. Since then we’ve worked with them each year as their production has more than doubled and this past December we finished work on…
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Business Cards for Silvergrin and Sespe Creek Distilleries
The first of two business cards we printed for clients of the incomparable designer Chad Makerson Micheal. This one’s kinda nuts: A duplexed card with three letterpress inks plus sliver foil on the front, three letterpress inks on the back, glued and die-cut. Super tight registration on the inks and foil all around. PAPER Duplexed…
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Parklife Press Swatch Books!
At long last! We created a beautiful and compact swatch book showcasing all the ways we can bring your projects to life. The pack includes a 20-page booklet full of our cotton, Colorplan, Gmund, and museum board stocks with a range of print processes and finishing techniques, all smartly bound with a (removable) Chicago post.…