orange beautiful’s type line (letterpress)

i love this modern and funky type line series of handmade letterpress cards recently released from chicago-based paper wizard emily martin of orange beautiful. the assorted fonts make an elegant statement, the pieces are printed on substantial textured card stock. they can be purchased separately or in sets of ten.

purchase these cards at orange beautiful’s etsy shop, see many other gorgeous things on their website and say hi to emily (and bff/blog collaborator laura) on their blog too (which is chock full of excellent goodness)!

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gilah press and design: let’s chat!

in the world of handmade stationery, choices abound that reflect many facets of our personalities. i for one have a bag full of cards in my closet that range from elegant letterpress to hipster sarcasm to simple pretty greetings. my stock reflects my ever changing moods, which is one of the many reasons why i love the clever, bright and pretty stylings of kat feuerstein and her company, gilah press. when i look at the collection of witty and just sacastic enough humor wrapped up in a classy letterpress card, it makes me howl with laughter. gilah (which is hebrew for joy) is a design company that not only creates clever cards and accessories, but also does custom work for corporate identities and invitations for special occasions. i enjoy this collection because it makes quick written correspondence so much more personal (and humorous) than a generic greeting card, and leaves the receiver not just with a gorgeous physical souvenir of a moment in time but also a fond memory to keep. let’s have a chat with kat and find out more!

q: where do you live, and where do you create your collection?
a: i live in a little eclectic neighborhood (hampden), which is located in baltimore, md with my husband (adam) and two cats (reo & mel). i create my collection in the very same neighborhood, a few blocks away in a big pink warehouse that i share with two assistants (whitney & nathalie), two interns (justin & maggie), a colleague (emily) and a cat (pica).

q: what is your background, and did you study art formally?
a: i went to maryland institute college of art (mica) where I earned a degree in graphic design. from there i worked for a couple of design firms, knowing that one day i would start my own company. i started doing some freelance design and happened upon letterpress through a friend of mine and the rest is history.

q: how did you come to work in paper as a medium?
a: i’ve always had an obsession with the printing process, so it was a pretty natural progression. there’s something so rewarding when you see a project come to life as the ink hits the paper and your vision becomes a real, tactile object. i love working with a variety of different paper types because every paper will react in its own way to the design.

q: are there any distinct challenges and rewards in working with a letterpress?
a: YES and YES. rewards wouldn’t be so rewarding without the challenges. with letterpress there are a lot of variables and almost every project we print comes with its own special set of challenges. the 100 year old presses we use can be finicky buggers, there are lots of rigs to help the process along. it literally depends on the weather some days, if it’s humid out the rollers will swell and we have to compensate for that. if the project we’re printing has a large solid area of ink coverage, we will print that differently than we would print a block of text. if we’re printing white ink on brown paper a whole new set of rules applies. if the ink is pushing out too much (looking sloppy) we can add masking tape to the rails that the rollers ride on to help correct that problem by bringing the rollers back to “type high”. so, to make an already long explanation longer, there are certainly lots of challenges every day, but that’s what we love about it and that’s what makes it so rewarding every time we print a beautiful looking piece.

q: are there any differences in your creative process between custom work and production work?
a: the custom work certainly takes more time in the beginning phases. there’s a lot more thinking involved, you know, in the shower, at the bar, on the couch to come up with the design and the specifications of what will work best for the design in terms of paper and printing. with the production work we really just have to make the time to bang it out, we already know what we’re getting into.

q: what inspires you to make the line?
a: inspiration comes from the things i surround myself with. my friends, my neighborhood, wine, the studio, etc. i also enjoy traveling to become inspired by new sites. a few months back we took a studio road trip to tennessee to visit yeehaw industries and hatch show print, talk about inspirational. the more sarcastic lines come naturally out of my acerbic sense of humor that i’ve had since i can remember. i’m a smartass at heart.

q: what is the price range of your collection?
a: our single greeting cards generally retail for between $4 and $6. we have some boxed notes and postcards that go for $10-25.

you can find gilah press cards around the country, at places like kate’s paperie (ny and ct), and powell’s books (or) and anthropologie (everywhere). if you’re a retail buyer you can see kat and the crew at the national stationery show in new york from 5/18-5/21/08, and if you’re looking for a perfect design for your special event in charm city, the studio is open by appointment. those of us who aren’t lucky enough to live in the are can stop by the gilah press website to see their full collection and say hi.

thank you kat!

