Our co-founder, Nick Sambrato, gave one heck of a talk for CreativeMornings Orlando. The theme was money and he took a really neat tack with the topic. In his talk, Nick explores what it’s like to be a part of Orlando’s vibrant creative community and questions why Orlando loses so many talented folks to bigger markets like NYC and San Francisco. He explains that money is a cog in the wheel of community: creating opportunity for the ones we love.

Our noble ally Aaron Draplin came by the shop today for a visit. If, for some strange reason, you follow our work and not his, stop what you’re doing and take a gander at the DDC Portfolio. Many a dark day have we mustered our moxy from a few clips of Draplin raising a ruckus on stage at design conferences. In case you were wondering, this guy is the genuine article. None of his chutzpah is manufactured or contrived. It’s real-life chutzpah. Really. If you don’t believe us, take a look at at his father (the Draplin standing next to Draplin)…who shall henceforth be your hero.

It was cool to hear Aaron share his thoughts about our recent collaboration, Love Letters, and his drive to leverage creative resources for noble causes. We’re definitely gonna be in the kitchen with Draplin on some upcoming projects in that vein. Then again…he did yell “I’m never coming back” as he walked out the door.

This seems like a good time to mention that we’ll be on the bill with Draplin at Creative South in April. All you southern folk who give a rip about doing good work oughta come hang! More on this later.

We are pleased to announce that Love Letters is officially completed and orders are shipping today! We are so thankful for the efforts of each designer that contributed to the project as well as each of you who’ve already pre-ordered your set.

Our good friends over at Fiction heard about what we’re trying to do with Love Letters and came by to make a beautiful little film about the project. Side note: if you haven’t seen it, check out the film they made about our Kluge (which is now a Vimeo Staff Pick).

We still have sets for sale, so Click Here to get yours!

“A” by Fuzzco

“E” by Justin Mezzell 

“I” by Aaron Draplin

“O” by Dana Tanamachi

“U” by Jon Contino

Ampersand by Jessica Hische

“Y” by Ross Moody, 55 Hi’s

Whether or not you’ve been to visit the Hamilton Wood Type & Print Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, the legacy and craft housed there has had an incredible impact on everyone in the graphic design and printmaking industries. Because of this, we were shaken to hear of their current plight. They’re being forced to relocate and need help raising funds to move and store their incredible type collection.

To help raise money and awareness for the museum, we’re releasing a set of 7 letterpress printed alphabet coasters inspired by the legacy and craft of Hamilton Wood Type & Print Museum. The set, made with paper donated by Neenah Paper and French Paper, includes A, E, I, O, U, &, and Y. As if the cause weren’t enough to mobilize conscientious creatives, this project has a roster to die for:

A: Fuzzco

E: Justin Mezzell

I: Aaron Draplin

O: Dana Tanamachi

U: Jon Contino

&: Jessica Hische

Y: Ross Moody

Click here to order your set now!

We are feverishly elated to announce that the Mama’s Sauce Internship Program is now officially sponsored by French Paper Co.

No one shares our awkwardly intense enthusiasm for inspiring young print designers more than the fine folks at French. Together, we aim to build a program that introduces aspiring print designers to the world of spot color in a unique and hands-on sorta way.

Here’s a rundown of our new & improved educational gauntlet for Spring 2013:

French Paper Treasure Chest:

The kindly souls over at French Paper Co. will be supplying Mama’s interns with an arsenal of inspiring goods that are essential for any aspiring spot color print designer / paper geek.

Spot Color Seminar:

Learn a bit about the ins & outs of designing for spot color printing and demonstrate that learning by designing and printing a screen printed project.

French Sample Room:

Select intern projects will be proudly displayed in the French Sample Room.

Guest Professor:

Spring 2013 interns will have their portfolios personally reviewed by this semester’s Guest Professor: James White of Signalnoise Studio. This is a golden opportunity to hear a Canadian accent in a professional setting.

Hard work:

The only way to learn how to look at print is to look at print. A lot. We instill our obsession with quality in our interns by teaching them to check every single print that comes off press. Every printer at Mama’s Sauce got their start in quality control and it’s the only reason they can print the way they do.

Press Time:

Get to know letterpress and silkscreen printing by getting all up in the business of our presses. Learn to oil them, clean them, and help our pressmen run them.

The internships are unpaid, but we’ll happily work with your educational institution so that your work here is rewarded with credit. If you are not a student, don’t be afraid to throw your name in the hat!

If this sounds like something that makes you want to pee your pants, don’t fight that feeling. Click here to apply.

We’re pleased as punch to give a first look at the artwork contributed for Love Letters! $22 of the purchase price from this set of letterpress printed coasters will got to help sustain the Hamilton Wood Type & Print Museum. Paper for the coasters and packaging has been generously donated by Neenah Paper and French Paper Co.

Click here to order.

This is a terrific opportunity to celebrate a legacy of influence and inspiration. We can’t thank these designers enough for their incredible contribution:

A: Fuzzco

E: Justin Mezzell

I: Aaron Draplin

O: Dana Tanamachi

U: Jon Contino

&: Jessica Hische

Y: Ross Moody

Click here to order.

We promised this some time ago, and now here they are… Scans of nearly 200 of our vintage letterpress plates for your designing pleasure! These beauties make for great inspiration and tools and come to you in one easily downloaded zip file chock full of 300 dpi 50/50 bitmapped greatness!

Just click the pic below to download all 191 bitmaps!

ps. if you have a copyright claim on any of these, just shoot us an email and we’ll remove anything protected by copyright from the collection. these pieces are intended for inspiration only, use at your own risk.

Over the years we’ve amassed a collection of vintage letterpress cuts. These dies were mostly etched in wood or or copper and some are dated back to the late 1800′s! Within the collection are examples of typography, illustration, & just pure weirdness that we think you would die to have… So have them you will. You see, we’ve begun the process of printing each and every one of these vintage cuts. After they’ve all been put to paper, we’ll scan ‘em, zip ‘em, and have them available as hi rez bitmaps for your inspirational enjoyment! Sound good? I think so.

Here’s snap shot of the first sheet we ripped…

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps was birthed in 1867 and and still operates today. They produced some seriously gorgeous hand-lettered maps back in the day, many of which can be found in the Library of Congress. These late 19th and early 20th century type treatments are well worth passing around for all the design world to be inspired by. See the entire scanned collection at BibliOdyssey. (Most of the images on that page link to hi-rez scans on Flickr!) There’s also a great little discussion/comment thread in BibliOdyssey’s entry on Typography vs. Lettering. Some real nerd stuff. Love it.

A few of my favorites.

You design something like this and send it over for a letterpress print on some tea-stained paper and I’ll be well inclined to give you a seriously hooked-up price on it!

So I’m going to try something that requires a little discipline here… If you follow us on the Twitter and Facebook, you’ve probably seen ‘What’s on Press…’ which is basically a snapshot of whatever we have on press that day. We’re pretty good about keeping up with it and people seem to like it. Well, we print a lot more than we get to share – so each week I’m going to try and collect everything in bulk and put it out there. I really feel lucky to work with all of the wonderful designers who we print for, and hope that sharing the work that goes through our presses will help inspire you to see the possibilities that still exist with traditional print mediums. I’ll be trying to make it a Friday thing – forgive me for jumping the gun a bit early this week! Enjoy this weekly update – and if you want daily’s make sure to follow our FB & Twitter. Both links can be found in the right column of this here blog.

Click to make them big. Enjoy.