The letterpress printed cards feature in a television advert, and in out-of-home and digital advertising, including animations on Three’s YouTube channel.

The cards feature six designs: a singing dictionary service, 24 hour compliment line, nickname service, time wasting line, sympathy service and 24 hour lullaby line.

“It’s not often you see print on TV,” said owner of Generation Press Paul Hewitt. “For me to sit at home and see my work on telly was great. And it’s nice to get print at the forefront of an ad campaign.” 

Cards have also been sent to key PR contacts, with recipients encouraged to phone the numbers, and distributed in the mobile retailer’s stores.

The cards were printed on Generation Press’s Heidelberg platen Windmill press on GF Smith's  Colorplan natural white. Letterpress was also used to apply foiling, with some designs die cut to feature rounded edges, and some featuring coloured edges.

When a further 120,000 cards were printed after an initial batch of 500, so that cards could feature in Three stores, certain processes had to be tweaked, reported Hewitt.

“They were pretty much the same as the first batch but we did have to adapt the production a bit to meet the timeframe given,” he said. “We used litho for some of the printing; we used letterpress for one colour rather than two for some cards. And the second batch didn’t have coloured edges.”

The Three television advert featuring Generation Press’s work featured the ‘Singing Dictionary’ cards, depicting a white tuxedo-clad choir, stationed in a cave providing this service. 

"The eye-catching collection of business cards, synonymous with phone services, proved an incredibly compelling visual with calls to the phone numbers reaching over 200,000,” reported Nick Owen, Three group account director at Three’s agency Wieden+Kennedy London.

Other recent prestigious Generation Press projects have included the V&A’s David Bowie exhibition last year, for which the company produced all promotional materials and press invites.