Penny Press designs
Well. Here we are. I didn’t expect to make tiny designs for flattened pennies, ever, in my career. These are my favorites that I’m so honored to have made for KARE 11’s 2023 and 2024 penny press, a Minnesota State Fair favorite.
The Laser Loon was a 2024 favorite. By the end of the State Fair, that imprint was looking a little ragged!
Behind the scenes: Penny design process
To get the optimal imprint on a pressed penny, there’s some things to be taken into consideration during the design process. First of all, the the whole dotted edge is non-negotiable: that pulls the penny through the press as it gets smooshed between the heavy struck die and the steel plate.
Secondly, too much detail won’t imprint well. Of course, I had to push the envelope with all of my designs. The knowledgeable designer at The Penny Press Machine Company worked with me on where to modify my designs to make the near-impossible happen.
Lazer Loon
The common loon has a deceptively simple shape. (At least to me, or maybe I was too confident going into it?) After staring at my reference page I managed to nail the rough shape down with a couple of pencil strokes.
It took me a little longer to convince myself to simplify in vector though. The more I simplified, the more I felt inspired by woodblock carvings, which was so exciting!
I knew I had to omit the goofy modification of Minnesota’s state motto* too, because when did a loon on a lake ever need more text?
*L’laser du Nord (the lazer of the north) instead of L'etoile du Nord (the star of the north)
The Voice chair
One of our biggest draws to the KARE 11 Barn at the 2024 State Fair was The Voice chair. It was such a win to get it especially since the upcoming Season 26 promised huge stars. So of course we gotta have a penny for that.
There weren’t any great references for the new season’s chair from NBC that early in the game, but I found a way to forge ahead: I traced and cleaned up what I could from NBC (hi, Reba!), and referenced a Bitmoji to see how best to simplify certain elements in a complex piece of furniture.