Getting Carded

As things get rolling with my design work (click "Studio" above), it's become clear that I am in desperate need of some new updated business cards. I was spinning my wheels trying to figure out how getting these cards was going to fit into the consumer project, when I came across Virgil O. Stamps, a local letterpress printing company that is all about customization and unique products. With some snooping, I was able to meet up with his collaborator, designer Sarah Coffman of minus-five. Turns out that Sarah lives in my neighborhood!

We met up for coffee one afternoon about a week or so ago and she told be about moving from Texas to New York and bouncing from job to job before hooking up with the Virgil project. A few days later she took me out to the studio in New Jersey, a virtual wonderland for a designer as it's strewn about with metal type alphabets, ancient-looking letterpress machines, type samples and specimens, developing negatives clothespinned up, and cartons of chipboard and printed projects ready to go out. She walked me through the whole process of exposing designs onto film to make the negative, then exposing the chemically-treated plate to the negative, which basically burns away everything that's not to be printed. Amazingly cool nerd-science. This week I'm headed back out to learn the printing part of the process by working on my own set of cards.

On a much sour-er note: I've got some back-peddling to do as I was forced to break the project on Friday night. Earlier in the day, my life-blood–otherwise known as my MacBook Pro notebook computer–was stolen from my locker at the YMCA where I swim everyday. After much deliberation and hand-wringing, I got a loan and went to Tekserv to replace it. Thanks to frequent back-ups, I was able to restore everything and get back on track. It's incredibly unfortunate, on so many levels, and I'm going to do my best to pursue the production chain. Advice/assistance very welcome.