Letterpress Queen

Self-promotion is never an easy task, especially when you're Australian. We live in an age of rampant online narcissism, but we also lived in a country with a national pastime of pathological self-deprecation. So creating a printed self-promotional piece presented its fair share of creative challenges.

"Letterpress Queen" is the affectionate nickname clients and friends have given me. This project was a chance to really flex the print muscles, showcasing both the fine-tuned skills I use every day while exploring new and experimental uses for letterpress.

Produced in collaboration with lettering girl group The Letterettes, I conceptualised and art directed this piece, with lettering by Kate Pullen, Carla Hackett, Eliza Svikulis and Wanissa Somsuphangsri. The design brief was to create 4 Queens as oversize A5 playing cards. Each Queen represents and showcases a different skill or speciality and highlights the many strengths letterpress offers to print as a medium. They are also produced using an array of different paper stocks and in this way it acts both as self-promotion, swatch book and inspiration guide for recipients.

Photographs by Mark Lobo.