When in MN this summer, I had the pleasure + joy of visiting heralded letterpress studio Studio on Fire. Principled by Ben Levitz and employing several talented designers [seven, to be exact]- their collective-partaken fun-loving and hard-working is evident from their portfolio and general studio presence.

Infusing occasional humor and clearly, design smarts into each and every project- Studio on Fire in unafraid of both form and function.  Not every shop would run tongue depressors individually through a press for the use of business cards. The outcome makes it clear why they did ::

Some of their work [as displayed during the visit] ::

They do a mix of design + printing and also simply printing work, but seem to have a keen eye for designers they work with. Their projects range from clever to awesome to witty and swell.  Perhaps it's the well-lit modern studio [full of beautifully-old presses] acting as a canvas for striking design ::

 playing hard...as evidenced on their dedicated-beer-can-wall. awesome.

Find out more about Studio on Fire on their site, and also via Beast Pieces, their amazing blog.  You know you want to...

I would be a fool to finish this sans mentioning their awesome yearly calendars, desk-sized and 2 months at a time designed by them alongside other design-contributors.

Studio on Fire is donating a whopping 100% of proceeds from their 2010 calendar sales to Haiti [via UNICEF]. Buy one here.