Letterpress and Duplex - It’s come a long way
I have recently been working on projects that involve duplexing, which is basically taking two stocks and adhering them together with some form of adhesive. Well, I’ve tried a lot of local shops to help with this process and was never that satisfied. I am a designer by trade and really like to offer my clients with colors like pink, yellow, blue, etc on one side and then white, black, or brown on the other. Now, this is easily accomplished using ink but my goal is to find colored stocks and duplex them. Well, I recently ran across PressLab and they made the process super easy. I used Boxcar in the past and it just wasn’t the same. Very long to hear back and getting quotes was painful. Anyways, for others out there that love the Duplex technique, I found someone who can pull it off and super cheap. It was less than a standard order with ink by over 80%. Everyone should try putting together a duplex printed piece, really incredible. I have an example of a cut out duplex card, so the front card is cut out and the card behind has print and foil. Very cool stuff, you should try it out!
First post, and you’re promoting PressLab.
Suspicious.
Where is PressLab, what is their URL, and how much was your most recent job/what were the specs?
Hello!
I ordered duplex cards with 1 foil on each side (different colors), and the paper was a 21pt lettra and 50pt crescent, I also had a cutout where the logo showed through to the black (so front lettra and black holding the logo mark). The cost for 1000 was 570, plus they had a special running for bc’s so take another 15% off. I believe the special is still running but not sure. Amazing quality overall, very pleased. The online ordering was pretty nice, it updates on its own.
The url is presslab.com, they are located somewhere in the usa.
So here’s what I don’t get; how does it work? What did you do with you 9.99 a month membership? What does that buy you? How did you pay them for the job? How do you not know exactly where they are located?
I just did a bit of search for us, they are located in Arizona. The membership includes free digital proofs, running specials, wholesale pricing, customer service rep, and their quoting/customization system that you can order instantly on. I had the same question. Overall, not bad for $10 I thought. They even let you customize your box with your logo with 1 ink and heavy deboss, I may do that for my clients in the future. I did the trial and I’ll probably just stick with these guys, the quality is better than who I was using before. Anyways, just wanted to drop a line to the world. There are some innovative pressmen out there.
Sorry, I think I missed a question. The billing that I signed up with is the same billing that was used for ordering online. It was done immediate, with email confirmation, status updates through email with proofing, production, and tracking. Overall, pretty intuitive for a letterpress site. Nothing I’ve ever seen. I’ve used a couple retail sites in the past just to order quick and not have to deal with a person via email for a few days, getting quotes and such.
The lack of sophistication in this approach honestly smacks of Astroturfing. Next time:
1. Create two fake accounts
2. Use them both to engage in threads on BP, even if you’re just agreeing with other posters. You need to establish a bit of a post history. Actually asking questions and providing meaningful answers wouldn’t hurt your credibility.
3. Use the first fake to post a question that your product answers, but not directly: “Hey guys, I’m having a helluva time trying to do XYZ, any suggestions?”
4. Let the community provide a few answers
5. Now that the set up is complete, use fake account #2 to suggest your ABC product. But, don’t slather your answers with certainty: “I think ABC does this, I know they did when I used them a few months ago”. Also, part of making your astroturfing campaign credible is making it believable. Make your company out to be slightly imperfect: “They were great, but when I checked their website for ABC, they didn’t have any in stock. I called them, and they fixed the problem right away.”
Loading on praise never works. Even people that are passionate about a company with which they are not involved will only speak of them positively, not exuberantly:
“Hey, nice pen!”
“Isn’t it? It came in a package of 12 with one free permanent ink marker for non-porus surfaces, and I only paid 4.99 for the package. I found it in the pen aisle at hell-mart. The company that makes it also makes great pencils, office partitions, and filing cabinets. Their customer service is second to none. You should check them out. Their website is blah blah blah…”
Now, you’re probably thinking to yourself “Gee, that sounds like a lot of work”. And you’re probably right. Lunch isn’t free.
To be honest buddy, I have no clue who HavenPress is. I was merely trying to help answer his questions. I’m sorry if this bothered you.
Also, I did a “bit of a search”, and it took me forever to figure out that PressLab is based out of Arizona. I’m not sure why this information can’t be given on the company website. In fact, the website only talks about services, and mentions nothing about who started the company, or where it is based, or what their history is. Careful googling will eventually lead to the true owner of the company, but I’ll leave that exercise to the reader.
Hey Uh, Keelan, just in case you’re questioning it- I’m a real guy who was asking a real question…. Been on here for a long time… You can check… Uhm…. I’ve got a multidisciplinary shop in Brooklyn, NY, where we do various types of printmaking and job printing, including letterpress, silkscreen, woodcut, litho from stones and plates, etching, and a bit of bookbinding. It’s a coopt too, offering press rental to qualified individuals, and membership style access plans.
www.havenpress.com
It might behoove you to check on someone’s background or just ask if you’re skeptical- you may have just jumped the gun as you were just being super accusatory towards Jstuebe (whom I have never met and do not know).
ymmv.
Hey Jstuebe, thanks for the answers.
And before you think I’m trying to be punchy, I’m not- I recognize that there are a lot of scammers out there and that you’re being protective of this forum and the public at large- but I would suggest you just be a bit more careful flying wild accusations.
HavenPress, I wasn’t talking about you at all. I know you’re a regular here, and your post history shows it.
Now that I’m on a real computer, I can be a bit more elaborate. With my big log post about astroturfing, I wasn’t suggesting that you were the second party involved in the scheme. I was suggesting that, in the future, if Jstuebe wanted us to believe that he was independent of PressLab, that is what he should do. I am not suggesting that you are involved in any way.
I may be being a bit punchy, but I’ve worked in the internet hosting industry for 10+ years, and I’ve encountered a lot more insincere individuals that I have encountered sincere ones. There’s patterns that show up that are always typical of people that are out to make a quick buck on the backs of others.
If Jstuebe is legitimate, then I’m an ass. But I haven’t seen him deny my initial accusation.
Really loved your website, HavenPress, very complete and informative!
I’ll second that, just checked your website too HavenPress - very impressive (speaking as a website designer by trade!)
I’ll third that — I checked out HavenPress’ web site, and thought to myself “this is what a good website looks like”. It didn’t just tell me what they (you, HavenPress) do, it gives me a bit of an idea of who they (you, HavenPress) are.
I will 4th that, and thanks for always answering my posts too HP!