This year in Austin at SXSW Interactive 2012 I’m handing out a business card that I letterpressed myself.  Short and simple with only my Twitter account, phone number and the event name so when you sort through your stack of business cards weeks from now you might recall where you met me. I printed them at The Arm in Brooklyn.

My wife, Nicole Miller, and I took classes at the Arm last year so we could print our wedding invitations (and everything else we dream up). After you take classes you can sign-up for studio time on either the manual or Vandercook presses. You pay a one time fee for the ink coop, you bring your own paper and you have access to all of their metal type. The Arm’s website has all the information you need to have your plates made from Illustrator files, find paper and other resources.

Over the last few years I’ve printed cards that are event or location specific. PSFK published both of the different sizes that I was printing at the time. A folded tent-card that is the standard US business card size of 3.5″x2″ and then a square card with rounded corners. Both on 100# Cougar white and printed on my nearly 15-year-old Canon Inkjet.

These cards I printed for SXSW 2012 we printed on 130# Pegasus black using metal type on a C&P Pilot “F” manual press. The small type is 10pt Futura and the other is 16pt Kennerly Bold. The cards are the shape and size specified by the ISO/IEC 7810 standard as ID-1. An 1/8″ narrower and an 1/8″ taller than a standard US business card. The paper is from Shulman in Manhattan.

How long did it take? I thought about the idea on a Wednesday. I walked into Shulman on Thursday and they cut down two 26″x40″ sheets to my size in 15 minutes. I booked the press time at The Arm for Friday night. The most time was spent setting the type.