llustrating for Letterpress: Design a Greeting Card Step by Step
NOTE: This class used to be called "IMPRESS ME: Illustrating for Letterpress". I changed the name/branding but the videos remain unchanged!Â
Everybody loves letterpress! With warm textures, beautiful colour reproduction, and an impression you can actually feel, letterpress is the specialty printing technique of choice for eye-catching invitations, greeting cards, and art prints.
But here’s the best part: the same principles apply to risograph and screen printing too. All of these processes rely on separate colour layers, bold shapes, and careful file prep. Once you understand how to design for one, you’ll be able to translate your work across them all.
In this class, illustrator Tom Froese walks you step by step through designing a two-colour greeting card for letterpress. Along the way, you’ll learn:
-
the fundamentals of letterpress and how they connect to other printmaking methods
-
how to separate colours and prepare digital files in Photoshop
-
the key differences between designing for digital vs. print
By the end of the class, you’ll not only have a card design ready for press, but also the skills to confidently approach any layered print process.
If you’ve taken Tom’s Inky Illustrations class, this is the perfect next step — expanding your process into the world of specialty printing and giving your illustrations that tactile, human quality you just can’t get on screen.
