Categories: General updates, Inspiration, Rants
Poring over some photo-lettering specimens—one of my preferred pastimes—I stumbled upon an advertising postcard that had been mailed to the original owner of my Lettering Inc. book back in November of 1960. The postcard was exciting enough to me on its own; I presume very few examples of this kind of ephemera have survived, and […]
Categories: Inspiration
Just had a chance to watch the beautiful 3 Union Shop, a short documentary about the Colby Poster Printing Company, written and co-directed by C. R. Stecyk III of Dogtown fame: I’ve been collecting Colby posters for a few years (they even had a role in inspiring some of my wedding collateral), and I had the […]
Categories: Case studies
My brother Devin and I recently completed this collaboration based on an idea proposed by famed artist/author/illustrator James Gurney: “How would an Art Nouveau designer (such as Alphonse Mucha or Henri Privat-Livemont) design a label for an imaginary product called ‘Lionfish Shampoo?’” We went a little far afield from the original prompt, in that our […]
Categories: General updates
I was perusing Google Analytics, as one is wont to do on a Saturday morning, and realized that the Three Steps Ahead Etsy shop had a spike in traffic the other day thanks to a New York Times blog article about the popular television series Mad Men. A commenter had linked back to my shop because […]
Categories: Case studies, General updates, Inspiration
Voilà, a couple of new limited-edition letterpress prints, hot off of the Heidelberg Windmill! Both were typeset by hand and printed with antique wood and metal type, and both are for sale in my Etsy shop. You can get 15% off your order by using coupon code STEPAHEAD when you check out. (more…)
Categories: General updates
Here’s a peek at the extra special packaging we’ve put together for our brand new print series. Get ’em while they’re hot on Etsy!
Categories: Case studies, General updates, Inspiration
Music has always been a gigantic source of inspiration for me as a graphic designer (see my wedding invitations, for example), and I’m proud to introduce the first specimens in a series of audiophile prints exclusively for the Three Steps Ahead Shop on Etsy. These examples were all inspired by music of the 1960s, specifically […]
Categories: Case studies
Here’s a sneak preview of the 2012 Los Angeles Printers Fair show guide cover, which will be given to all attendees of the Fair and also be available for purchase as a limited edition letterpress poster. The Fair is taking place at the International Printing Museum in Carson, California on Saturday, October 6th. Among all […]
Categories: General updates
An ad (most of which is blatantly ripped off from a vintage 1930s Iron Fireman brochure) that will be running in the LA Printers Fair Show Guide coming up in October. Featured type: the wonderfully dimensional Valuco by Aesthetic Apparatus, and Berber by Letterbox.
Categories: Case studies
Our friends Jasmine & Yale are getting married soon, and Alyssa and I decided to go all-out with our letterpress habit to create their invitations. The design process started on the computer, but the goal from the start was to create something really special, where the computer would only play one part of the tune. […]
Josh Korwin has been running Three Steps Ahead, a creative design studio, since the late 1990s. He has been a typography nerd for as long as he can remember, and rabidly collects (and sometimes sells) just about everything with neat type or lettering on it. While graphic design and web design fill most of his days, he dabbles in photography and letterpress printing.
