Bike co-op stationery

A volunteer-run repair co-op on Leary Way needed paper that could survive being pinned to a workshop wall and written on with a greasy thumb.

Client

A member-owned bike co-op, twelve years on the same block

Pieces

Letterhead, business cards, and a two-part workshop job sheet

Stock

Kraft 350 for the job sheets, cotton 300 for the cards

Inks

Black and a rust that reads as brown on kraft

Run

400 sets, printed over two mornings

What the job needed

The co-op writes everything by hand — intake notes, part numbers, who owes what. Their old cards were glossy and refused ink from a biro, which sounds like a small thing until you watch a volunteer try to write on one at the counter. The first decision was therefore the stock, not the design: an uncoated sheet with enough tooth to take a pencil.

The job sheet went through three versions. The first had a ruled grid that was too fine for the press to hold at that size. We opened the rules up, dropped a column, and set the labels in 9 pt caps so a tired person could still read them under the workshop light.

Printing notes

Kraft is a thirsty stock. We mixed the rust slightly stiffer than usual and ran it first so the black could sit on top without picking up. Make-ready took most of the first morning; the actual run of 400 was about ninety minutes. Registration was held by eye against the trim marks, which is the way it has to be done on a Platen with no gauges.

Nothing on this job is decorative. Every mark had to earn its place on a sheet someone would write on.

Afterwards

They came back the following spring for more job sheets and asked for the same rust. That is the highest compliment a shop like ours gets: a reprint with no changes.