July 7, 2014

LETTERPRESS BUSINESS CARDS FOR BIENWERK – LOCAL BEEKEEPER

Close up of the logo we created, pressed nicely into the soft cotton stock.

We created (designed and Printed) these simple business cards for Cologne Bienwerk Imkerei (local beekeeper and honey producer). Printed on soft cotton card and a decent impression easily felt on the fingertips.

Here you can see what makes letterpress different from the standard business card.

The paper is extremely soft to the touch and with the impression of the logo and text gives it that haptic and luxurious quality with which standard cards just can’t compare.

read about Bienwerk’s honey labels on our earlier post here. See more of our letterpress cards here. Alternatively, you can see our edge painted letterpress business cards for UK Graphic Designer David Airey or a preview of Cologne based designer Nick Bohlen’s 2 colour cards printed on Cranes lettra cotton stock.

July 3, 2014

HONEY LABEL PACKAGING FOR LOCAL BEEKEEPER

DE – Südstädter und Imker Frank bat uns die Verpackung für seine Honiggläser neu zu gestalten, aber bitte ohne Bienen, dafür mit einem Wal und typischen Imker Werkzeug!

Das haben wir sehr gerne getan und sein Logo neu gestaltet und dann die Illustrationen für Wal und Bienensmoker gefertigt. Die Etiketten haben wir dann im Letterpressverfahren auf unserer guten alten Golding von Hand gedruckt … wir sind sehr zufrieden mit dem Ergebnis … und der Honig ist köstlich!

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EN – Local beekeeper and honey producer Frank Methien dropped by the studio with an idea for the packaging for his honey and it didn’t involve bees. As you would expect, most honey labels and honey packaging is based around the bees and the natural honeycombs hexagonal form. Frank didn’t want bees and he didn’t want hexagons… he wanted a whale. At first we were a little unsure, but in the end it all made perfect sense and we are chuffed with the outcome.

letterpress honey jar labels. Pooh bear would have loved these…well the honey anyway. Just off the press and entered into the Fedrigoni Paper Design Competition 2014. Design an print by kikisoso creative studio

The beekeepers’ smoking tool featured on one of the labels.

The project started with a re-design of the Bienwerk logo, just to make it a little bit less serious allowing the label and branding for Bienwerk to be a little more playful. Logo completed, we got to work on the illustrations. The first illustrations were of the Bee Keeper’s tools in the end choosing the Smoker as the most interesting. The second chosen illustration was of the whale you see below.

The whale is featured on the second label and the translation from German is ‘Save the whale… eat honey!’

If you reside in the Cologne Südstadt and want to get your hands on a jar of Frank’s tasty honey then you can get in touch with him here.

May 27, 2014

LETTERPRESS GRUSSKARTEN / GREETING CARDS – SPECIAL DISCOUNTS

Letterpress - Special offer

3 CARDS OF YOUR CHOICE ONLY 11€ we are aware that postage and packaging costs can sometimes be a little bit pricey to say the least, but we are trying to help take the sting out of buying our letterpress greeting cards online. If you buy 3 cards of your choice you can save up to 2.50€ on the individual price and… you only pay shipping on 1 card. Go to the shop now

LET KIKI HANDWRITE & POST YOUR CHOSEN CARD Another money saver for you here… why not have kiki handwrite your card so we can send it directly to your loved one? By doing this you can save up to 2.50€ shipping. We ship the cards in their supplied envelopes for you and we write your personal message into the card in blue or black ink, depending on your preference. All details are to be inserted into the ‘message to seller’ input box when making your payment. Visit page

May 26, 2014

NEW ‘B’ IS FOR BIRTHDAY CARDS

Just off the press on Friday, our new funky hand-drawn Birthday cards are, as always, printed on premium quality cotton paper. We wanted to make this card stand out a little more by pairing it with these lovely grey, tissue lined envelopes.

Remember: if you wish to buy and send any of our cards directly, then just go through the buying process as normal but remember to add your message, name and recipients name and address in the ‘message to seller’ area. On receiving your order we will hand-write and post you card directly. Go to our online shop

May 21, 2014

KIKISOSO LETTERPRESS STUDIO – INTERVIEW BY KÖLNSÜD TV

Vor einigen Wochen haben wir zum ersten Mal bei Köln Süd Offen teilgenommen und ein Wochenende lang unser Kölner Letterpress Studio für die Öffentlichkeit geöffnet. Wir wurden spontan von Tim von Köln Süd TV interviewt, dabei ist dieser kurze Film entstanden. Danke Tim!!!

