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letterpress? :O

letterpress? :O

I have been thinking about making letterpress cards for YEARS. Inspired after I went to a letterpress workshop, I reached out to a bunch of letterpress printers in 2015.

Every year I consider it, and every year I chicken out. I am very risk adverse and rarely will take any kind of financial risks with Pickles, even if it's not technically a risk (for example, it took me 5 years to buy a $200 label printer.. lol). 

But while I spend lots of time on Pickles in my current job-less state, I am so, so close to taking the leap!

I have been thinking about making letterpress cards for YEARS. Inspired after I went to a letterpress workshop, I reached out to a bunch of letterpress printers in 2015:



Every year I consider it, and every year I chicken out. I am very risk adverse and rarely will take any kind of financial risks with Pickles, even if it's not technically a risk (for example, it took me 5 years to buy a $200 label printer.. lol). 

But while I spend lots of time on Pickles in my current job-less state, I am so, so close to taking the leap! Letterpress quality is just sooo beautiful and SO LUXE. Every time I travel and visit fun cute shops, so many of the cards are letterpress and I feel grand emotions of admiration, longing, excitement.

But letterpress is really scary!! All Pickles cards are "flat printed" (w the exception of this one), which means they're run through a digital printer with no imprint into the card. Letterpress is a very manual process, where designs are run through large, manual machines with hefty plates that ink & indent the paper. (Fun fact: Letterpress machines have not been manufactured since the 70's, so all presses that are run today are truly vintage).

Because of this manual process, the MOQ (minimum order quantity) and cost per card is way, way higher with letterpress cards versus my current digitally printed cards. Plus, for each new design, I'd need to make a plate mold for letterpress and the addition of every ink color increases the cost of the card, which means my very colorfully designed cards would have to be redesigned or nixxed if I went all letterpress.


A comparison chart of my thoughts:


I'm 60% sure at this point I'm going to convert some of my designs to letterpress and see how they do, but I'm so nervous about it. Right now, each of our cards are $4.50 (and $4 at craft fairs). Would you pay $5-$5.50 for a Pickles letterpress card? Will you vote on my stories and help me decide?! If I get an overwhelming "no" vote, I'll be bummed and won't letterpress, but at least I'll have asked my audience! 

Tags: process

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