Case study · Wedding invitations · Dina & Austin (Print Peppermint founder)
Two rounds of our own wedding invitations
Austin, Print Peppermint's founder, and Dina are getting married in Berlin in November 2026. Two rounds of stationery exploration on our own stocks and finishes: run one tested materials and moods; run two committed to a topographic blind emboss of the Nile delta and the Spree, letterpressed names in English and Arabic, and a PVC festival-pass variant. Forty-three concepts, all produced on Peppermint specifications.
The idea
The first round did what a first round should do: it stayed open. Eighteen concepts across stocks, colourways and registers, with nothing narrowed down and nothing committed to.
Three rules
- 01Map instead of monogram. A merged topography of both home rivers — the Nile delta and the Spree — struck blind, no ink at all.
- 02Arabic set as type, not lettering. The Arabic set as type, in the same weight and the same warm grey as the Latin.
- 03Two runs, not one. Run one tested moods and materials; run two narrowed to five directions — quiet, mexican, berlin, cairo, symbol.
Run two — the map
The second round narrowed to five directions, one mood each. The blind-embossed river map runs through all of them; what changes is the palette, the type and how loud the piece is.
Run two — quiet
The quiet direction, 5 concepts.
Run two — mexican
The mexican direction, 5 concepts.
Run two — berlin
The berlin direction, 5 concepts.
Run two — cairo
The cairo direction, 5 concepts.
Run two — symbol
The symbol direction, 5 concepts.
Start from these materials
Same paper, foil and finish, locked in — nothing of Dina & Austin (Print Peppermint founder)'s artwork comes with it.
Questions
- Can you blind emboss a map on wedding invitations?
- Yes — a topographic map is one of the better subjects for a blind emboss, because the contour lines give the die something to hold and the whole image reads as depth rather than as a shape. It needs a soft, thick sheet: this suite is on 40pt double-thick cotton. Start a quote with this spec.
- Can you letterpress Arabic and English on the same invitation?
- Yes, and the decision that matters is weight, not language. Setting the Arabic in the same weight and colour as the Latin keeps both readable as one piece of typography; a calligraphic Arabic next to a light Latin serif makes the second language look like ornament. Start a quote with this spec.
- What paper holds a deep blind emboss without cracking?
- A soft, thick, uncoated cotton — 40pt double-thick here. Cotton fibre compresses and stays compressed, so the emboss keeps its shoulders; a coated or heavily sized sheet cracks along the edge of the die. Start a quote with this spec.
