From dancing bears to flower-wreathed skulls, few bands are as famous for their intricate artwork and trippy color palettes as The Grateful Dead.
So, when playing card powerhouse Theory11 decided to release a deck in their honor, they knew color and detail would be crucial. Artist Joshua Noom rose to the challenge, creating a design that impresses Deadheads worldwide.
A Vibrant Tuck Box with Letterpress Magic
The ultra-vibrant tuck box is a masterpiece, letterpress printed by our friends at Studio On Fire using 6 colors! For designers and print lovers, this is the icing on the cake.
If your jaw hasn’t dropped yet, remember this. In letterpress printing, each color requires a separate trip through the press. This explains why most letterpress pieces max out at 2 or 3 colors.
First, each pass through the press stretches the paper, so the stock must withstand the wear. For this project, they used sustainable Mohawk Renewal Hemp Smooth Fiber White. Even more challenging was aligning 6 different colors on such an intricate piece. Especially on a stock stretched by repeated printings.
Discovering Hidden Details
This is definitely one of those pieces where the more you look, the more you see. The usual skulls and skeletons are present, including the Red and Blue “Steal Your Face” icon seen countless times on car bumpers and windows, and the iconic “dancing bears.”
Soon, other images emerge—banjo-playing turtles, dozens of roses, peace signs, and planets—each relying on precise color alignment. Even the inside of the box features Dead-themed icons, printed in a single color.
Studio On Fire: Masters of Tight Registration
Maintaining this level of tight registration demands significant experience from the printer and an artist’s eye for detail. Studio On Fire, often called the crème de la crème of letterpress printers, demonstrates their mastery with this colorful project. As if that weren’t enough, parts of the artwork are further enhanced with registered embossing, adding a tactile experience that’s as delightful as the visual one.
All of this proves that if you can imagine it and design it—no matter how intricate—there are printers who can bring your vision to life. And for that, we are all Grateful. 😉
