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BROWSE
Downey’s The Devil’s in the Detail Letter
Production Method
Engraving
Lithography
Design
Phelan Barker
Printing
Downey & Co
Showcasing their killer engraving skills in a Devil’s coat of arms, Downey’s haunting Halloween card is one hell of a production triumph.
Dimensions (Width × Height × Depth)
–
Page Count
–
Paper Stock
Strathmore Writing / GF Smith / White Wove Platinum / 118gsm
Number of Colors
6
Varnishes
–
Binding
–
Typography
–
Project Description
We wanted to showcase the engraving process in one of our promotional pieces so we decided to do this with our version of the Devil's coat of arms.In Downey’s early history we were purely hand engravers and then we started printing ourselves in the 1960’s. Those traditional methods of hand engraving tie in nicely with private stationery, in particular royal warrants and coats of arms and that’s where a lot of our reputation comes from—this kind of highly detailed work. With this project there was a great opportunity to essentially show off the art of crest making and also to give an insight into the processes that make them work so well.
Production Lesson(s)
The biggest part of time we spent on this was developing the design. We started thinking about imagery that relates to the devil and ways in which we could incorporate as much detail as possible to create something really striking. There are various elements that make up a coat of arms; i.e the crest, the mantling, the helm, the compartment; all of which were really helpful in providing a structure to work with. I then used this to incorporate various devil symbolism — for example the pyramid and the all seeing eye, the trident, the flame pit and skulls at the base, the pentagram, the serpents, the raven, the number 13 and finally the horned goats holding it all together. It was a fun process and Phelan Barker did a fantastic job at interpreting our goals.There's a lot of colours used in this and when you engrave you have to use a different die-stamping plate for each colour. We made sure not to let ourselves get too carried away and let the design hinder production, which is something that could definitely happen with a project this technical.
Post Author
Jessica Mullen
Writer for UnderConsideration LLC.
More: Online / On Twitter
Date Published
April 27, 2015
Filed Under
Engraving
Holiday Card
Lithography
Tagged with
embossing
engraving
halloween
holiday card
letter
litho
lithography
self promotion
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FPO (For Print Only), is a division of UnderConsideration, celebrating the reality that print is not dead by showcasing the most compelling printed projects.
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About UnderConsideration
UnderConsideration is a graphic design firm generating its own projects, initiatives, and content while taking on limited client work. Run by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit in Bloomington, IN. More…
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