Invitations Design Studio adopts innovative approach to wedding cards printing

The company specialise in offering custom made / handcrafted wedding cards and event invitations. Their products range includes wedding cards, special occasion cards, seasons’ greetings, photo frames, stationery, and other gift items.

With strong graphic designing background, Parikh and his team understand their client’s feelings and their needs which is reflected in a large collection of creative samples adorning the office walls.
“Our creative work is all about adding a personal touch to invitations/wedding cards which are unique and exclusive,” says Parikh.

A graphic designer himself, Parikh, is also famous for his knowledge on letterpress techniques.

With letterpress, his cards and stationery comes with emboss and de-boss effects. “Embossing is one of the most sophisticated and effective print finishing techniques. It enhances the details of the design, with eye-catching impression,” says Parikh.

The company received multiple commendation in PrintWeek India’s Quality Awards 2016 in the categories of ‘Innovative Printer of the Year’ and ‘Social Stationery Printer of the Year’.

Tell us about the beginning and your current business?
I am aware of all the printing processes – be it screen, letterpress, offset or digital - which I had learnt during my study in fine arts. After completing Bachelor of Fine Arts from MS University, Baroda, I started a design studio and I used to outsource printing of my customers’ jobs.

However, I had to depend on outside printing press and I had no freedom of creativity. I had even lost few customers owing to quality and delivery issues. So, I decided to set up my own printing unit which has now complete screen printing facility – Grafica’s Nano-Print plus, Nano-UV, Nano-Screen Maker 5-in-1, letterpress, foiling, die cut, laser cutting, and other post press facilities.

We have two lines of businesses, first is the letterpress business, under the name ‘Fine Letter Press’ which is used to print our own customers’ jobs as well as undertake job work. Despite, letterpress being an old printing process, there is lot of demand for it. We have every day letterpress printing orders. And now-a-days it is costly too, so only niche customers come to us.

(Second from right, Parikh, during a show)

Our second business entity is Invitations Design Studio, which offers customised premium printing solutions such as wedding cards, invitations, corporate gift wrapping, corporate and social stationery, etc.

What do you consider your specialty?
Since crafting is my hobby and passion, I decided to offer wedding card and invitation by using my special skills. People like creatively crafted wedding cards/boxes with the impression of letterpress. We also use other print finishing techniques such as laser cutting, screen printing (special colours and UV special effects), foiling, etc.
Our own letterpress/screen printed visiting card itself costs over Rs 12. All these involve screen printing and /or letterpress besides other print finishing techniques. We use laser cutting very innovatively and that can be considered as one of our specialisation. We use different papers/non paper substrates (glass, MDF, plastic, board, leather, etc), different spot colours, print technologies. Our major business is wedding cards and invitations for all occasions.

What constitutes your market?
We have customers all over India and in Mumbai we have lot of big customers. And we have many NRIs clients too. They all come to us through referrals and we meet our customers with prior appointment only to discuss their specific requirement.
Since we cater to very niche market our cards start from Rs 250 and goes higher. Hence quantity is less but quality has to be absolutely top class. We use branded inks, material, and costly substrates, besides lot of handcrafts.

Tell us about your views on screen printing?
I am personally skilled in screen printing and I used to print manually. Screen printing is the most integral part of our wedding card business. We now use lot of value addition such as abrasive UV, micro emboss, crystal UV, emboss UV, etc., which are often combined with letterpress. Screen printing brings life to wedding cards while letter press brings royal and antique look.

I have also several workshops including the one at DMI to practically know more about advanced screen printing, UV technology and UV special effects, screen making process, etc. I feel at the level of the proprietor, it is important to know the function and application of a screen printing machine and allied equipment so that we can make best use of it.