T+Co Crafts Letterpress Biz Cards & Documents the Process in Mesmerising Film

When it came time to make new business cards, creative agency Trollbäck + Company (T+Co) seized the opportunity to make their creative imprint twofold by not only producing beautiful, unique cards, but also capturing the process with a beautiful short film that captures the time-honored craft of letterpressing.

“At Trollbäck + Company, we are totally driven by beauty, design, craftsmanship and quality," says Mitch Monson, a creative director and client partner at T+Co. "When we approached the design and execution of our calling cards, it was important to bring all of these qualities to that experience. Therefore, we designed a card with a unique size and card stock weight, and printed it in traditional letterpress form."

The print production and shooting of the film took place at Genghis Kern in Denver, CO. It was a two-camera shoot using Canon 5D Mark IIs. The DPs used a 100mm macro lens for super intimate angles. They utilised various primes for other mediums and wides (i.e. 50mm, 85mm, etc.) They were fortunate to also have a few extra toys to work with, including a Motorized Dolly and a Kessler Mini Crane.

T+Co did a lot of initial research on letterpress printing and letterpress films to inspire and develop their shot list, wanting to capture the texture and mechanical beauty of the machines with unique macro moments and a lot of tight, personal, human portraits of the pressmen. Although there were a lot of carefully designed moments prepared for the film, the team left a lot of room, as always, for 'happy accidents' to occur.

Genghis Kern has big, beautiful warehouse windows all along the press line, so the DPs utilized a lot of the existing light and natural flares, and then complemented and filled it in with small LED panel lights. They knew a sunny day would offer great lighting in the space, and mother nature definitely came through.

The main post-processing work included colour correction and some ramped motion, but T+Co kept it simple. September Raines handled the editorial (Final Cut) and the music/sound mix.

Concludes Monson, "We all put a lot of time, heart and soul into the cards, and we love and respect the craftsmanship involved with letterpress, so we wanted to capture and share that passion with others, especially in light of a quote that recently inspired us: ‘If you see how something is being made, you will understand its value.'"

Letterpress Studio: Genghis Kern, Denver, CO

Pressmen:Jason Wedekind, Owner; Jeff Shepherd