Visit at the pope of embossed printing
Sven Winterstein, founder of Letterjazz, masters the technique of embossed printing like nobody else.
We visited him at his shop in Essen. Actually Sven is designer, which is very practical because he can design a few printed matters himself. Naturally he prints for well-known design studios und companies, which recently rediscovered the embossed printing, also known as letterpress.
Simply put: Letterpress means to print paper with colours and simultaneously emboss it. So that a relief can develop during the embossing process, Sven uses voluminous paper with a rough surface such as Cotton of Gmund. The colours are Pantone-Uncoated and HKS-N in a spot colour which is not screened. During multicoloured printing process the machine has to be cleaned after every round, which is very time-consuming and therefore a little bit more expensive. Sven produces his own klischees, so-called printing plates. The work with these machines requires inventor´s genes.
After all the entire procedure is very complicated from the production of printing plates until the finished printing product. Because of this nervously weak designers should avoid this. For old printing techniques with cast-iron printing utensils such as the embossing one needs an inventor´s gene as well as strong nerves. Embossed printing is especially used for business cards or invitation cards therefore stationary products. We also talked with Sven about the cover refinement of our books and booklets and also agreed on cooperation. Nearly forgotten: Who thinks this printing technique is outdated should look into American design blogs. Analogue printing techniques such as screen printing or letterpress are starting to roll just like analogue notebooks.
Simply put: Letterpress means to print paper with colours and simultaneously emboss it. So that a relief can develop during the embossing process, Sven uses voluminous paper with a rough surface such as Cotton of Gmund. The colours are Pantone-Uncoated and HKS-N in a spot colour which is not screened. During multicoloured printing process the machine has to be cleaned after every round, which is very time-consuming and therefore a little bit more expensive. Sven produces his own klischees, so-called printing plates. The work with these machines requires inventor´s genes.
After all the entire procedure is very complicated from the production of printing plates until the finished printing product. Because of this nervously weak designers should avoid this. For old printing techniques with cast-iron printing utensils such as the embossing one needs an inventor´s gene as well as strong nerves. Embossed printing is especially used for business cards or invitation cards therefore stationary products. We also talked with Sven about the cover refinement of our books and booklets and also agreed on cooperation. Nearly forgotten: Who thinks this printing technique is outdated should look into American design blogs. Analogue printing techniques such as screen printing or letterpress are starting to roll just like analogue notebooks.