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

Concevoir un sous-verre assorti à une carte de visite

Gentleman Farmer avait déjà imprimé une carte chez nous et l'avait adorée. La demande : un sous-verre dans le même esprit (même famille de papier, mêmes finitions, même retenue), avec un menu de six en-cas pour le vin au recto et un QR code vers la boutique au verso. S'accorder à une pièce existante est plus exigeant que de partir de zéro, car chaque décision se mesure à un objet que le client peut tenir en main.

Deux sous-verres Gentleman Farmer sur un fond os chaud : Gmund Heidi 530 g/m², écusson en typographie noire et monogramme en dorure cuivre, coins arrondis, l'un debout, l'autre posé à plat.

DoruresDeep Copper · 115-2 TechniquesLetterpress, Deboss, Copper Foil, Rounded Corner PapiersGmund Heidi Used White 530gsm EncresPANTONE Process Black

L'idée

La plupart des imprimeurs auraient reporté la mise en page de la carte sur un format carré pour en faire un ensemble. Ici, nous avons choisi de conserver les matières et de laisser l'objet dicter la composition.

Four rules

01Reprendre les specs et le texte tels quels
02Accordez les finitions, pas la mise en page
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 — Le logo, à platLe logo, en dorure cuivre

Le même visuel, à un passage près. Sur fond sombre, la version à plat paraît imprimée. La version dorée capte la lumière de la pièce où elle se trouve.