Reproduction Meets the Unique Print

This project represents a collaboration with artist Nicole Hayes of nicoceramics. The tree like portions of the image were reproduced many times with a letterpress onto a fine art paper that was then hand watercolored to make each one unique. Above there are just two examples of this blending of a reproductive medium with the individualized touch of the hand.

At Reservoir Press we are always looking for ways to make a traditional art form fresh and experimental.

Lobster Girl

The card says it all.

Obscure Holiday Cards

This card is part of a set of Obscure Holiday Cards that is due out this summer. The set is made of of 14 cards that are each designed by a different artist, and celebrate those holidays that Halmark forgot. Above is the No Pants Day card designed by artist John Gonzalez for Reservoir Press.

Kissing Card

Give this business card to your loved one, and get down to business.

The Handbook of Beauty

These images, borrowed from a 1950's text called "The Handbook of Beauty," recall another era. More from this line will be out by the summer.

Checking you out!

Some handset type redifines the meaning of this odd antique plate.

Vintage Cuts

A simple card that was letterpressed with a vintage plate and an assortment of type. All handmade and without the use of any of the modern technology available to letterpress printers today.

The Special Series

These special cards were made from old fashioned plates found in flea markets around the city. Some handcarved linoleum blocks adds some variety to the mix. Expect more from the "Special" series by this summer.

A Print to Honor Master Printer Bob Blackburn

Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop members Jason Riffaterre (owner of Reservoir Press) and Justin Sanz work together to print a commemorative image of world renown master printer Bob Blackburn. The image was printed from a woodblock carved by Justin, and it posed a real challenge for Reservoir's letterpress jobber. Letterpress machines like the one pictured above were not built to print large areas of color from blocks, but with a bit of patience and ingenuity we were able to reproduce this fine image over two hundred times. The prints filled every bit of free space in the shop as they were laid out to dry, and the studio was filled with the wonderful smell of drying ink.

Reservoir Press is always ready to take on any challenge in pursuit of a beautiful print job.

Reservoir Press Workshop for High School Art Students

Reservoir Press collaborated with the head of the art department at the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry, a public school in New York City that runs in partnership with the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts. Students Randall and Adam (pictured above) work with the team at Reservoir to explore new skills in letterpress and silkscreen. The aim of this outreach was to bring to these art students the opportunity to work in media that is normally inaccessible to them, and to give them much more individualized instruction.

Reservoir Press is proud to be able to provide instruction for students, and introduce curious minds to the world of printmaking.

A 12-Color Print for a Destination Wedding

The team at Reservoir worked to create a totally unique and different Save-the-Date card for a couple who were travelling to Ravello, Italy for their wedding. The idea was to create a travel poster styled after the Art Deco posters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The result was a 12-color card that blended silkscreen and letterpress. The landscape was silkscreened to take advantage of the medium's ability to print areas of color vibrantly and evenly, while the buildings were letterpressed to not only give them texture, but make them pop off the page as well.

Reservoir will spare no effort and will take on any technical challenge to meet its clients unique needs.

Reservoir Prints Business Cards for Artist Justin Sanz

The team at Reservoir Press worked with printmaker and muralist Justin Sanz to create a new business card. The process started when Justin took one of his amazingly detailed woodcuts and reduced it to a size that would fit on a standard card. Then the team at Reservoir Press worked with the precision of letterpress printing to make all of the design's glorious detail apparent to all of the artist's clients to whom he gives his calling card.

With this card project, Reservoir worked to produce a card for Justin that would be in keeping with the artistry and technical skill typical of his work.

Reservoir Press Prints for Artist Sean Scully

Reservoir Press recently had the opportunity to print a special holiday card for world-renown artist Sean Scully. The artist produced a drawing that the team at Reservoir Press translated into a printing plate. Each card was meticulously crafted by hand to preserve the quality of a fine art print. Reservoir Press is pleased to have provided letterpress services to Mr. Scully who has exhibited widely in Europe and the United States, and is represented in the permanent collections of a number of museums and public galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the National Gallery of Australia, the Tate Gallery in London, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and many other private and public collections worldwide. Some of his work was recently the subject of a show at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. You can view works from this exhibition by clicking here.

Reservoir Press is always ready to work with artists to help them produce functional or fine art letterpress. Artist designed cards are very hot now, and Reservoir Press prides itself on being on the cutting edge of letterpress production today.