Das Wochenende war toll und hat großen Spass gemacht. Wir haben live gedruckt und jedem Besucher eine Kikisoso Postkarte geschenkt.

Vielen Dank an alle Besucher und natürlich Dena, die alles so toll organisiert hat.

Eure
Nick & Samay
kikisoso creative studio

PS: Falls das Video nicht automatisch im Browser startet, klick bitte hier

EN: This was the spontaneous interview with Köln Süd TV at our studio during the Köln Süd Offen 2014 event. We printed these letterpress postcards for all visitors on the day, explaining and showing the whole process of how we create our greeting cards, business cards and wedding invitations etc. The weekend went really well and it was great to meet a lot of locals and new faces interested in seeing the machine in action. A big THANK YOU to Tim from Köln Süd TV for the interview and video.

May 14, 2014

LITTLE CREATURES – NOTE CARDS

cute animal note cards letterpress printed on fine cotton paper – May 2014

These note cards have been very popular with our kids and, were originally just created for them to send to family members for birthdays etc. They were so well received, we decided to make them into a range of note cards for our online store. We chose the fox, the owl, the hedgehog and the squirrel as these were the animals our kids loved the most. However, we want to add to the range and not just a few either. Let us hear your ideas for other animals that you would like to see on the note cards to help the range expand. We will have a competition to win 2 sets of 8 of the note cards. Remember these are premium hand printed cards that will make an impression however you choose to use them. Sign up for our newsletter and contact us with at least one animal suggestion for the note card range and you will be automatically entered into the draw.

letterpress fox note card – May 2014

letterpress owl and hedgehog mini note cards

see more on the kikisoso online store where you can buy the cards singularly or as a pack of 8 (2 from each design). Thanks for reading the blog. Please remember to share if you like our designs. To be kept up to date with kikisoso’s latest products, news and competitions then please subscribe for the newsletter here.

March 19, 2014

FANTASTIC SAVE THE DATE CARD, BUT NOT A WEDDING IN SITE

two sided 3 colour letterpress print with laser cutting for the bicycles components

This Save the Date card really grabbed my attention this morning as I was browsing the net with a mouthful of toast. A really creative Do-It-Yourself kit for the opening of a bicycle shop by ‘Save the Date Projects’ and ‘Daily Bicycle Co’. The individual parts of the bicycle were laser cut from thick duplexed conqueror card so the recipient could easily pop them out and fix them together.

you can see more from the creators here where you can read the project details, that is… if your Spanish is fantástico! Read more about the project in English here

March 12, 2014

SORRY CARD FOR HIM OR HER… SOMETIMES SOMEONE HAS TO BE WRONG

Letterpress sorry card with pink and taupe tissue lined envelope option. These lovely apology cards are just off the press at kikisoso creative studio. Printed with a great earthy grey achieved by mixing a dark grey and taupe ink, after printing each card was hand finished using a watercolor wash making every card ‘even more ‘ individual. Gmund 100% cotton stock was used for it’s high quality properties and finish and of course we were looking for a slightly off-white appearance rather than the bright white house paper we usually use. The impression into the soft paper can be seen and felt on the fingertips, the real treat of the letterpress print finish.

letterpress sorry cards - 100% cotton

Printed on high quality Gmund cotton stock hand finished with a pink watercolor wash.

for him / from him. Extra manly taupe colored envelope

Now available on the kikisoso online store. So if you know your wrong or just feel like taking the blame for a change then you can get some brownie points by giving your partner one of these special cards. You know they’re worth it.

March 10, 2014

ME AND MIETZ LETTERPRESS CALLING CARDS

Martina from Me and Mietz ordered a set of our cute little ‘kiki-petits‘ for her minimal business card. Martina’s runs a fashion blog and she gave me a little explanation into the name. Mietz (short for Mietzekatze) is a little white fluffy cat who accompanies her during her daily life and when traveling. Mietz the cat is illustrated by talented illustrator Maya under her own column on the blog called “Mietz by Maya”.

kiki petites – beautifully packaged in tissue paper and their own presentation box

me and mietz‘s gift wrapped kiki petites just before being shipped off to Martina. You can view Martina’s website here

Project info:
Format 5cm x 7cm
Dark grey rubber based ink (Pantone black and white mixed)
Printed on our house paper 100% cotton Cranes Lettra
We printed 100 of these cards one-by-one on our Antique printing press and sent them in a beautiful presentation box

We would love to hear your comments. What do you think of the cards, do you like the packaging?

