Sent with …

It all started with a quote from one of my tutors in High School "keep it simple stupid". Some days all I want is to print something cute, simple and with the little "extra" to it. This card has possibilities beyond my fantasy, only your imagination is the limit to create a card that will but a smile on the lucky receiver's face.

Sometimes you feel empty

Through a life time I'm quite sure most people sometimes feel a bit empty. What makes you feel that way can be different things. Maybe something a close person said or did, or maybe it was the shock of somebody's too early death. This piece is very personal to me, and it was done several weeks ago but I didn't feel like showing it before now. Today I have this empty feeling again. Look forward to tomorrow and a day in the Letterpress studio to get rid of it.

Half or a pint?

Why London-people seem to assume girls only drink half is still a wonder to me. But I keep getting the question and I'm tired of it! I'm sorry but: "why have a half when you can have a pint?"

Happy Easter everyone :D

A simple days work

Some days in the studio I get an idea and then I just have to set it even though I'm busy working on another project. It happen last week! Some students and teachers from NKF (in Norway) came to visit the studio at Uni,
and I got asked to show them how letterpress works. I wanted to show off one of the presses, but I got no work set up for it. Whenever that happens I also go for the first idea in my head. This time to set a bit changed quote from a song of the Norwegian band DumDum Boys. The text says "Ha hjertet på rett steed" (Have the heart in the right place) and I set in very quickly, but ended up really liking it. Hope you will too :)

Maybe love?

Spring is said to be the time for love. Not that I would claim there is a special time for love. A couple of weeks ago I had a huge clean up in my letterpress prints at home. During this I discovered this small and simple print, with a single line of words. Originally it was printed for a possible extra with a wedding invitation for a friend. But later to be found not right for that purpose. Since that I forgot about it existence. 

Take it as it is, one simple line of words. "Maybe love will find us again for there is always tomorrow."

Card for a special person

Valentine's Day is around the corner. But why not send a card to someone special for you already now? A perfect card for today, tomorrow and every other day. Simple words: "Forever yours, always me, forever here" (Evig din, alltid meg, evig her). Printed in dark orange/brown on orange cards.

"Ainafun"

Some days you can't find any inspiration and you're just empty. Those days are when you should just let nothing control your head or work. Play, enjoy, smile, laugh and just work :)
I had one of those days yesterday and after some hours (in a freezing studio) I ended up with this very personal print of how I see myself in a way. I smile a lot, laugh ofter, do funny things/jokes, saying just pointless things.

And this will also be a gift for a very special Aina :)

Christmas card 2

November is here, and Christmas is even closer. I've started thinking about Christmas gifts, and it brought up another idea for a new Christmas card. Big in size, but still with a playful twist to Merry Christmas is Norwegian ("god jul"). The main colour for Christmas is to me red, a nice proper red. That is why I kept it in pure red.

Detail images of the card.

After printing the whole card in red I had to play a bit more with colours. I created a limited edition with green and silver.

Sneak peek

Normally I don't like to show of any design before its proofed, printed and all finished. But this is absolute beautiful and I just have to show it to you. I'm already thinking about Christmas and doing another Christmas card. These are a couple of fun proof I've just taken of it, and I really like them:D hope you do too!

Life is not always easy

I've mentioned earlier I get inspiration from different people, subject, theme, etc. Around these times I know several people struggling with life in general. There are different ways to fight for your life, and to live it fully every single moment. I wanted to inspire others the way some inspire me to keep on fighting for what I want and a happy life. Especially Kim Jansen has inspired me in the work on this poster. It says: “Fight for life” (in purple) and “ it is worth it, I’m saying it is worth everything” (in ice blue).

Thank you card

I printed this card for some time ago but added my logo on the back last week and remembered then that I hadn't posted it here yet. I was inspired by a friend who help me collect my letterpress type to do a thank you card.

Saying thank you can be as simple as the design on this, clean and straight forward!

Christmas card

I get my inspiration to do projects from people everywhere. Sometimes the inspiration is not how it looks but what to print. I have some Christmas cards I printed last year (will post them in a few days), but last week I got inspired to do new ones. These are rare and maybe a bit unusual in design, but I had a bit of fun playing with type and letters.

The process of my work

First I need to choose typefaces to use, place them together, set the spacing (with rulers and leading) and make a solid shape where all letters and furniture (the bits used around the type) is locked up so nothing moves.

When the type is locked onto the press (see above image) I can start taking the first proof for adjusting register and to build up warnout type.

First proof will easily reveal the types that needs to be build up with paper underneath. There is no "right" or "wrong" on how equal the type should print. I prefer a bit of different, and I try to always keep most of the texture in wood types.

How much that needs to be adjusted is different on every project. Final result for the first layer for this project is seen underneath.

Small card

It was during a periode where both me and friends had a bit of a down time in mood that I had to do a small piece of card to get myself to smile! This is also one of the first print I did with only my own letterpress type!

Need help from YOU!

Hope you can really help me! I've been working on some logo for my work under the name little norwegian letterpresser ;) And now I thought of asking you which one you like the more.
I would be very happy if you had a look, and took the time to tell me what you think.
Thank you :)

Cover for book

I made this small book with a cover for my friend's birthday. It says: "My favourite drinks", and is printed with letterpress in a random pattern. This is my first try on printing a pattern very random, and I'm quite happy about it. I am actually so happy that I will for sure do more of this kind of printing. The cover is printed in two of her (my friend) favourite colours, and I printed the second colour while the first was still wet with great result.

She likes it, and that makes me even happier about it :)

Follow up on the cover for BA publication

Just a small image to show how it looked with all the covers folded on the private view for the BA Graphic Design show "Treadmill" at London Met. Seeing it lying there I was happy about the result, it looks nice and the colour is so amazing!

Cover for BA publication at London Met

I did learn so so so much today, about work, others, limitations, my expectations vs others, perfection and creativity!

You will not believe me, this is printed on a press too small for it :p but somehow it ended up with resultat that is good enough! This time it was not about what I wanted and liked only, but what London Met wanted too! It was a nice day where I got to test out a few things on the press.

The cover will be folded around where "N" is in climbing. Inside will be a publication about the show and the BA course in Graphic Design.

Hope you like it, and if you want to see it drop by at London Met, commercial st on Tuesday (15th June) for the private view ;), limitied edition of only 90!

My craziest and biggest project

I said yes to do this cover for a broadsheet information paper almost for a BA exhibition (and for the course in general) at my old uni here in London. I thought the idea was to have a title and a small quote or something, but it ended up being one huge quote (not long, but huge in size)! 17 words is set in a 16 line wood type, not exactly sure how big that is in cm, but at least 10. I'm done with the first lock up in a way, but it needs to be locked up on the press, and that is a challenge. Not sure if you can see how big it is on the image, but next week after I hopefully have finished printing it I will have all the measurements for you.

James Dean, my favourite quote !!

Most people know that I'm a big fan of James Dean, and have all (three) movies he got time to make before he was in a car accident, which cost his life. I’ve always loved this particular sentence he used to say, and have wanted for so long to create something with it. After setting it up and printing it, I feel good about the fact I finally got to print it. But at the same time, I feel that maybe some day I’ll reprint it even bigger! The reason for all the extra white space on the left side is for a personal message or reminder to you or the one you give it do about focusing on living your life to the fullest every day.

I've printed the quote in two different colours. Green because it's my favourite colour, and orange because it's sort of a colour I feel has this dreaming feeling, and positive attitude that this quote represents for me.

James Dean had the future ahead; he lived by his own quote and so should we. I’ll always keep it close.