DESCRIPTION Alyssa and Josh Save the Date Postcard CLIENT Alyssa and Josh DATE November 2009 DESIGN CREDITS Josh Korwin and Alyssa Zukas PRINT CREDITS Josh Korwin and Alyssa Zukas TYPE CREDITS Burbank by House Industries, Copeland Milo by Photo-Lettering, Metro by W.A. Dwiggins, Alternative Gothic, Champion by H&FJ, and some limited custom lettering

QUANTITY PRODUCED 150 PRODUCTION COST $200 PRODUCTION TIME 2 days DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH 8.5 in × 5.5 in PRINT METHOD Front: split fountain silkscreen Back: Office inkjet PAPER STOCK French Paper Mod-Tone, Gray NUMBER OF COLORS Front: 2 Spot (PMS Orange and Rubine Red) Back: black

When it comes to designers designing their weddings, we know we are in for a treat. What kind of treat? the outcomes are as varied as the kinds of flowers you can use in a bouquet. Alyssa and Josh have been relentless as far as the details and style of wedding they dream of, and have started sharing some of the details through their Save the Date postcard.

We’ve been scouting inspiration from far and wide, and one of the first ideas that hit us was to create a “gig poster” or a vintage-style handbill to inform our potential guests of the basic logistics in advance of the invitation. We decided it would be an adventure to silkscreen the invitations ourselves using the “split fountain” technique, usually reserved for the background of boxing posters.

The process was remarkably smooth. We’d both done some screenprinting on t-shirts before, but neither of us had any hands-on experience with serigraphy on paper. We designed the card to be printed without bleed, 2-up on an 8.5” by 11” letter-sized page, allowing us to make a single cut towards a finished product—we printed the back side on the cheap using our inkjet printer. Using a Photoshop mockup of the design, we determined that Pantone Orange and Rubine Red would make a nice, yummy “Tequila Sunrise” gradient. Our comp wasn’t far off the mark, but the real-life result was far better than the digital version.

The right side of the screen had some imperfections in the emulsion which led to some interesting artifacts, while the left side was nearly perfect. I think the variation between different prints is one of the beautiful and lively aspects of hand-printed serigraphs. So even though we sacrifice a bit of legibility, I think we’ve really hit the mark with our attempt at creating a vintage, imperfect look.

Call me sentimental, but I think Alyssa and Josh are embracing the printing process very much like the life of a couple should be embraced. Making it personal, making it unique, embracing the imperfections and getting their hands dirty while sharing a laugh or two.

Have a great wedding (and marriage)!