A Tale in Collaboration (Ft. Social Distancing)

Designing from a distance with Mikey Burton

Mikey Burton hates the term “new normal”. He prefers “alternate present”. Or even “darkest timeline”, for all the multiverse-nihilists out there. Whatever you want to call it, these days Mikey’s press checks are looking a bit different. Of course, with all the tech we have at our (literal) fingertips, working together from afar isn’t that hard.

So when Mikey teamed up with Keith Berger of Cranky Pressman to make a beautiful print about social distancing, they kept their hands—and thumbs—busy. They produced a 16x26, two-color letterpress poster, printed with love—and big ol’ wood letters—in Salem, Ohio. This limited-edition print sold out in less than an hour.

The text chain gives a glimpse into how easy collaborating from a distance can be. Especially when you’ve got great talent working with you. It starts with a sketch and a rough mockup (this one was done on the phone itself):

Texting photos back and forth let them both check out the style, decide on colors, and fit the type in the best way. Of course, the distance couldn’t keep them from goofing off.

Once they had the details worked out, Mikey took a look at some of the first test prints, adjusting the sizing a few times.

Naturally, Mikey started to get nit-picky to make sure everything worked out size-wise. A little encouragement from Keith resulted in an awesome final look.

Click here to check out more of Mikey’s work