graduation announcements.

Since my major is graphic design I really wanted to make hand-made announcements from start to finish for friends and family. I learned how to letterpress a couple of semesters back and had the chance to TA for my Advanced Typography class for a few weeks this semester so I really wanted to letterpress something. And while I love setting lead type, I wanted to make my own design instead. The most challenging part was hand lettering. For all you typographer freaks: the x-heights and descenders aren't perfect, but this was one of my first attempts at hand lettering. After I drew something I liked I scanned it, edited the values in Photoshop, then vectorized it in Adobe Illustrator. Once the design was on the computer I ordered a Polymer plate so I could use it on the letterpress. I bought large sheets of paper, cut it, and then letterpressed it. 

My favorite part about this project was buying neon pink ink for the letterpress. I didn't want navy blue (our school color... ew blah) and since the lettering was so fun I wanted the colors to be fun too. I'm so happy with the way the announcements came out! 

Oh, also, I made a super short video so you can see a small fragment of the process. It's fun!