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catch and release letterpress

i am enjoying these pretty letterpress cards from seattle graphic designer nicole stanton for her company catch and release.

i also like her handmade, limited edition sketchbooks made from old record album covers. they are made in batches of 30 pieces and contain graph, trace and drawing paper, along with assorted fun screenprinted pages in between to keep it lively and ensure that no two are alike.

purchase these pieces at nicole’s etsy shop, see what she’s up to on her blog and see more lovely things on her website.

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art school girl letterpress art - new pieces

amy rowan aka the art school girl has some more limited edition asg letterpress prints from chicago artists that are just as cool as the first two i showed you a little while ago… the first one, named fancy pants, is from ryan thurlwell and run! (the second one) is from david menard, who is exhibiting with his wife molly carter at the kortman gallery from april 11th - may 31st, 2008 in a show entitled dick and jane.

purchase these prints and see more on amy’s website (including her fun bookmarks!).

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motel deluxe letterpress file folders

these letterpress file folders from motel deluxe will add a touch of elegance to anyone’s office, and the procrastinate series might make you howl out loud (i think we’ve all been there).

see more super paper products on motel deluxe’s flickr stream, and purchase the folders in sets of six for $11.95 at the (oddly named) my lady shop.

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letteria letterpress stationery

i like these pretty, simple letterpress and printed coasters and cards from swiss artist christa schumacher-black of letteria. christa has a background in graphics and visual communication and it comes through perfectly clear with her singular, focused styles. when you aren’t having a cocktail party or sending correspondence, you can also festoon your favorite room with her happy garlands!

find the collection at her etsy shop, and be sure to see her flickr stream and website (in swiss-german language) for more!

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amy walsh silkscreens & sculpture - let’s chat!

philadelphia artist amy walsh could have easily been a scientist or an architect after having a look at her intriguing mixed media art. her gallery installations are a dreamy, intimate look into foundations, demolition and purpose. peering through little peepholes into other tiny worlds leaves debris floating in my head. it doesn’t seem necessarily determined to have a ending either; rather, it seems satisfied enough to saturate the viewer’s mind without a tidy conclusion like some romantic comedy you’d see at the cinema. it’s a private, contemplative place.

more intimacy can be found in amy’s gorgeous hand silkscreened specimen prints on vintage book pages, called the beastiarium. looking at these inspired animal combinations reminds me of thumbing through an old college biology textbook and coming upon a page covered with someone else’s notes, triumphantly bursting with rich color. it’s like some unfinished lesson from long ago, discovered serendipitously, that we were meant to find and keep in our minds. let’s have a chat with amy and find out more!

q: where do you live?
a: i live in west philadelphia with my hubby (an acupuncturist) and my cat izzy. my art studio is in fishtown in a warehouse.

q: what is your background, and did you study art formally?
a: i’ve been making things like crazy all my life. i majored in painting as an undergrad (university of massachusetts), and in sculpture in graduate school (pennsylvania academy of the fine arts). i took ten years off in between, and i am glad i did. i actually went to graduate school to continue painting, but switched to sculpture in my first semester in a moment of big transformation.

q: how are your pieces made? what types of media do you use and do you have a favorite?
a: in my 2D and 3D work i like to use found materials, decayed materials, stuff i just find around me. ever since i was a kid i have enjoyed making everyday materials like twigs and cardboard and paper and string transform into something otherworldly or totally convincing as its own little reality.

q: how large are these pieces and are they for sale? if so, what is their price range?
a: my sculptures are large, and they disappear when I am done exhibiting them. they are too fragile to move around from place to place, and they are made of materials that easily decay. so i build them in the exhibition space (after working on all the parts and fragments in my studio) and when the show is over, i deconstruct them, and often use many of the fragments in the next piece.

