As part of our new baby collection, we're thrilled to announce our collaboration with Pikku! We're huge fans of Valerie's adorable gift wrap, pillows and calendars and are super excited about these birth announcements! See all the designs here.
oh, baby!
We do have BIG NEWS!! We've recently relaunched our baby collection and they are now available online - yippee! Each card is digitally printed on premium, FSC-certified 100% recycled cardstock. Click here to see them all!
Eunice and Daniel's Wedding, finally!
We are SO excited we are to FINALLY be sharing photos from Eunice's wedding! Eunice, as many of you know, is our co-founder and Creative Director and her wedding last May 9 was one of the most unbelievable days ever!
Eunice looked stunning in a dress of her own design, hand sewn by multi-talented Hello!Lucky London office head Iain Harris Bartlett, with makeup by Meaganne McCandess and headband by pal Jennifer Behr (available right here!).
Tons of our creative friends helped out with the details, including Tricia Roush (top left) of House of Nines Design. Magnolia Photo Booth was one of the highlights - guests had a blast taking mugs with all kinds of hilarious props! Bottom row, Eunice and Sabrina celebrating the best day ever, and bridesmaid Erin Murphy trying on a tissue paper crown.
A high point was a Tim Walker-inspired parade featuring animal shadow puppets designed by Eunice, fabricated Jillian and Toast at Because We Can, and then hand-painted!
Introducing Mr. & Mrs. James!
Oh, yes! And the reason for the delay in sharing these pics!? The wedding is on the cover of the Spring 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings!! Check out the full gallery on their website here, and stay tuned for behind-the-scenes blog posts on The Bride's Guide. We'll also be posting lots more behind-the-scenes photos on our blog -- there's just so much great stuff to share!!
Stay tuned for more to come!
Stunning photos by Gia Canali and Sara Remington.
The Exquisite Book Project!
It's sure turning out to be a good year! This awesome illustration, designed by our own lovely and talented head designer and co-founder, Eunice Moyle, has been accepted to appear in The Exquisite Book Project--published by Chronicle Books and out this Fall!
This project, curated by our friend and fellow designer Julia Rothman and lovingly dubbed "a total experiment"--is a collaborative effort among artists of all sorts; illustrators, designers, and comic artists come together to tell a singular story. Each artist contributes one full illustrated page to the book, and are given no more to go on than the previous artist's illustration!
We're over the moon about The Exquisite Book Project, and are rather humbled to be amongst such other contributors as: Mike Perry, Camilla Engman, Dave Eggers, and our buddies over at Lab Partners.
Introducing Our Brand New Photo Save the Dates!
We've been having way too much fun here at Hello!Lucky with our new Photo Save the Dates! (Not to mention the added bonus of our very own in-house photo booth from Magnolia Photo Booth!)
The new save the dates are as quirky or as classic as you want to be. Use one of your own photos, or come visit us at our San Francisco studio for a nostalgic photo booth photo shoot. And don't worry, prop moustaches provided on request!
Photo credit: Adi Nevo
Hello!Lucky Style Me Pretty Giveaway!
Our friends over at Style Me Pretty are celebrating our 2010 new designs by giving readers a chance to win a set of 100 digitally printed invitations and reply cards! To enter, just head over to their blog and leave a comment telling them which one of our designs--either letterpress or digital--is your favorite. A winner will be chosen this Friday, January 29. Good luck, and we can't wait to read your responses, too!
Drum Roll, Please! New Wedding Designs!
Our long-awaited unveiling is here! We are absolutely thrilled to bring you 12 new designs from our design studio here at Hello!Lucky. These brand new Save the dates, RSVP cards, and wedding invitations have been months in the making, and many have been inspired by our wonderful clients!
Our San Francisco Skyline invitation evokes the beautiful silhouette of your chic urban wedding.
Inspired by the motley sailors of yore, our Vintage Tattoo design is a perfect accompaniment to your hip and stylish wedding.
Our Heartland wedding invitation is full of rustic charm. Inspired by vintage fruit crate packaging, this invite adds a little shabby chic to picturesque farm or ranch weddings.
A beautiful, modern design with retro flourishes, our Nouveau Peonies invite is inspired by the romance and decorative whimsy of Art Nouveau textiles.
Land ahoy! Our Seagull wedding invitation is a relaxed accompaniment to seaside weddings.
