White-on-dark isn’t impossible as some people would have you believe. With the right inks, the right stock, and multiple hits of white it can work out pretty well, especially if the stock isn’t black or something close to black. You just need to work with a printer who’s actually interested in tough jobs and be willing to pay extra for the effort.

I'd guess this was letterpress.

You could probably also silkscreen it.

How do you know it's white on blue, and not blue on white?

Those are 'Letterpress' printed with a gray or silver ink on dark blue stock. Not very many do letterpress anymore but once you find one it's nothing overly complicated. As James pointed out it will most likely require a second bump of color to accomplish the necessary ink coverage and it comes at a cost.

I recently bookmarked SlowPress, I believe from a link on Typophile.

http://www.exquisiteletterpress.com/

Might be hotstamping as well.
The guy at the above mentioned printers is so helpful and nice. Do send him a mail and he'll help you further.

Based on the photo I'd be really surprised if these were hot stamped. I worked at a commercial printer and hot stamping was done with a metallic foil and I doubt it could hold any of the fine detail shown in the 'KIYA BABZANI' sample.

Wabi Sabi Inc.
They forgot the TM™

Zen LLC
no know®

Love AT&T
Sengai marketated for 10 years and then awoke.

TheCollapse™ is televised.

Oh and yes I know the paper is blue because I got this image looking at a paper choice! (from the paper supplier, not printer, so they prob. wouldn't know how precisely it was done anyways)

Hi, and thanks so much for the link!

It's SlowPrint, like slow food ;-)

Yes, in fact I've just been doing some work with an excellent silver ink. The metallic content (probably aluminum) is far more opaque than any pigment ink, including opaque white. I expect that adding white to the silver would produce an effect like the cards shown above.

These are definitely letterpress with ink on blue stock. While hot-stamping with foil or film (any Pantone color, in fact) is absolutely opaque (and can be holographic as well!) it's also really plastic looking, at least IMHO. Hot stamping with gold-leaf has a very honorable history, of course, but that's really a different ballpark altogether.

I'll try to get some of my trials up on our flickr page in the next few days...
meanwhile, there's plenty there to browse through!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pfraterdeus/sets/

Cheers!
peter

slowprint blog: http://typophile.com/blog/15244

http://slowprint.com/ Letterpress for Typographers!
http://alphabets.com/

why is it called "slow print" ?

It takes one hour to print 100! Business cards!!
Larger things can take like 5-10 times longer.

hhp

Of course, Mr. Hrant is perfectly correct.
Due to the geometrically increasing mass of each square mm of paper, the gravitrons of the stock affect the Heidelberg Windmill press in the w-y dimension, causing time dilation and a subtle but noticeable warping of space. The primary problem has to do with shortening of serifs as the press approaches Warp One.

However, we have developed certain techniques to help overcome this.
San serifs are nonetheless subject to the poorly understood ghost serif problem.

The most successful types used, of course, are those which have stood the test of time-and-space, typically those which evolved through natural hand-eye-brain interaction, rather than those typically ugly letters created at the drawing board or computer which have nothing whatsoever to do with the human experience of touch or love. Much the same as mid-20th C Architecture...

PF

http://slowprint.com/ Letterpress for Typographers!
http://alphabets.com/

PS Of course, it's really a reference to slow food. The best ingredients, prepared with care, enjoyed with pleasure...

I had been a member of Slow Food for years, but have let my membership lapse. What started out as an interesting and important organization has become hijacked by arrogant foodies (god I hate that term, but it does apply here).

You can all take your artisanal cheese and...

Peter, that is funny, but if you're having fun at my expense: I was talking about the cylinder press (which AFAIK is the most common letterprinting mechanism today), and I assume you agree with the obvious observation that the bigger the piece the fewer you can fit on a given size paper. Most of the time printing (unless it's a small run) is taken up with "rolling"* so that has a huge impact on the number of pieces you output per time period.

* Is there a more correct term?

hhp