A Plantation Wedding

Reservoir Press was ready to brainstorm with this client to help form a vision of what the invitation package would look like, and then created Save-the-Date, Invitation, and RSVP cards that realized their vision. Each card was meticulously designed to work together as a group of images and yet allow each to have a distinctive quality. What truly marks this project as special is the attention to the details that relate to the location of the wedding. All aspects of the design work to evoke the plantation elegance of the wedding's site, as well as recall an old world style that is truly American.

The design team at Reservoir Press works diligently to make certain that each job is a reflection not only of the client's wishes, but also a body of work that each client can claim is unique to them.

Happy Holidays from Reservoir Press

The holidays were celebrated this year with a special card from Reservoir Press. Combining silkscreen and letterpress, Jason (the owner of Reservoir Press) and his wife Jessica wanted to send a little something beautiful to their friends.

Reservoir Press is always ready to make a unique print for any client who wants to let their friends, family, or clients feel like they have been treated to something truly special.

A Thank You Card for Hunter College

Hunter's School of Education needed to say "thank you" in a special way to those principals whose high schools and elementary schools partnered with the college. Reservoir Press was the printer of choice to create a card with a sophistication that would make their thanks particularly special. The design team at Reservoir Press used one of Hunter's logos and precisely matched the school's color in order to create a card that was both elegant in its simplicity and had an aesthetic that marked a truly professional organization.

A Special Last Night

When Andrew and Sarah were about to tie the knot, they needed a rehearsal dinner invitation that would take the edge off the formality of the big wedding day to come. Having had a very traditional wedding invitation made, the couple wanted something simple and fun, but without sacrificing elegance. Reservoir Press worked to design a card that would evoke the stylistic theme of their invitations, but would also meet their need for something different ... something that was truly theirs and no one else's.

The design team at Reservoir Press will always go the extra mile to produce in letterpress a card that is tailored to the client's unique needs.

A Multinational Announcement

Our client Sarah is a vital, young French woman living in America. When she gave birth to twins and wanted to announce the big day to both her French and American friends and family, the team at Reservoir Press was ready for this unique design challenge. A layout was conceived for both the announcement and the return address (to accommodate her homes both in the US and Europe) that would spread the news across the language barrier. But the design team went even further for this client. Sarah's love of old fashioned toys was also incorporated into a design meant to evoke both her own childhood, as well as the passing on of tradition to her children.

Typical letterpress studios that work with generic, pre-designed templates could not have met Sarah's needs the way we could. That is why our focused attention to our client's individuality makes Reservoir Press excell in its letterpress production.

A Truly Handcrafted Announcement

When the Tripletts sent Reservoir Press the text for the baby announcement card the handwriting was so perfect that the design team at Reservoir Press used it to create the plate for printing the cards and the envelopes. Merry and Cliff are outdoor types, so the card was crafted to reflect not only the love for their newborn, but also the love for the world into which they brought him. The image of the tree and the handwritten text were both crafted by the client. Reservoir then took the design the next step through an unusual combination of letterpress and silkscreen to create a truly unique look for this medium.

We at Reservoir Press are always looking to work closely with our clients to create a personalized and treasured memento in letterpress and beyond.

A Traditional Wedding with a Personal Touch

After searching online in vain for a wedding invitation that would be both personal and of the highest quality, Ms. Beyene came to Reservoir Press. We worked with her to produce the look that she wanted, but on a paper that was rich in texture and by a printing technique that has a distinctive old world style. The end result was a complete wedding package that not only had a unity of design, but that was crafted by hand with the greatest care and individualized attention.

A Big Card for a Big Client

Reservoir Press will help to make reality any presswork the client desires. In this case a photographer wanted a business card that would be as original and unconventional as her own work. The team at Reservoir worked to make sure that this card, designed by Alison Forner, was printed to the client's exacting specifications. From color to size no detail was left to chance. From the precise cutting work for the border to the pressure and kiss impressions used in the different parts of the card, this job was as important to Reservoir as it was precious to the client.

