Thursday, December 31, 2009

Highsnobiety / Selectism | "Thanks For 2009" Drink Coasters

Letterpress Coasters from Quarter Productions on Vimeo.

David Fischer and Jeff Carvalho of Highsnobiety and Selectism posted this video giving a glimpse at the process behind their industry gifts sent out this holiday season. I was pretty stoked to see the use of an early printing press especially when it seems that everything is digital these days. The streets seemed to be lined with half thought out decaying posters on the worst card stocks. Even reflecting on the hundreds of mixtapes people tried to sell me this year and the hilarious artwork on them just makes me greater appreciate I small project like this. So all you emcees and rappers in Time Square, if you letterpress your cover art I'll buy.

"The coasters were run off on Michael’s early 1966 Vandercook SP20 Press using coaster stock. Each sheet housed four coasters which were then cut on a vintage Challenge Advance Guillotine Cutter and corners were rounded using a new old stock 60’s Lassco Corner Cutter. The finished coasters were then hand banded and glue to form. Not surprisingly, we ran out of the initial run but plan on pressing more in the New Year. Many thanks to Michael for an amazing job."

What I appreciate even more is the numerous creative individuals that made this post even possible. You have Michael Dacey at Repeat Press in Somerville, MA who produced the custom double sided coasters. You have Steve Schinnerer/Iloveqp who shot, edited and produced the promo clip and if you really want to go into detail the re-branded logo was designed by Benny Gold. And let's not forget the music.