Our other new designs include: a Lake Tahoe-inspired design--perfect for all outdoorsy weddings; a whimsical Cala Lily wedding invitation, a pretty Vintage Lace design with a retro flair; Tuscany and Bordeaux--perfect pairings to your wine country wedding, and and the San Francisco Skyline designs (which complements our London Skyline, New York Skyline designs), showcasing the city silhouette of your urban, city wedding.
San Francisco Wedding Fair
We're looking forward to the San Francisco Wedding Fair this Sunday, January 10 from 11 - 4 at Four Seasons Hotel. Let's face it: most bridal shows are a kind of lame. However, this one consistently attracts some quality vendors. If you're thinking of only hitting one of these events, it's the one to check out.
We'll be there exhibiting with partner Magnolia Photo Booth, an awesome photo booth company that just launched in the Bay Area. Magnolia will be demo-ing their booth, and we have some brand spanking new save the date designs that use the photos & photo booth pics! Magnolia keeps a booth at our studio at 977 Howard Street (between 5th and 6th), so you can drop by use it for free to make awesome save the dates, thank you cards & more (just call ahead, as it's sometimes out on loan).
A few vendors to definitely check out at the show:
Cakes & Sweets
Calligraphy
Florists
Rentals
Classic Party Rentals Hartmann Studios
Event Designers
Check out the San Francisco Wedding Fair website for a full list of exhibitors. Enjoy!
Gilt Groupe Sale!
Check out Hello!Lucky cards on Gilt Groupe this week - steep discounts on some of our favorite letterpress cards styles, including thank you notes, holiday cards, and party invitations! Not a member? Leave your e-mail address in a comment and we'll be happy to invite you join!
Featured in the Financial Times!
Our Woodland Cheer thank you card was featured in the "How to Spend it" section of this weekend's Financial Times, along with excerpts from an interview with the Moyle sisters! Writer Mark O'Flaherty did a great job with the piece. Thanks, Mark!
One of our favorite quotes he picked:
"When something heartfelt has to be conveyed, an e-mail can't compete. The stationery of the future will be unique and handcrafted. If it feels mass-produced, why bother?"
Here's the full interview:
MO: Could you tell me how you both first became interested and involved in letterpress?
HL: Eunice studied printmaking in collage and heard about a letterpress class held at San Francisco Center for the Book from a friend. She took a class there and became obsessed. Her first project was James Bond-themed invitations inspired by the original Casino Royale movie poster for a party Sabrina was hosting -- thus Sabrina got hooked as well. Eunice got her first hand-cranked Vandercook printing press on eBay and installed it in her garage. After printing thousands of cards and developing a mild case of tennis elbow, we upgraded to a more automated Heidelberg Windmill printing press, from circa 1950.
MO: How would you describe your particular style?
HL: Happy vintage graphic bohemian. We draw from eclectic sources, from Victorian to 1960s advertising design, so our style is hard to pinpoint. The unifying characteristic is a sense of whimsy and making sure the artist's/designer's hand felt in the design details and customisation.
MO: What have your inspirations been?
HL: Tim Walker, Paul Rand, Jamie Oliver's food packaging by Pearl Fisher, The Raleigh Hotel, Rob Ryan, Mucha, Hatch Show Print, Charlie Harper, Kay Nielsen, Andy Warhol, Orla Kiely, Andrew and Martin Provensen -- to name just a few.
MO: What’s the scale of the operation and how many pieces are you producing per year?
HL: We're a mid-sized boutique - about 15 staff and 4 printing presses. We produce about 2,000 letterpress cards per day, ranging from greetings cards to custom designed wedding invitation suites, each of which may consist of multiple customised enclosures. So, probably about 80,000 - 100,000 pieces a year.
MO: Do you think there is one particular piece of work you’ve produced that sums up your style, or that you think has been particularly successful?
HL: The save the date poster that Eunice created for her own wedding - it's a bit over-the-top and combines whimsy with graphic elements and hand lettering and illustration. Other than that, the L'Oiseau wedding invitation suite is representative of our style - graphic and chic but a light-hearted.
MO: Why is letterpress which is inherently ‘vintage’, so modern again?
HL: People are feeling very nostaligic for the written word and old-fashioned correspondence. Call it mass-media burnout, Facebook phobia, or what not. There is something tactile, pleasing and personal about receiving a hand-written note written on a beautiful piece of stationery. Letterpress plays perfectly to these visceral desires because it is printed on a soft, cottony paper and printing is literally pressed into the page.
