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)!

I'm sure it's gonna be a great err... gig.

Congratulations and great job on the project! Love the design and concept.
What weight paper was used?
Were you able to produce all 150 at once with the split fountain?
Split fountains are always hard for me. After a bunch of pulls the colors start blending into the new solid color for me.

Love the typography—great job on the old school printing technique for the gradient too.

Thanks all!

Bruce, the paper weight is 80# cover... I would have gone even thicker, but we liked the Mod-Tone, and it only comes in 80# text and cover.

We printed everything in one night, but we washed the screen two or three times, as it started to fill in the small details. But the gradient was still completely intact by time the holes started to fill; in fact it looked better and better after each print. Maybe it depends on the size of the print, the thickness of the ink, the temperature, etc.?

Wow, 80# cover through an inkjet printer!
My lowly HP chokes on anything over 80# text. haha
Great work on the project. I can't wait to see what you do for the invite.

rad wedding announcements are now another fairly big reason i wish us gays could marry. this shit's beautiful.