2021 PubPass Sneak Peek
When we started PubPass in 2014, not only did we want to send people to the coolest bars and breweries in the area, but we also wanted to send them with a kick ass book that they were proud to carry. At the time we were huge fans of Studio on Fire, a local printing studio gaining national attention with their innovative use of traditional letterpress machines. When we met to discuss the project and saw what they were doing with foil-stamping, we knew we had to try it.
Over the years we've tried different color and foil combinations, each year improving upon the previous year's design. In 2019 we worked with the fine folks at Lincoln Design to refine our deer logo, and the two-tone illustration was a perfect opportunity to try out a double foil stamp with two tones of gold to give it some extra depth. We loved how the 2020 books turned out, but this year wanted to try out something we'd been thinking about for a while: a die cut to reveal the city name on the first page inside. Not only would it be a fun way to bring even more depth, it would make production quite a bit more streamlined as we continue to expand to new cities.
It's a simple concept in theory, but definitely brings some extra production challenges. Fortunately SoF never skips a beat, making the whole process look like it's no big deal. In a typical year heading over to their production studio to see the covers on press is one of our favorite days. But with COVID we asked if they would take some videos for us. So enough of the build up, let's get a sneak peek at how they're coming along!
Punch It
In this first video you can see that after creating the die cut, the holes are manually punched out (who knew!).
Foil Pass #1
Next, the covers go through the first gold foil stamp which provides the base for the deer and linework.
Foil Pass #2
Then, the second gold foil is added to give the deer its detail and bring in the text and icons.
Foil Pass #3
Finally, we get the silver foil for the PubPass lettering and the year at the bottom.
Up Next
We're loving how they turned out, but we're not out of the woods yet. Next up, it's time to bind them to the insides, or "guts" of the book, and there are still production challenges, especially around alignment so the city name peeks through just right. We'll have some more photos to share on that soon so stay tuned.