Studio Shots

It's been a while since we've shared some snapshots of what's been going on in the studio on the blog. As you can see we are having a lot of fun watching our printers mix ink and we're printing many new designs in preparation for the National Stationery Show in May. If you're on Instagram be sure to follow us there for daily shots of what's happening around the studio!

Inspired by the success of our Going Strong card Eunice is hard at work drawing new designs for an entire series of circus themed greeting cards. This is the start of one of five new circus designs.

Almost as fun as the colors are the names that our printers give some of the inks in our studio.

Another brand new design on press. Jon just finished printing one color here so the full design isn't revealed. Can you tell what it is?

We're so excited about our new gold foil collection and we love seeing the shiny samples laying around the studio.

A pretty blue press.

 

Hello!Lucky Loves Love

We love celebrating all holidays around the studio, but Valentine's Day is the one we get most excited about. This year we decided to do a 'secret valentine' exchange, we all drew names and brought in a sweet little something for the co-worker we picked. Of course the creative packaging, original presentations, and handmade gifts were so very Hello!Lucky. Did you see how all out we went for Christmas? Here are some scenes from Valentine's Day around the studio. Enjoy!

Lia brought in chocolate covered strawberries for everyone.

Lillian gifted Holly with this amazing package of candy. Holly is the biggest candy lover among us and is the go to person when we need a little sugar fix, she's always holding.

How adorable is this hand stitched bag Lia made Stewey and filled with a seed bomb?

Heather's amazing package to Shayna. What was in there? Girl Scout cookies!!

Lyndsey gave Christina this sweet little rose bush in a heart container and some delicious chocolate.

The note from Heather's package to Shayna. And Shayna looking adorable holding her cookie from Stewey - who, like the sweet little cupid he is, brought in his famous 'Stewey's Chewies' for everyone in the studio.

We hope you had a sweet Valentine's Day! xoxox

Studio Visit from Happy Morning

We very much enjoyed the recent studio visit by the lovely Sandra of Happy Morning. She toured our studio, met the crew, and took some beautiful photos of our space. We love to see photos of our studio taken through the eyes of someone else. She captured all the colors and [somewhat] organized paper products in our pressroom.

This is our ever deep and never ending shelf of custom order envelopes. Thank goodness for color-coding!

On the day of her visit Jon was working on Julia Rothman's design Tres Chic, which is always a fan favorite.

Not even our office spaces were forgotten! Magic happens at the desks of our designers, and there are always inspirational materials laying around.

Our Visit Series save the dates are a huge hit among our future brides and grooms. We love to display them all together.

Thanks Sandra for coming to our studio and for sharing all the lovely photos! For more and to read a Q & A with Eunice, click here!

Valentine's Cards for Meals on Wheels

Our employees love to get together after hours for holiday craft nights, especially if they benefit a good cause. Meals on Wheels has been providing meals to seniors since 1940 and has evolved into an extraordinary foundation for fighting hunger. For holidays the good people like to deliver cards to the seniors as a gift of love, and this year we decided to join in. All of our cards were handmade with love for the people supported by Meals on Wheels, and to know they were going to a good home was a beautiful thought.

As stationers, paper is our primary medium, so coming up with materials was a cinch. We try to save as many scraps as we can, knowing that they could come in handy for a card-making craft night.

Our team is the best at coming up with witty one-liners. We loved this "I a door you" card.

To support the Meals on Wheels Association of America, visit their website!

Open Studio Event & Holiday Sale

This past weekend we opened our doors on a sunny Sunday for our Open Studio Event and Holiday Sale! We had a terrific turnout and want to say thank you to everyone who came by. Our guests experienced hands-on letterpress tutorials by our temporary printer, Lillian! She graciously showed visitors simple letterpress techniques and those who gave it a go went home with their own hand-cranked holiday cards (pictured below). The spectacular Lisa Congdon paid us a visit, and also got to experience the letterpress magic. She just designed a brand new collection of cards exclusive for Hello!Lucky - soon to be released in early 2013!

These are the limited edition prints we created just for the occasion. We'll be putting them on our site and on Etsy soon! Below Eunice and Sabrina are busy mingling with all the visitors. You can see pressman Jon back there running the windmill press. It was quite the production but with all the helping hands it was a great success!

Just a snapshot of some of the holiday cards we had on sale. What a deal! We still have some left over so be sure to visit our studio from Monday-Friday, 9:00 - 5:00 for excellent deals on holiday cards.

Thanks again for everyone who visited the studio! We are definitely planning more events in the future so stay tuned, and be sure to order your holiday cards today!

Featured: Wedding Row California

This week Wedding Row California wrote a wonderful post about letterpress printing at Hello!Lucky. With specific details about the creative process and gorgeous photography by Josh Gruetzmacher. We feel touched when people show such interest in the age-old printmaking method of letterpress, especially when they spend a whole afternoon learning the ins-and-outs.

Printmaker James is a fabulous tour guide, and showed Abigail (the author) and Josh the steps of creating a New York City Skyline letterpress wedding invitation from beginning to end.

To read the entire feature and to view more amazing photos, click here!

Studio Shapshot: New Window Display

It's a beautiful day for a new window display! We decided to get crafty and enlarge our San Francisco Skyline into full-sized window art. Throughout the process we learned first hand that paper cutting is a true test of patience and craftsmanship. First, we drew the skyline on 3 full sheets of pool colored text weight paper. Then with a ruler and craft knife, carefully followed the lines revealing our cityscape.