MO: Impossible I know, but from the book Handmade Hellos, could you identify 2-3 people working in letterpress mentioned in the book that you think are working in a particularly modern way, and why?
HL: Absolutely. Egg Press: they are using graphic, Mid-Century modern-inspired designs (think Marimekko or Orla Kiely) and combining that to perfection with letterpress and a witty sensibilty. Pancake & Franks: their designs are uber modern, conceptual, and minimal - all the white space sets off the letterpress printing to a T.
MO: Have we lost the art of letter writing, or will it come back? I’d love to know how you feel about the whole emotion of receiving personal handwritten mail...
HL: The art of letter writing is not lost by any means -- it's just becoming much less frequent. Letter writing will always persist among a certain set and for certain special circumstances (I mean, e-mail love letters? How unromantic!). We love the immediacy of e-mail for normal communication. But when there is something heartfelt to be conveyed -- a word of sympathy, a wedding invitation, a love note -- there is just no way that e-mail, no matter how many bells and whistles are attached, will ever compete with the human hand. Because letter writing is being reserved only for special occasions and people, the stationery of the future will be increasingly unique and hand-crafted. That's where letterpress again comes in, as opposed to the traditional cheap-and-cheerful greeting card. If it feels mass-produced, why bother? You might as well a send an e-mail. (And it doesn't hurt to take a few calligraphy lessons, too!)
Outtakes from 7x7
Thanks to amazing photographer John Lee of John Lee Pictures for sharing these hilarious outtakes from our 7x7 photoshoot. While the editors chose a rather staid photo for the magazine, they must have had to work hard to pick these out among the majority, which involved stuffing ourselves with cupcakes, blowing up balloons, and general silliness! It was so much fun!
I feel sorry for those poor little cupcakes!!
Thanks for sharing, John!! Check out the rest of John's work here and his blog here.
Photo credit: John Lee Pictures
Featured on Daily Candy!
We're thrilled to have been featured on Daily Candy Deals this week! The editors hand-picked our new custom holiday card line - yea! The feature also includes a 30% discount site-wide (yes, you heard us - that includes wedding invitations, greeting cards & gift wrap, personalized stationery, and more!) through December 10 (enter code HELLODC at checkout). Above, one of our faves, Cut Paper Christmas.
All our photo holiday cards are printed on thick 130 lb 100% recycled paper and custom designed by our crack-team of expert designers! They're great for newlyweds as well as families!
Of course, our signature quirky sense of humor abounds -- like in our dancing dreidels hannukah card (note tiny "yea!" flag)! (Folded version also available)
And don't forget personalized stationery, which makes a great gift!
So enjoy, everyone, and happy holidays!! And thanks, Daily Candy!
Introducing...the Chick-o-Meter!
Welcome to Hello!Lucky's Amazing Chick-o-Meter! This pile of chicks represents the 3,000 chicks we're donating to hungry families this holiday season via our new partnership with Heifer International! Oh yes, we plan to catapult, slingshot, parachute, float, fly and belay as many chicks as possible to families that need them! Read more about Heifer and why we're doing this here.
Each week, we'll measure how much support we're getting for our goal with a pile o' eggs that represents YOU (yes, you!). Just enter the code "GIVECHICKS" at checkout*, and each time you do we'll add 20 chicks to our count. If we reach our goal, we'll donate 2 llamas, too!
So don't be a chicken...help us give chicks! We hope you can join us!
Yours sincerely,
Hello!Lucky
*sorry, this can't be combined with promotions.
No chicks were harmed during the process of illustrating this graphic. The catapult is intended for comic effect only. Hello!Lucky does not condone using a catapult in the creation of a pyramid of chicks.
"Eggs on Us!" with Heifer International
We're thrilled to announce our new partnership with Heifer International. It's hard to pick favorite charities, but they're near the top of our list.
Why? Heifer is helping fight poverty and hunger around the world. They're doing it in the simplest way possible - giving families a sustainable food supply. Sometimes this is a goat. Sometimes it's a yak. Sometimes it's a flock of chicks. Or a pair of llamas. Each of these livestock produces milk, eggs, or offspring that can feed a family and support a community. They help people become self-sufficient. And they're darned cute, too!
