Intricacy of detail can take many forms in print design today as this edition of “Cool Designs” demonstrate. This week, we anoint French Paper Co. the (em)boss for its French Paper Total Package promo pieces, find Kevin Cantrell’s deck of cards stacked in favor of exquisite design, and spend some time quietly contemplating a book as exquisite as the art it contains. (Previous Cool Designs of the Week can be found right here.)
French Paper Total Package Design
Never one to do things by half, French Paper Co. recently unveiled these gorgeous demonstrations of how the various weights and colors of its many offerings can be transformed into stunning packaging. Printed, foiled and embossed by Franklin Press and Macintosh Embossing, these promos are bound to linger on designers’ desks long after others have been filed and forgotten.
Kevin Cantrell’s Citizens Card Design
Whatever else the recent renaissance in premium playing card design has wrought, it has encouraged some of our favorite graphic designers to try their hand at this delightfully portable medium. Print-making phenom Kevin Cantrell has crafted a deck like no other. Gold foil, hot stamping and bronze foil – if your entrance into paradise is decided by the luck of the draw, we imagine this is the caliber of deck that will be used. (Printed by the always amazing Studio On Fire.)
‘Seeing the Kites Again’ Book Design
Taking its lead from the work of Wu Guanzhong whose art is as much about the negative spaces as those marked by ink, this 300-page book celebrates the beauty of the ethereal and the not-all-there. The characters on the cover, for instance, are made up of blind embosses and debosses, as well as black lines that end in sudden fades of ink. Faded characters can also be found on vellum-like translucent pages, which also partially obscure photos of the artist himself.
