Posted by Olivia dela Rosa on October 23, 2014
With all the printed materials and designs that we have right now, my eyes get pretty tired seeing the same old thing over and over again. There's nothing new in the market and nothing really stands out anymore. Though I don't find this totally wrong, the lack of inspiration is what frustrates me. A good design not only ignites something in you, it also challenges you to seek out and push the limits. It calls you to try and think of something new until you find the perfect design you need.
After searching endlessly throughout the Web, I found comfort after seeing these letterpress cards. Letterpress is basically a printing process that uses a movable type - reversed and raised letters and images made of metal or wood - which is then inked and impressed upon the paper and often with sort of an indentation from the pressure, creating a debossed effect. Its first use is dated back in the 15th century, used widely in printing books back then but has moved to business cards and wedding invitations later on. If you decide to do it yourself, you might find it labor-intensive but once you see the results you might consider the whole thing worth it.
Scroll through to see our thoroughly selected letterpress cards and discover new designs for your next project. Happy exploring!


Happy Notes from Anthropologie

Alexandra Huckabay by Print&Grain


Roar Projects by Principle Design



Bonjour Letterpress Card via Etsy

Letterpress cards by Colorquarry via Etsy




A Little Bird by Belinda Love Lee


Brad Goreski business cards by Sarah Drake Designs

Bon Voyage notecards by Inhaus Press

Letterpress wedding invitations by Minted

Greeting card by Denotecard via Etsy


Wedding invitation by Print & Promise via Etsy

Pinup Art letterpress card by Ink Pop Studio via Etsy

Wright & Goebel by The Working Assembly


Type Letterpress Desk Calendar by iSkelter

Hooray postcard by Parrott Design Studio via Etsy


Wondrous Co. by Mitch Bartlett




Ten Thousand business cards by The Distillery

2011 Holiday Word Search greeting card via Dolcepress
Enjoying so far? If you'd like to see more design inspirations, go and explore the rest of the site. Who knows, you might also end up getting the printing deal of your life with all the discounts we're offering!
Restaurant branding and design idea's
Square business card design examples
Business card dimensions and paper weight
Electronic business cards with NFC technology
Wikipedia: Letterpress
Im not happy with Cafepress: I ordered a long sleeve tee shirt, but the design was off center. The print is shifted to the left of the shirt instead of centered. Also the fabric is low quality, the shirt already has a hole in the front.
Rating: 2 / 5
This is the last time i used Snapfish! Their customer service is worthless. Their employees barely speak decent English!
I had so much time invested in creating a nice looking photo book: the order turned out a lot more expensive then intially stated, the customer service sucks. I will never use them again, nor recommend anyone to use them.
Rating: 1 / 5
Moo is the best when it comes to business cards. You pay more but you get the absolute best. I will never order my businesscards anywhere else. Moo Rocks!
Rating: 5 / 5
Fist time ive tried vistaprint. They seemed to be a good option for photobooks, spend days creating and now i cannot upload. Been on call with their customers support for almost an hour now. I guess they are cheap for a reson.
Rating: 3 / 5
Very Poor and inefficient company, wasted dozens of calls and hours of time on the phone with them trying to correct an error that a 3 year old could fix in 2 minutes! - Could have made better cards myself. Upgraded and Paid €39 to ensure good quality and ended up with complete crap.
Rating: 1 / 5