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(Start a project)

Tell us what needs to be louder

What do you need? (required)
  • (C)Identity systems
  • (M)Editorial & print
  • (Y)Packaging
  • (K)Type & web

Overprint is a graphic design studio in Manchester. We make identities, print and type that refuse to whisper.

Identity, print and type, layered until it’s loud.

(01—04)

Four rules we don’t break

  1. Type first

    The letterforms carry the idea. Colour, grid and image are there to make the type louder.

  2. No stock, ever

    Every mark in our work is drawn, set or printed by us. If we can’t make it, we don’t use it.

  3. Ink is information

    We layer colour to say something: overlaps, knockouts and misregistration are part of the message.

  4. Loud, not hard to read

    Big type still has to pass contrast, work with a keyboard and read aloud properly.

We make brands that print hard, hold up on screen and still read from the back of the room.

We design with the press in mind. Colours are built as separate plates that overlap, and the overlaps are part of the design.

The same idea works on screen. Our sites layer live ink with CSS blend modes, so there are no flattened images to download.

Clients come to us when a quiet brand isn’t getting noticed.

(Selected work)

Work that prints loud

  1. (How a job runs)

    Four plates, one print

    Every job runs the same four steps. Keep scrolling to follow a piece from sketch to press.

  2. A designer's desk at night covered in letterform sketches, a hand drawing with a black marker under an angled lamp.

    (C) Step 01 / 04

    Proof

    We listen, read everything you have and sketch fast. Nothing is precious yet.

  3. A hand lifting a cyan film separation off magenta and yellow films of a letterform on a glowing lightbox.

    (M) Step 02 / 04

    Separate

    We split the idea into its plates: type, colour, grid and voice. Each one has to work alone.

  4. Ink-stained hands holding a brass loupe over registration marks on a printed sheet beside spinning press rollers.

    (Y) Step 03 / 04

    Register

    The plates are lined up across print, screen and signage until they hit together.

  5. A press operator in overalls watching CMYK sheets feed onto the delivery pile of a four-colour offset press.

    (K) Step 04 / 04

    Print

    Press checks, production files, guidelines and launch. You get everything you need to run it.

(The studio)

A screen printer mid-stroke, pulling a squeegee across a silk screen in the dim studio workshop.

Small studio, big type

Three people in Manchester, working directly with every client. No account managers between you and the people setting your type.