Our Printing Process

Whether for invitations of correspondence, we feel personal stationary should be just that: personal. That’s why we like to begin our design process with a meeting where we can learn as much about you as possible. We love to see a client’s unique personality shape the design process, so we strongly encourage bringing magazine pages, photos, fabric or colour samples to help us understand your vision.

Step One:

During our initial consultation, we’ll define your design requirements and discuss preliminary ideas. We love to see a client’s unique personality and story shape the design process, so we strongly encourage bringing magazine pages, photos, fabric or colour samples to help us understand your vision. For RTW and Custom Letterpress orders, we will then prepare and send you a pricing quote within 3-5 days. Pricing quotes for elaborate, mixed-media orders may take a week or more depending on the complexity of the project.

Step Two:

Once we’ve determined your creative requirements, you will receive a contract and invoice with order particulars. Bespoke design work will only begin after we receive the signed proof and a design fee. For a 3-item letterpress invitation suite, this starts at $350, $100 of which is refunded towards your final bill if you decide to proceed with letterpress invitations once the design work is complete.

Step Three:

Within the next 5-7 working days , we will create 3-6 initial design options for your review. At your leisure, we will discuss any changes you would like to make, or any new elements you want to add to the design. With your feedback in mind, the design is refined over two more rounds of proofs (3 rounds in total). At this point, if you are still unsatisfied with the design, revisions will continue till you are ready to sign off on the final proof. This process will take as long as you deem necessary, and is chargeable at $75/round after the initial 3. Printing will only begin once we collect a 50% deposit, with the remainder due upon delivery.

Step Four:

Once a final design is agreed upon, it will be emailed to you for you to look over in a Client Approval Form. This is the client’s last chance to confirm all details – size, fonts, colours, spelling, wording, etc – are correct. The Client Approval Form is to be printed, signed, scanned and emailed back to us before we can begin the printing process. Any changes made past this point will incur an additional cost, dependent on the production stage at which we were contacted regarding the change. Lead time for most orders is about 2 weeks, but please do let us know if you require a rush timeline. Large orders may take up to 6 weeks to produce.

Our Price Structure

Letterpress is usually not the most affordable printing option you’ll encounter, but there is a golden rule of keeping your costs down: ordering a larger quantity of cards is much, much cheaper than ordering just a few.

For instance, our rates for wedding invitations may start at $12/card at our minimum quantity of 50, but can go as low as $3/card in large quantities. Because of this, we find it’s most cost effective for clients to overestimate the amount of invitations they’ll need – guest lists have a way of mysteriously expanding, and it’s cheaper to order more cards upfront than to order an additional batch later on.

As we are located in Singapore, all local orders include free delivery within the downtown area. Shipping rates for international orders are based on final package weight. Please feel free to contact us for a quote, or with any questions you might have.

Our Print Standards

Letterpress today hasn’t changed much from its historical origins – it’s still a craft that relies on human involvement 100% of the way. Unlike digital printing, it’s got real soul, but it also isn’t exact. This means that each item we produce with our antique printing press will be subtly unique. We’d like to gently remind our clients that they should expect ever-so-slight variations in impression, position, inking and colour; letterpress is an art form, and these are the marks that show your stationery was made by craftsmen, not computers.

Please note that the reverse of each card is unobtrusively printed with the words “made in singapore” as well as our URL in an area no larger than half a square inch. We would be happy to provide you with an actual-size digital sample upon request.