The cheerful portrait of Swiss watch designer Eric Giroud says “hello” to you when you open the letter.
We sculpted the subject using 3D polygon meshes, then translated it into a bas-relief, deep and multi-level embossing brass tool with its negative resin tool (see images below).
On the reverse you got one red Pantone offset print, then the other side is blind-embossed on a semi-wood, semi-synthetic fibre paper with vellum finish allowing extreme depth for embossing technique.
We were running out of time to make tests and I was first sceptic on how the ink on the embossed reverse will react and the printer warned me about it, but I finally said “let’s go” and surprisingly the result was just great. This is exactly what I wanted : a link between Eric and his wish message.
For the text, I’ve redrawn my favorite style of Nebiolo’s Neon typeface taken from a 1940 catalog and turned it into a typeface with the letters needed only.
This was sent worldwide along with a great book about Watch anatomy “La magie des montres” by Louis Nardin.
This is the embossing die with its counterpart. It has been carved using a 3-axis cnc machine and finished by hand.
Some of the many steps of generating a multi-faceted relief portrait of Eric, then corrections, then final render.
I always liked Neon typeface that Giorgio Da Milano designed in 1935, never existed into a digital font, I redrawn all the letters needed from the original catalog from 1940. It perfectly fits for a product designer and is also a timeless type design.
It was a great and enriching collaboration. Thanks for watching :)