The amazing thing about Heifer is that even a small contribution goes a long way. To quote author (and Heifer fundraiser extraordinaire) Patrick Rothfuss, it's not like trying to cure cancer, or heart disease. If we by some miracle were able to raise $10,000 for either of these causes, our contribution would be a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of researching a cure. With Heifer, we know that the flocks of chicks we donate are going directly to help hungry families. There's no research needed - the cure for poverty is simple, and Heifer's approach doesn't just give families a bag of rice, it gives them a food source that can last for generations.
Since we've never done this before, we thought we'd start small. We're donating 100 flocks of chicks to Heifer - that's about 3,000 chicks - to help 100 families. We've already made the commitment. All we're asking our readers and customers to do is to enter the code "GIVECHICKS" at checkout to show your support, (or "egg us on"! yuk yuk). For every person who enters the code, Hello!Lucky will credit 20 chicks to our chick count. If we reach our goal of 3,000 chicks, we'll donate two llamas as well! We'll be posting the official Hello!Lucky “Chick-o-Meter” on our blog, and will update it weekly.
You can also make direct contributions to Heifer by purchasing a goat, a flock of chicks, etc. for friends and family members this holiday season. You can do it right here. Take it from us - people LOVE getting a goat as a gift. And, hey, why not accompany your gift with a cute Hello!Lucky letterpress holiday card? (just a thought!)
So stay tuned for updates and the amazing Chick-o-Meter!
Very warmly yours,
Hello!Lucky
Behind the scenes at our photo shoot
Last month, we were in New York for a couple of weeks shoot our new DIY wedding book with co-author and stylist Shana Faust and photographer Joseph De Leo. It was an amazing and overwhelming experience, and has largely been responsible for the slow-down in blog posts!!
We spent a full 2 weeks crafting at Aloft Studio in mid-town - if you're wondering how much crafting goes into filling a book, look above! (Thanks to Kim and John for letting us turn the place upside down!)
We were fortunate to have helpers - H!L's intrepid Chun Yee O'Neill and Tricia Roush of House of Nines Design - who crafted along side us every day!
Shana brought tons of beautiful props for styling...
And we all brought piles and piles of crafting materials, like these pretty ribbons from Mokuba Ribbon, which we'd collected over the past year. Believe us, great crafting starts with great materials!
It was an incredible experience! Can't wait to share the finished book with everyone!
Casey Yu photography
You might have noticed the adorable photos on our fabulous new custom holiday cards courtesy of Bay Area photographer Casey Yu.
Casey is offering mini and full sessions exclusively for our readers during the month of November! The first ten clients to book will receive a $50 print credit; the next ten clients will receive a $25 print credit, plus a coupon for 15% off custom holiday cards at hellolucky.com.
More details here (Bay Area residents only).
New Custom Holiday Cards!
We are super excited to announce the launch of our new custom holiday cards! They've been a long time coming, but we finally did it! Yea!
Thanks to digital print technology, we've been able to design fun, colorful photo cards that look and feel about as great as our letterpress cards! All the designs are printed on nice-n-thick 100% recycled paper (we don't even offer a non-recycled option, no sir!).
For all you newlyweds, they can double as wedding announcements (or be adapted to photo save the dates)!
Our classic letterpress holiday card designs are also available in custom versions -- either digitally or letterpress printed. Woo hoo! (Note - as of this writing, letterpress prices aren't up on the site yet, but check back in a couple of days!).
Special offer for our blog readers -- enter the promo code HLBLOG10OFF to get 10% off your order! Expires 10/31/09.
Obama!
We heard a rumor this morning that our commander-in-chief was in town, growing more suspicious when our street was blocked off and the 5-0 started arriving in drones (above). Upon further investigation (i.e. batting eyelashes at the local police) and noticing sharpshooters (below) on the highest balcony on SoMa, we discovered the truth....Mr. President himself was going to pass right by our studio!!
What's a handful of creative types to do?! Well, fashion some speech bubble signs to express our excitement, of course!
Waiting on the edge of our seat (or fifteen minutes later)...
HE DRIVES BY!! AND WAVES!!
Yea!
7x7 Hot 20 under 40
Hello!Lucky video
We just did a mini video about our studio, by TurnHere, courtesy of our wedding invitation client (and TurnHere employee) Jill Simon. Thanks, Jill!