Ladyfingers Letterpress

Colorado Springs studio Ladyfingers Letterpress makes its greeting cards by hand on-site, with Arley Torsone's lettering and Morgan Calderini running the presses.

About Ladyfingers Letterpress

Based in
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Founded
2010
Known for
letterpress greeting cards with hand lettering

Arley Torsone and Morgan Calderini, a designer and printmaker couple, started Ladyfingers Letterpress in 2010 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Calderini studied printmaking at RISD; Torsone studied at Parsons. A hand-lettered, poster-sized letterpress wedding invitation they made went viral in the stationery world.

They introduced a greeting card line in 2013 at the National Stationery Show. After a wildfire claimed Calderini's family home in Colorado, they opened a flagship shop in downtown Colorado Springs, where visitors can watch the presses run. The queer and trans owned studio makes its cards, stationery and invitations there.

Expect bold hand lettering and plain-spoken jokes on cards for birthdays, thank-yous and more.

Ladyfingers Letterpress questions

What is letterpress printing?

Letterpress is relief printing: the design stands raised on a plate or block of type, gets inked, and is pressed directly onto the paper. Most letterpress equipment prints one color at a time, so a two-color card goes through the press twice. Traditional printers aimed for no visible dent, but many modern printers let the impression show, so you can feel the design pressed into the card. Ladyfingers prints its cards on presses in its Colorado Springs studio.

Who draws the lettering on Ladyfingers Letterpress cards?

Arley Torsone, the studio's designer and letterer, who studied at Parsons. Hand lettering means drawing the words as part of one specific design rather than setting them in a ready-made font, so each card's words have their own shapes and spacing. Morgan Calderini, who studied printmaking at RISD, runs the letterpress and the studio.

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