Just wanted to remind everyone about the Renegade Craft Fair in SF this Friday and Saturday at Fort Mason!  We just found out about it recently so no booth for us but I will be shopping my heart out and taking some pictures of all the fun.  If you are local I highly recommend checking it out.  Admission is free and the weather should be spectacular!

xox, A

We printed these business cards for the delightful Michelle, of Sweet Peas and Seashells, over two months ago and it was one of our favorite projects at the time.  Michelle owns a company specializing in beautiful embellishments for weddings (check her out ladies!), and was looking for something pretty and subtle, using her color palette of a light, serene blue and gray.  Besides our own, this was the first business card order we have ever done and I absolutely fell in love.  I adore any small thing and printing little is one of my all time favorite things to do.  I’m not sure where my obsession for all things teeny tiny stemmed from but it may be because my handwriting is fairly minuscule, which you would definitely have noticed if you’ve ever received a handwritten card from me.  Anyway, Michelle’s cards were a joy for us to print, we loved how cheerful the blue was paired with the peaceful gray coral along the left side of the card.  I also loved that Michelle wanted to have her company name on an angle to add extra interest to the card and make it the focal point- so fun!  Thank you Michelle for getting us started on B cards and definitely check out her etsy shop!

xox, A

Hi there, we are ready to rock and roll now!  Care to join?  So, the new website is up and mostly running!  We have added a whole horde of new house designs, made everything load faster and generally cleaned up our look a bit and infused some extra joy into the whole shebang.  Happy and clean is what we are going for with this one and I think we are mostly there.  We will be tweaking things a bit all week and not all the “view suite” buttons on the house section are running but everything should be pretty perfect by Friday.  I will also be sharing some of our new work starting tomorrow so that will be fun and exciting times.  Hope you all enjoy the new look!

xox, A

SwissMiss

This week has felt a little like this photo for me.  We have been juggling a lot of printing with a lot of web redesign and while totally thrilling and exciting, I feel like we have been hanging on for dear life   Though, of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way!  What is that old saying about the spice of life?  I think over here, at the AP, letterpress is the spice.  And it is getting chili pepper hot in here!  We have lots and lots and oh, did I say lots? of new work to share and I will try to post a couple of our recent projects next week.  Loving all the creativity of the clients we have been working with and I know you will too.  Until then, happy weekending!

xox, A

You may have noticed that our blog is looking a little different, right?  We are working on another website revamp- not a total re-conceptualization, just a little facelift.  The blog is the easiest for us to edit so it went first and I am loving the new vibe.  We wanted to transition a bit from the more formal/classic look we have been sporting since last winter to something with a little more detail, color and playfulness.  The website will look a bit more like the old version once it is finished, nothing too major, but we did decide to go a bit crazy and really punch it on the blog look.  If you aren’t seeing the changes you may need to clear your cookies and refresh.  The rest of the site should be finished this weekend, fingers crossed!  If you have any thoughts on the new look we would love to hear them, as always, so feel free to leave us a comment!

xox, A

A little something we have been working on in the shop today, and guess what?  It’s not for a wedding!  Any ideas as to what event this little letterpress beauty might be for?  Happy Thursday!

xox, A

Image: here!

We couldn’t resist recognizing such a yummy holiday!  Hopefully next week we will be taking in the deliciousness at Dynamo Donuts in San Francisco with the incredibly talented Genevieve Walker of Genevieve Walker Wedding Maps and her partner in crime, Clay!  They will be leaving the bay soon and what better send off is there?  We have also never been which is pretty tragic and definitely in need of a sugary remedy.  Happy weekend guys!

xox, A

This is a very special save the date set for us.  We worked with the mother of the groom to create the paper products for this wedding and she has AMAZING style.  Nao and Aaron currently live in Japan (where Nao is from, they met four years ago at school in Arkansas) and Cathy is taking care of many of the details of their wedding stateside. They even have periodic Skype sessions to go over decisions together and catch up, which I think is incredibly cool. What did wedding planning families do before the internet?  I couldn’t even imagine.

Cathy conceptualized the design of the card, selected the fonts (a modified Gatsby, Quicksand and Sudestada for all you type nerds, like me!) and we laid it out in Illustrator in several variations.  After some high tech consultation with Aaron and Nao, the letterpress design was done, we printed and sent the 4Bar size cards to Cathy for her to work some magic.  She had a vision for how she wanted to enhance the cards and I have to say I am floored!  When I received the packaged card in the mail (who loves snail mail as much as I do?) I had to remind myself not to drool on it!  Cathy added a clear envelope, luxurious blue and gold ribbon and cornered the card on two sides to create a tag.  How special would you feel receiving something like this in the mail?  And to top it off…a Hawaii postage stamp to pay homage to the couple’s honeymoon location.  This is a great example of how a client can take a gorgeous set of letterpress cards and make them even more extraordinary.  Huge win!

And I can’t forget to point out, how fitting is that Anais Nin quote to Aaron and Nao meeting in the states and then moving to Japan for a bit?  Such a lovely personal touch. Can’t wait to print the invitation and response card!

Thank you for letting us be a part of your vision, Cathy.

xox, A

We have been working really hard to get the new studio in shape and we are just about there!  Yesterday our lovely door sign came and we were so excited that at 7:00 pm were were using electrical tape and a T square to line it up on the door and make ourselves official!  I have to say it looks fantastic and makes everything feel so much more real now.  The sign company we used also deserves a major shout out (Hi Signazon.com!) because they did a terrific job of doing an exact die cut on our teeny tiny Mrs. Eaves font and the even more challenging Baker Script which has all kinds of distressing mini cut-outs and calligraphic lines.  They truly did a beautiful job and it makes me so happy every time I go in or out. Little things, right?

xox, A