How do you handle take the spec as given, and the copy too?

The client supplied the whole spec up front — 4″ × 4″, rounded corners, 530gsm Gmund Heidi, letterpress deboss in black on both sides, copper foil on one or two sides — plus the exact copy for both faces. Treated all of it as fixed. A strong brief gives spec, copy and reference at once, and this one did. The only genuinely open question was how much copper, which the client explicitly left to design.

How do you handle match the finishes, not the layout?

A coaster is square, four inches across, and gets set down on a bar. A business card is a hand-held rectangle. Copying the card's layout onto a square would look like a stretched card. Carried the materials and finishes across — same stock, same black letterpress, same copper — and let the format drive the composition. The reference the client showed was a pub-style ruled menu coaster, so the front took a ruled menu structure the card never had.

How do you handle spend the copper deliberately?

Copper foil on one side or two was the design's call, and each side costs a pass. 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 place where someone looks once, not where they read six lines of prices.

How do you handle 530gsm, and let it be thick?

A coaster has a job — it absorbs, it sits flat, it takes a wet glass. Card stock doesn't do that. Gmund Heidi at 530gsm, which is roughly double a heavy business card. It also takes a deep letterpress bite without the impression showing through, which on a two-sided piece is the whole reason to use a heavy sheet.

Case study · coasters · Gentleman Farmer Wines

Diseñar un posavasos para acompañar una tarjeta de visita

Gentleman Farmer ya había impreso una tarjeta con nosotros y le encantó. El encargo era un posavasos con la misma voz (misma familia de papel, mismos acabados, misma sobriedad), con un menú de seis aperitivos para vino en una cara y un QR a la tienda en la otra. Igualar una pieza existente es más difícil que empezar de cero, porque cada decisión se compara con algo que el cliente puede tener en la mano.

Dos posavasos de Gentleman Farmer sobre hueso cálido: Gmund Heidi de 530gsm, insignia en impresión tipográfica negra y monograma en foil cobre, esquinas redondeadas, uno de pie y otro en plano.

FoilsDeep Copper · 115-2 TécnicasLetterpress, Deboss, Copper Foil, Rounded Corner PapelesGmund Heidi Used White 530 g/m² TintasPANTONE Process Black

La idea

La mayoría de las imprentas habría copiado el diseño de la tarjeta en un cuadrado y lo habría llamado conjunto. Aquí se decidió trasladar los materiales y dejar que cada objeto definiera la composición.

Four rules

01Acepta las especificaciones y el texto tal cual
02Combina acabados, no el diseño
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…
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 — El logotipo, en planoEl logotipo, en foil cobre

El mismo diseño, con una pasada de diferencia. Sobre un fondo oscuro, la versión plana se lee como impresa; la versión con foil capta la luz de la habitación en la que está.