Letterpress cards.

Something about letterpress prints is sooo attractive to me.  I love how images and text are crisply pressed into paper and make a vibrant imprint.  I have never seen a letterpress in-person, but would love to see it in action some day.  I have recently started following some letterpress printing blogs, which I will share in the future.  For how here is a small sampling of some letterpress cards found on http://raisedpoint.com/beautiful-examples-of-letterpress/ and http://papercrave.com/paisley-dog-press-letterpress-note-cards/ :

A few new holiday cards!

Bar code.

Stumbled THIS site last week.  Having worked with products and bar codes for quite a while now.  I really hope this "new" artistic bar code trend becomes more common.  Why not have fun with bar codes, when you are already designing the rest of a package? Bar codes could become a part of the design rather than being and addition to or an afterthought on a package.  Some designers are already creating these bar codes purely for artistic fun, while others are creating their for true use and creative expression.  The sure don't come cheap either.  Here are a few of my favorites:

(ALL IMAGES ARE FROM http://www.barcoderevolution.com/home/)

Diggin' this look.

I came across this section in CMYK magazine a few weeks ago.  I have never really been too impressed with their magazine before, but found much more in this issue that I liked.  I really like the feel of the features page and poll section - the hand written text and the xeroxed look of the images on a craft-paper background.  I also like the black and magenta on the neutral brown and white. Me likey.

Need a Kleenex??

Came across this ad a few weeks ago when browsing mags at B&N.  It is for Kleenex, and just in time for fall/winter illnesses.  It is trying to get customers to "share" a box of tissues.  The ad has many different "tags" that you can stick on a Kleenex box to send as a care package, or you can go on their website and send a box free (I considered it for a millisecond and then realized it was an extremely clever plan to get contact information and spam me with advertising hehe)!