Making a Good Impression

Raise the topic of business cards in a conversation and you polarize people; it either makes you the most boring person ever to have opened their mouth or, if you’re in the company of graphic designers, the person who drinks for free for the rest of the evening whilst you all discuss foiling, edge-painting and the gsm of card stock. To many people a business card is just a business card: An unimportant and antiquated piece of wallet padding that is only useful until you can get enough 3G signal to follow each other on twitter. We think that a business card says so much about who you are, what you do, and the way that you do it however that it deserves an investment in time and money – particularly if, like us, you are a creative service provider for whom making a good and lasting impression is important.

It may be because so much of what we produce is destined immediately for the digital realm that tactility and analogue processes are highly valued here at Hailer. Digitally printing five hundred business cards off a web-template for twenty pence each wasn’t an option that was entertained for even a second. Instead, the search began to find a letterpress printer who could produce the sort of unique and memorable calling card that people turn in their hands, study, and remember. A printer whose workspace is filled with the satisfying clunks, clicks, whirrs and hisses of time worn and well loved classic machinery. We found Typoretum.

Digitally printing five hundred business cards off a web-template for twenty pence each wasn’t an option that was entertained for even a second.

Typoretum is a family-run contemporary letterpress design and printing studio based just outside Colchester in Essex, and they were just the ticket. Founded in 2008 by Justin Knopp and his wife Cecilia, Typoretum produce stationary, greetings cards and posters on their vintage presses. Justin studied Graphic Design at Central St Martins College of Art & Design where he became interested in letterpress printing, and he amassed a large collection of antique lead and wooden types as well as printing machines whilst working as a graphic designer in London. His old school had been next door to one of the largest printers in the country and his love of letterpress led him to contact many of the former workers in order to record their stories and archive their photographs. Some of these old printers subsequently gifted Justin their collections of types and even presses. In 2009 he built a shed at the bottom of his garden, installed his presses and started Typoretum.

Hailer’s business cards were printed on 1500 micron recycled greyboard (so they’re noticeably thick and heavy to the point where carrying more than 3 in a wallet is difficult) on a 1963 Geitz platen press from Switzerland. Metal letterpress relief plates were etched (one for each side of the card), and the negative space of the Hailer logo was blind debossed onto the card (with clear ink) leaving the lettering standing proud like braille for awesome. In low light the cards could be mistaken for being blank on one side, until your fingers feel the impression from the press and you hold the card up to see the shallow shadows cast by the letting of the logo. The other side of the card has our tagline and contact details printed in Hailer’s deep, rusty red. They’re understated and yet tactile enough to demand closer inspection. We sincerely hope that they make a good impression.

It leaves the lettering of the logo standing proud, like braille for awesome…