Today we meet a couple, two young artisans of graphics & weddings:
Carissimo Letterpress, the artisanal typography of Ana & Alessandro.
- How did Carissimo Letterpress begin?
The Carissimo Letterpress idea began in Australia, where we spent a gap year together. We wanted to find a way to share our passion for typography, luxury paper and craftwork. I am Austrian and so we chose Vienna to set up our graphics & fine prints studio. Now there are three of us and we have quite a collection of printing presses and other historical equipment.
- How did you meet?
Alessandro and I met in Milan through some mutual friends. I was doing my Masters in Fashion at the Domus Academy there. He was working for a communication agency. Our love story began as a friendship, but all our friends had noticed, before we had, that we were already head over heels.
- Tell us a little about the Carissimo Letterpress printing process: from the graphic creation to the printing with Maria Addolorata.
We offer two ranges, Our stationery collection and the custom crafted products we make for individual clients.
Many couples come to us wanting to create a special wedding invitation, something unique and personalised. We also work with clients in Germany, Italy or Switzerland and so if our first meeting with them doesn’t happen in our studio in person, we speak on the phone or on skype.
The first step is for the couple to speak about themselves, what they like in terms of style, mood, colours, personal tastes and decorations, to better understand who they are. Our aim is to capture a couples style and let our stationery tell their love story.
We hand draw many of the decorations we use on the invitations, but the text and the typography layout is done on the computer, so that we can use new and contemporary fonts.
Once the graphic work is done, we create the print plate, which stamps the image onto the paper. Our printing press, Maria Addolorata is over 100 years old, but works very well. The colours are hand mixed according to the Pantone chart: to express personality and character it is essential to be able to create an extensive range of tones.
Alessandro does the set up on Maria Addolorata as well as the hand printing, a fundamental part of our work. The combination of contemporary graphics and old printing methods is what makes our products special.
- What are your favourite products or graphics?
For Christmas we love creating cards that depict things that are special about Winter, like a stroll in the forest just after a snowfall or shopping for the Christmas tree …
We also enjoy fun phrases that make us smile. We use them on our notebooks, which we print with old wooden and lead block letters on special recycled and upcycled paper.
- In what way do Vienna & Italy inspire your creations?
We get inspired by many things, we are big fans of lettering, typography and illustrations, which are a tradition in Italy. We also like everyday situations that could make for amusing illustrations. Vienna is a beautiful city, full of artisanal work and ancient buildings, it is the perfect place to find inspiration around every corner.
- Lets speak about weddings: the most amusing or romantic invitation or invitations that you have ever created.
The most amusing wedding invitation that we have done was for an Anglo Austrian couple that had waited a long time before getting married. Their invitation began like this: “FINALLY you are invited to the most anticipated event in history – our wedding…”
They told us afterwards that the invitation was a huge success and that many guests had kept it as a memento.
Another was of an Italo-Austrian couple’s invitation that contained a mixture of Italian and German. The design was very contemporary, but romantic at the same time. At their wedding celebration there were many details, which were inspired from the invitation: from the cake topper to the gift tags.
With special details like place cards, programmes, menus and lots more, one creates a continuous leitmotif thread running from the Save-the-Date right through to the big event.
For more information about Carissimo Letterpress:
Carissimo Letterpress Studio
Singrienergasse 34-36
1120 Vienna
www.facebook.com/carissimoletterpress
Know how to print? Give a look to Carissimo Letterpress video: