Last weekend, most of the Sesame Letterpress team were busy at the wonderful Dumbo Arts Festival. Meanwhile, I was over on the west coast, attending "Roadworks", a printing festival at the San Francisco Center for the Book.We love organizations that promote artforms such as letterpress printing, foil printing and bookbinding and the SFCB is no exception. It's a wonderful space and their open weekend was a lot of fun. The highlight was the very performative steamroller printmaking! And if that sounds complicated, here's a step-by-step, photographic explanation!...

First of all, a piece of board is placed on the road. On top of this is the inked plate, facing upwards. The piece of paper that will receive the impression is then placed very carefully over the plate and this is followed by a few layers of blankets and other protective coverings. Everything has to be lined up very precisely.

With a toot of the horn, the steamroller slowly moves forwards, following the guides that are marked on the ground and on the protective blanket. The steamroller went over the plate once, then backed up, then rolled over it a second time.

We all held our breath for the big reveal! The paper had to be removed really gently and carefully to ensure that the ink didn't smudge. I also loved the fact that at the end, the artist held up his work and everyone who had watched the event gave him a round of applause!

Finally, here's a photo of the table with all the finished prints displayed. They came out really beautifully!

- Jana

Following on from our previous post, which highlighted our banner design, we wanted to show you another variation.We printed this Save the Date for a lovely couple with links to America and England! The bride had a mug which featured little flags from both countries so we used that as a starting point for the design!

The colors also pick up on the flag colors. We are so proud of how nicely this printed: the teeny tiny stars on the American flags are all perfectly defined!

It's been a while since we posted any Save the Date cards. Over the past months we have printed lots of these. Many of our couples really like the banner design. It is simple and light-hearted and perfect for a summer wedding.We especially love how this card came out:

The yellow and gray inks perfectly complement each other and the pop of yellow on the edges adds another dimension to the design.

Here's a close-up to show the quality and depth of the printed impression:

It's no mystery that here at Sesame, we love being beside the seaside. Over the summer, we decamp to Marblehead, MA and spend hours gazing at the sea. And many of our designs have a distinct maritime flavor.So when we were asked to design business cards for a lovely new shop in Nantucket, we loved the fact that this shop is literally right on the water.

Check out this view:

And inside, it has been arranged so beautifully too:

Elise, the owner stocks some of our products in the store and we were delighted when she asked us to print her business cards. We love the vibrant color and the square dimensions of the card.

Bespoke coasters are a great idea for wedding favors. But if you are a little short on time or if there is a design that you already love from our line, why not just customize them a little with your own tag and packaging.Over the summer, a few of our clients purchased coasters from our existing designs and then made them their own...here's one of our favorites...

Elana chose our floral coasters for her wedding.

We love how Elana chose a simple twine with flecks of gold and then further customized each pile of coasters with hand-calligraphed name tags in gold.

Here's another shot which shows how the colors and gold accents were picked up throughout the wedding design.

Congratulations Elana! Thanks so much for choosing our floral coasters to go with your wedding theme!

We've been working with our good friends at Hudson Made for over a year now and we've written about how much we love their website, styling and products before. Everything on their site is carefully curated and beautifully packaged (sometimes we have something to do with this!)

We were recently asked to print their business stationery for them and we love how the cards manifest their clean, sharp brand.

And here's a close up that show the depth of the letterpress impression:

We've noticed that one of our most popular products is the set of letterpress lobster coasters! We love how something pretty esoteric is also really appealing. We wonder if it's because lobsters sum up summertime, outdoor dining, communal eating and also the sheer joy of getting a little bit messy while consuming something delicious!

We also have a lovely lobster greeting card and a little lobster gift tag...so there are plenty of products to get your claws into if you are a fan of these crustaceans!

And finally, how about a recipe for the Ultimate Lobster Roll?!

We recently discovered a gorgeous new font. You may recognize it from the recent blog post about my bike-themed wedding invitations. It's proven really popular with lots of our wedding clients so we designed a simple, striking new personalized notecard which features the font.

We love how the font mimics handwriting but is also contemporary and refined. We think it looks great in a vivid hue, like this bright turquoise.

- Jana