The bridges were definitely the most difficult, but they are the most iconic!

Double-sided tape did the trick - we hung the skyline so it greets the passers-by on Howard Street.

The final product! What do you think? We had so much fun paper cutting this skyline we also made an SFMade sign which Jon is holding here. Can you tell we're getting excited for our big event tomorrow?

On Press: Overprinting

For this year's new trade releases, we are doing a whole mess of overprinting, but Max's registration is super clean. By overprinting one color smack on top of another, we can turn two colors into three, and it looks super cool. But it can be a difficult process that allows no room for error.

On Eunice's new hand-drawn "Thanks A Brunch" card, the overprinted third color outlines the images and is the color of the text. So, even the slightest shift in registration would not go unnoticed.

 Max is an exceptional printer, and they look amazing. Great Job!

Featured: Brides Magazine

We always feel honored whenever our name is featured throughout the growing realm of wedding magazines, blogs, and resource websites. We also love to cater to our community by offering one-on-one consultations with brides when making the big decision to buy wedding stationery. It truly is a joy to be listed in Brides Magazine as one of the "people and places you need to know to plan a wedding in San Francisco!"

The issue highlights all of the places throughout the city that offer helpful advice and inspiration for your wedding. Our beloved Faye even made her way into the spotlight!

The current issue of Brides Magazine is available now!

On Press: Dinosaurs--Trimming and Packaging

This week On Press we show the final steps in the process of creating Hello!Lucky's birthday card, "Dinosaurs." This sweet card was designed by Julia Rothman for Hello!Lucky. Max trims them down on the guillotine and folds a few to make sure each cut is perfect. Then each card is folded by hand, packaged, and bundled in packs of six.

On Press: Dinosaurs--Printing and Scoring

Finally! This week our 'On Press' video shows Max in the final stages of this three part series chronicling the making of a letterpress greeting card. Here he's at his windmill printing and scoring Julia Rothman's "Dinosaurs" birthday card design. Scoring, also called creasing, helps prevent the paper from cracking, and it also makes the cards easier to fold.

On Press: Dinosaurs--Polymer Plates

This is the first in a series of videos on the production of our "Dinosaurs" birthday card designed by Julia Rothman. Here Max demonstrates the polymer plate making process.

To create the plates, we first start with a film that has a clear image area and an opaque non-image area. We place this film on top of the polymer plate that has a layer of photo sensitive emulsion and expose it to UV light. The light that shines through the clear image area of the film hardens the light sensitive emulsion. Then we scrub the unexposed soft emulsion away, leaving a raised relief plate. After rinsing the plate and putting it on a heating tray to dry, we expose the plate to light again for added strength. Lastly, we apply an adhesive backing to attach the polymer plate to a boxcar base.

Stay tuned next week for the next step in creating this letterpress Dinosaur greeting card.

Studio Snapshots!

Here's Jon working our vintage Vandercook press. This is the press that started it all, originally manufactured in 1947, it lived in Eunice's garage when Hello!Lucky was just beginning.

We strive to stay organized, and being the visual people we are, color coding and alphabetizing envelopes make assembly much more efficient! Above is just a portion of our envelope collection. We're really loving the Clover (kelly green) color right now.

Another way to stay organized with ribbon storage. We are always looking for a particluar shade or pattern, so it's helpful to have them side by side!

Our designers Anna H. and Shauna looking sharp and stylish!

Faye was created by a talented employee years ago. If you look closely, she's made up of Cherry Blossom wedding invitations! She likes to keep watch atop our studio stairs and greet all of our visitors. Can you say pretty in pink?!

On Press: Broadside

This week James is operating the Vandercook and pressing a large broadside for a custom print job. The press is a No. 4 proof press from 1947. This video shows him setting up his guides and adjusting the furniture around the base for a perfectly positioned print. Next, he applies ink to the rollers and inks the polymer plates. Finally, after printing, he carefully cleans all the rollers.

How to Assemble your Wedding Invitations Video

How to Assemble Your Wedding Invitations from Hello!Lucky on Vimeo.

And now for a feature presentation! We're over the moon about this next installment of DIY videos and the first to debut is "How to Assemble Your Wedding Invitations." This short film gives detailed instructions about how to put your paper materials together tastefully and efficiently. You'll know just what to do once you receive your pretty blue boxes in the mail. Check out all of our feature films on Vimeo and stay tuned for more DIY to come!

On Press: Midsummer

 

This week On Press is the two-color Midsummer wedding invitation design on white duplex paper with rounded corners (yes, we offer corner rounding!).

After their first color run, the invitations on the feed table are ready for their second color.

The invite rests securely in the guides to be pressed into the polymer plate.

 ...on the delivery table after the second color run.

Look at the beautiful impression! Duplex paper (220lb) is double the thickness of our standard 110lb paper and leaves a much deeper impression. We do offer duplex paper for all letterpress invitations for an extra cost, just be sure to ask!

 Anna meticulously rounds each corner.

 And here is the finished product! If you are interested in corner rounding or duplex paper for your invitations, just give us a call at (415) 355-0008, we'd love to hear from you!

 

On Press: Tie the Knot

This week On Press are samples of the Julia Rothman wedding design for Hello!Lucky: Tie the Knot. James is printing the beautiful three-color invitations. Watch him preparing the guides on his press to ensure consistent registration, cleaning between each color run, and applying ink to the rollers for distribution.