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A concept piece. Design by Kai is an invented studio and sells nothing. What this is

Bethnal Green, E2
Sample pack
Impression, not printing. Illustration

Letterpress and hot foil, pressed in Bethnal Green

Impression, not printing.

Ink laid into 600gsm cotton rag by a press built in 1962, so the type sits below the surface of the paper and you can feel it with a fingertip.

See the suites

By piece

Six hundred grams of cotton Illustration

The paper

Six hundred grams of cotton

Nothing here is wood pulp. The stock is cotton rag at 600gsm — thick enough to take a deep impression without the type punching through to the back, and soft enough that the edge tears rather than cuts.

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Type you can read with your eyes shut Illustration

Blind deboss

Type you can read with your eyes shut

A blind deboss carries no ink at all. The plate presses the letterform into the sheet and the paper holds it, so the whole design is depth and shadow — the quietest thing we make, and the one people touch first.

See Hawthorn
Gold that is struck, not sprayed Illustration

Hot foil

Gold that is struck, not sprayed

A heated brass die lays a leaf of foil into the paper under pressure. It is slower than digital gold and it does not scuff, because the metal is sitting in the impression rather than resting on top of it.

See Bethnal
An Adana 8×5, still earning its keep Illustration

The press

An Adana 8×5, still earning its keep

Built in 1962 and treadled by hand. One colour at a time, one sheet at a time — which is why a run takes a week.

Visit the studio

Start here

The sample pack

Six papers, a blind deboss and a foil, flat-packed with the weights and prices on the back of the card. Judge the depth in your own light.

Four weeks, three proofs, one press day Illustration

How we work

Four weeks, three proofs, one press day

A conversation about the wedding, then artwork, then proofs until the setting is right. Only when you have signed off does anything get made into a plate — after that the press day is fixed and the design is closed.

Read the process

The part a photograph cannot carry

Move the light across it.

A blind deboss is not a picture, it is a depth. Drag the light and the shadow inside the impression moves the way it would in your hands.

Light from left.

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A blind deboss on cotton rag, lit from the left Illustration
A blind deboss on 600gsm cotton rag, photographed at 3 light angles.
Overlapping ivory and blush paper stocks Illustration

Start here

The sample pack

Six papers we press on, one blind deboss and one hot foil, flat-packed with the weights and prices on the back of the card.

  • Six papers, 300gsm to duplexed 900gsm
  • One blind deboss, so you can feel the depth
  • One hot foil in gold
  • A card with every weight and price on the back

£12, refunded against your order

This form does not send. Design by Kai is an invented studio, and there is no pack to post.

  • Pressed in-house

    Every sheet is printed, foiled and torn in the one room in Bethnal Green. Nothing is sent out to a trade printer and finished under our name.

  • Priced before you commit

    The sample pack carries the full price list on the back of the card. There is no quote-on-request and no consultation fee to find out what a suite costs.

One room, one press, one window Illustration

The room

One room, one press, one window

One room, one press, a plan chest of paper and a drying line across the window. You are welcome to come and stand in it — most people decide on a paper in about four minutes once they have held the two they were torn between.

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From the studio