A while back we printed a bunch of letterpress samples for Gigi Press. We still get a kick out of the way edge painting can make a simple letterpress design look so cool.

We love edge painting (by hand) our letterpress printing! Especially in really bright, vibrant colors. Once you start looking at enough edge painting pieces, paper just looks naked without its edges all gussied up in color. The design and color dreaming of this job comes from Pickett’s Press. Kate @ Pickett’s Press was sweet enough to send one her fabulous ribboned boxes too, so we can see how great a presentation she’s created for the notecards and stationery that we letterpress printed for her.

We fell in love with edge painting a year or two ago — it’s such a cool way to add a second or third color to a printed piece, and you can still pantone match the edge color (we mix edge-painting inks by hand, and then apply by hand too). We flat printed these invitations for Talbots announcing their Spring 2009 collection, and then we did the edge painting too — we love the BRIGHT PINK edge painting they chose. They added the embossed pattern on their end. Printed on our cotton paper.