Personalizing the Wedding Announcement

After looking around in vain for a wedding invite, our client came to Reservoir Press looking for a design that would be truly personal. This artistically inclined couple loved to kayak together, and decided that they wanted that activity so meaningful and special to them to be present in their invite. Looking to old maps, a design was made that represented the spot on the Delaware River where they lived out their dreams. By having it letterpressed through Reservoir they also told their friends that this occasion was as unique as their love.

Designed in this case largely by the client, the team at Reservoir Press worked hard to make sure that this part of their dream was made a reality.

Reservoir's Custom Stationery Design

Reservoir Press is proud to be able to design highly personalized stationery. The emblem for this envelope and note paper set was invented to match the client's name. The ermine in the crest is a play on the client's name. Our design research team also looked far and wide before finding the perfect background, which was a medieval pattern called Plain Ermine.

Not only does the embossing on both the envelope and paper give the project that luxurious hand made look, but the coral color matched the client's favorite hue, thus making this project typical of the brand of highly customized creations at which Reservoir Press excells.

A Custom Birth Announcement for a Client in The Big Easy

This unique birth announcement was created by Reservoir Press specifically for this one project. Our design team made all the drawings for this invite, from which the perfect one was ultimately selected. Selecting the right design, ink color, text, paper, and envelopes is all part of the process of tailoring each job to the specific needs of our clients.

This is the Reservoir way.

Getting Ready to Cheer

On the big day of the world's most famous marathon, our client wanted to make sure that their annual celebration would have an invitation as special as the people they were cheering on and the people who were going to be cheering with them. The artists at Reservoir Press worked with the client to create a series of proofs, which finally led to the design that expressed exactly what they wanted.

At Reservoir Press no effort is too great to get it right for our customers.

Reservoir Press Throws a Party

When it was time to throw a double birthday party, Reservoir Press was on the job to make the invitation equal to the occasion. The party's theme was half Chinese and half Karaoke. To capture both elements Reservoir designed a special invitation that would not only be fun, but would also reference the Chinese zodiac and the respective symbols for each of the two hosts. A highly specialized design worked through several proofs until the invitation was right.

At Reservoir Press we produce each job as if we were doing it for ourselves.

Client Designed Business Cards

It is not unusual for a client to come to Reservoir Press with their business card already designed. Our production staff is happy to take your design and execute it in letterpress with the right color and on the right paper so that it has that perfect look and feel when you pass your card to your own clients. This job had a very clean design, which was exquisitely complemented by the beautiful emboss that the paper took from the type.

Clean, simple, gorgeous.

Another Reservoir Card

Hand-set type was used to create this relatively conservative business card. The deckle (or rough edge) at the bottom of the card marks that little bit of stray from the norm that allows us to say that we can produce anything from the most corporate looking cards to the most artistic.

At the heart of all Reservoir Press designs, however, is the presence of the hand-made in each card that identifies the owner as someone who cares to have the very best representing them.

Reservoir Press Works Seamlessly with the Client to Announce Another Birth

While Reservoir Press will work to design any kind of letterpress project for our clients, we also will gladly help our customers translate their own images into print. In this case our designers worked in close conjunction with artist John Gonzalez who wanted to draw his own image to announce the birth of his son. After helping the client to work through several design ideas, we took his final draft and prepared his image for press.

At Reservoir Press we will work with our clients in any way that gets the job done so that it exceeds their expectation.

A Calendar Produced in Collaboration

This calendar project was among the most ambitious projects that Reservoir Press has taken on. Entirely designed by the client, Reservoir was tasked with handling all the production needs for the job. From the multiple colors, to the custom printed mailing labels and wrapping, to the complex pre-press production and large edition size of the job, Reservoir Press worked to make sure that the client's project was in on deadline.

Despite the complexity of the job Reservoir Press made certain that subtle design elements like the blind emboss were never overlooked. At Reservoir Press quality and customer satisfaction is always the first priority.

Reservoir Business Cards

Reservoir Press is proud to be able to provide business cards of the highest quality to our customers. Since every job is custom, the sky is really the limit when it comes to designing a card that your clients will remember.

This card, which was created for our own business, uses a specially hand made Japanese paper. Each piece is mould-made by hand, which results in the inimitable four deckles (the roughed edges of the paper that signal its hand manufacture). Deckles are not uncommon on hand made paper, but having four deckles is extremely rare, and stunningly unique for a business card. It is exactly the kind of trait that makes a client's eyes open wide, and realize that your product is special.