See more of our letterpress calling cards here

March 7, 2014

Letterpress Visitenkarten für Bohlen Design

We printed these Letterpress Business cards for our friend and Cologne Südstadt neighbor Nick Bohlen. Nick supplied the layout for the cards and we printed them on 100% cotton stock. The orange colour is often hard to achieve using digital printing on a CMYK pallet. This is one of the beauties of letterpress printing, where we can use the Pantone base colors to mix almost any colour we need.

A lovely bright orange without the brown tinge often seen in digital printing using a CMYK colour system

We achieved a fair impression on the cards keeping in mind that we never want to have any evidence of the print on the rear of the card. The logo signet of the ‘n’ and ‘b’ in Nick’s logo, raises nicely from the background, a haptic quality synonymous with embossing. The orange was a delight to print, requiring only one pass on the printer and therefore keeping the colour true. As letterpress ink has a certain transparency, a second pass would change the colour significantly. This is why sometimes we have to mix a colour for 2 passes or for a single pass and it can all even be determined by room temperature, paper or even the consistency of the ink.

Project info:
Orange mixed to match Nick’s orange color chip. 100% Pantone black used for the text.
100% bright white cotton card used for it’s brightness, soft finish and great impression.
We printed 100 of these cards one-by-one on our Antique printing press

Do you like the cards? We always love to hear from you so be sure to leave your comments below.

March 6, 2014

CIRCULAR BUSINESS CARDS

DE – Als wir den Namen ‘Spotz’ (Punkt) hörten, hatten wir sofort die Idee zu der kleinen runden Visitenkarte. Da sich die Firma Spotz in der Pre Launch Phase befindet und um Aufmerksamkeit und Neugier bei Kunden zu wecken, haben wir nur den Namen, Titel und Webadresse abgebildet. Diese kleinen Karten sind wie kleine Punkte mit einem schwarzen Kern. Dafür haben wir erst zwei Seiten der Visitenkarten im Letterpress Verfahren gedruckt, und dann mit schwarzem 300gms Papier in der Mitte verleimt, das wird Duplex genannt.

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EN – Circular business cards are certainly not your everyday run of the mill calling cards, but then neither is our client Alan Edwards’s new company Spotz. Although the company has not yet been launched it will certainly be something very different and thats why we wanted to create these special little ‘Spotz’ cards to stand out.

The design was very simple as we decided to leave the most details out of Alan’s card, in fact just a name, title and web address to create a little curiosity while the business takes shape behind the scenes. The first idea was to print the cards on 600gsm card with a double sided print as you see here. The problem that we had with the one thickness card was that when we die-cut the circles the edges were not flat but slightly rounded due to the die pinching the soft card and pressing it hard against the platen. This meant that it would not be possible to edge paint the cards as planned. after experimenting a little with the thicker card we decided that we could do something a little different and achieve a colored edge without painting.

The idea was to sandwich a thick black card between two 300gsm cotton layers and this worked a treat. Of course this was a lot of work, the letterpress printing was down first for both sides on the 300gsm paper and then they were cut into 5 cm circles along with the 300gsm jet-black card stock before being duplexed. The result, a beautifully thick double sided circular card with a lovely impression and a colored edge to boot. We are very happy with the result and they have just been shipped off to Alan in London.

February 11, 2014

LOVELY CHUNKY BAKER TWINES NOW AVAILABLE IN THE SHOP

THE BEAUTY OF BAKER TWINES

We at kikisoso have been using baker twines for our stationery, wedding invitations and business card packaging for some time now. We think that the twines give our clients packaging a special finish and of course, they also make any package or gift a delight to receive. And, SO… you can now buy the same luxuriously thick (2 mm) 100% bakers twines from our online store.

Below you can see the current color range, which we will be expanding in the near future.

The current color selection available to buy at kikisoso’s online store

BAKER TWINES IN USE

Below you can see some of the uses of the bakers twine in the kikisoso studio. Our letterpress goods are finished beautifully with the twines and our in-house twine is the ‘Original Black’

bakers twines used with our sets of letterpress baby announcements.

Letterpress personal stationery finished with ‘Rose Pink Original’ bakers twine

the ‘Black original’ bakers twine used here for letterpress clothing labels for fashion designer Elisa Sola

THE BEAUTY OF BAKER TWINES

BAKER TWINES IN USE

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