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    Case study · coasters · Gentleman Farmer Wines

    Designing a coaster to sit beside a business card

    Gentleman Farmer had already printed a card with us and loved it. The ask was a coaster in the same voice — same stock family, same finishes, same restraint — carrying a six-item wine-snacks menu on one side and a QR to the shop on the other. Matching an existing piece is a harder brief than starting fresh, because every decision is measured against something the client can hold.

    Two Gentleman Farmer coasters on warm bone — 530gsm Gmund Heidi, black letterpress badge and a copper foil monogram, rounded corners, one standing and one lying flat.

    The idea

    Most printers would have copied the card's layout onto a square and called it a set. The decision here was to carry the materials across and let the object decide the composition.

    Four rules

    1. 01Take the spec as given, and the copy too
    2. 02Match the finishes, not the layout
    3. 03Spend the copper deliberately. Decided by what each face is for — the menu side is read at a table, the back is the brand moment with the logo and the QR. Foil earns its…
    4. 04530gsm, and let it be thick. Gmund Heidi at 530gsm, which is roughly double a heavy business card. It also takes a deep letterpress bite without the impression showing…
    The mark, flat compared with The mark, in copper foil
    The mark, flatThe mark, in copper foil

    The same artwork, one pass apart. On a dark ground the flat version reads as printed; the foil version catches the light of the room it's sitting in.

    The Gentleman Farmer coaster standing beside the business card it was matched to, both in black letterpress with a copper foil monogram
    Same stock, same black letterpress, same copper. Two different objects, and only the composition changes.
    Macro of the Gentleman Farmer badge on the coaster — copper foil monogram inside a deep black letterpress seal on Gmund Heidi
    The back is the brand moment — logo and QR. That's where the copper goes.

    Start from these materials

    Same paper, foil and finish, locked in — nothing of Gentleman Farmer Wines's artwork comes with it.

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    Designed by Austin Terrill, founder.