the specimen prints are all under 8″ x 10″ and are all $29 through my etsy shop. soon i am going to make some original gouache paintings based on the specimen designs, and those will be in the shop too.

q: what is your inspiration and message you want to send through these pieces?
a: the way i work now is similar to how i worked as a kid: my first “sculptures” were little villages made out of pine needles in the woods, when i was five or six years old. i don’t know if i am looking to send a message as much as just exploring as deeply as I can things that give me a sense of wonder, hope, sadness, etc. i think of these current sculptures as evidence of a world that is fragile, transient, and decaying, and at the same time is being rebuilt and reimagined. i am also really into the relationship of the inside and the outside, and playing with people’s expectations. i like the viewer to be surprised, to be let in on a little magic, a secret, something out of the ordinary. so, i keep a lot of dualities in my mind while i make the sculptures: order/chaos, collapse/rebuilding, interior/exterior, dark/light, delight/despair.

all that said, while i am working, i am really playing. the words and descriptions come later.

with the specimen prints, i am not sure what drives them. i am drawn to the old book pages for the same reasons i am drawn to dirty cardboard and wood scraps - they already have a history and a use. the animals and plants and sea creatures that i cobble together are just really beautiful to me, and combining them makes them nicely strange and sometimes a little yucky, which is a good combo. i have so much fun finding the places where these creatures can merge and become hybrids. maybe it’s a way to appreciate how weird real animals are.

q: are you currently exhibiting in any shows or is there any other meaningful information you would like to mention?
a: i sell my specimen prints at vix, and at occasional trunk shows at the mew gallery, both in philadelphia (the next one is this friday night, february 8th!). my etsy shop is a good place to find the specimen prints online. i sell them inexpensively so everyone can have one! and i update my blog and flickr stream with new work all the time. i love getting comments and critiques about my work, so i invite anyone to visit and say hello.

see amy’s graphic design portfolio here, and check out her website to see more paintings and large scale sculpture works!

thank you amy!

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asg editions letterpress art

look at what chicago artist amy jean rowan at art school girl is doing with her paper talents! she has commissioned 12 artists to create one original drawing each for her asg series. each month the original works will become signed and numbered letterpress prints, and limited to just 125 pieces. january’s (by amy herself!) and february’s (by sun young park) gorgeous selections have already been released, so jump on if you like what you see!

delicious!

purchase these 6.5″ x 9.25″ prints ($25 each) and other delightful things, and find out more about the asg project right here.

via poppytalk

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aijung kim art

multitalented new york printmaker aijung kim has created these sweet little letterpress pocket pictures in cute mini letterpress frames. they measure about 2 1/2″ x 3 1/16″.

there aren’t too many left, so run over to her etsy shop if you want one and see more of the wonderful art she makes on her website.

via craft

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new prints from keep calm

if you loved the simply marvelous prints from hayley thwaites and lucas lepola’s keep calm gallery, but missed out on the extremely popular earlier editions, fret no more because the gallery has just released three new prints! from hayley and lucas, we have a reprisal for keep calm and carry on, screenprinted by hand and in a new colorway, as well as a nutritional message. missouri designer doug wilson’s letterpressed make your own path, in a new unlimited edition, is printed onto his own antique map collection.

find all these and more at the keep calm website, and be sure to check out doug’s portfolio here.

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snow and graham stationery

i love the clean and beautiful patterns on chicago’s snow and graham stationery collection. it includes coasters, gift wrap, boxed sets and imprintables too. and i especially love their collection of letterpress cards.

their website is undergoing renovations right now, but you can see and purchase an enormous selection at luxe paperie online, and see all their beauty (including their candle line!) in the flesh at hazel if you’re local!

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red cap cards and letterpress

i love the whimsy and beautiful details in these illustrations for red cap cards. created in beverly hills by artist carrie gifford and her husband hal mertz, the collection includes multi colored letterpress and work from michael morrison and francesca montanari. all the styles merge to set a festive tone and easy, colorful way to communicate.

see much much more on red cap’s website!

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