Letterpress Printing Classes at SFCB

Have an interest in learning about letterpress? Know someone who does? Well now's the time to get printing! The San Francisco Center for the Book just released their Spring 2012 Workshops & Events Catalog and it's full of opportunities for beginners and professionals. It could be a tremendous holiday gift for a loved one, or a New Year's resolution project for yourself! Classes range from $40 - $600 and from 3 hours to 5 days! What a great way to learn something new. And if you like to plan ahead, our very own printer James Tucker will be teaching the Advanced Letterpress Production Printing: Core Curriculum class on April 14 and 15. Sign up today!

Orders, Orders, Orders!

We're seeing tons of holiday orders printed and shipped from the H!L studio this week! It's definitely a peak time to order holiday cards, but there's still time to personalize your own. One of our most popular designs this year is the Greetings from San Francisco photo card. We think the kelly green and red color combination is especially festive!

Studio Snapshot: New Valentine's Day Cards!

Here's a little sneak peek of some new letterpress Valentine's Day cards on the press as we speak! This is just one of many new card designs making their big debut soon, so stay tuned!

Shannon May Giveaway!

Today we’re featuring the lovely designs of Shannon May! Although Shannon spent her childhood on the coast of southern Connecticut, we're excited to have her as a neighbor illustrator living in Berkeley. Her designs are inspired by science and geometry, and still maintain a whimsical quality that we just adore. Not only is she a killer card designer, she spends her free time making fabulous jewelry (lintu) and fine art (themooncraft), all available on Etsy. We can't wait to see more of Shannon's work in the future!

Q: What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

A: I've always been interested in math and science, finding beauty in the simplicity of equations and diagrams. But, being more of a visual art person than a physicist, I try to use that same imagery to describe other things, like the holidays!

What are you currently working on?

Illustrating a cookbook for an amazing publishing company here in San Francisco, but it's still under wraps... Shhhh.

What influences your style the most?

Math and outer space!

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Finding the pickle ornament! My mom would hide it in the tree and all the kids would scramble to find it. The one to find it first got a gift, and I was very, very good at finding it.

Best holiday memory?

Hearing hooves on the roof.

To enter to win a $100 gift certificate for Hello!Lucky (which you could use toward any of Shannon May's lovely designs!), comment on this post telling us your favorite part about the holidays! The winner will be selected at 12:00pm Friday, November 4th and we will email you with the exciting news!

**Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner of the Shannon May giveaway has been chosen. Stay tuned on our blog for more fabulous holiday giveaways to come!**

Custom Holiday Card Bonanza!

We are soooo excited about our new collection of custom holiday cards! It was such a pleasure getting to collaborate with artists that we've been coveting for years like Hammerpress...

and Darling Clementine (how adorable are these?)...

Jolby did a series of  cards that feature their signature quirky characters - the rabbit with a Santa hat on each ear is just too hilarious...

Love these winter animals by Karin Soderquist...

and how about these charming type-based designs by Office of Nature?

We also worked with some of our fav old friends like Lab Partners...

EIEIO...

...and, of course, the always geniusy Esther Aarts...

We're also super excited about our new accordion format! An excellent solution to either the problem of not being able to get everyone into one shot (this is our big problem - squirrelly toddlers don't make for a really great family portrait!  Plus there's always too much fun stuff to share!)

SusyJack* did a couple of really gorgeous accordion cards, among others, for us this year...

Anyhoo, we were so thrilled to get to work with some of our illustration idols (this just the tip 'o' the iceberg, bye the bye!), we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Triumphantly Announcing Our New Website!

Drumroll, please...We are thrilled to announce the launch of our brand-spankin'-new website!  We've been laboring over this baby for months and months and are sooo excited that it's finally (finally!) here!

The new site includes a fab new collection of custom holiday photo cards: This year we got together 16 of our favorite illustrators/designers—the likes of Susy*Jack, Hammerpress, Tom Frost (featured above), Lab Partners and more—and collaborated on a whole collection of fun and unique holiday cards.  We can't wait for you to see them!

Additionally, the new site features beautiful photography by Edyta Szyszlo...we had so much fun styling these shots!

We also have a gorgeous new wedding invitation collection with Anne Smith (another illustrator we've admired/been deeply envious of for years and years)...

And we're thrilled to introduce our brand-new customization tool, which is going to make it a breeze to customize cards.  It's super cool, if we do say so ourselves, and allows you to change colors, choose fonts and drop in photos on the fly. It makes ordering fun and easy and gives you a lot of control over the final result.

You can also send your order straight to print (that's how much control you have over design, people!) to cut down on the turnaround time.  Normally, it can take 1-2 business days (or weeks, for those of you prone to dilly-dallying!) to approve a manually-created proof, so this is an exciting new feature.  Of course, you still can have our designers put their finishing touches on your design or incorporate any special requests, but how awesome is that??

That being said, please bear with us as we get settled into our new digs (there are bound to be a few hiccups along the way!). Some products may be temporarily unavailable online while we get our shop in order, but we promise they'll be back soon!  If you have any questions or need help with a product that is currently not available on our site, don't hesitate to drop us a line or give us a ring! We'd love to hear from you! US: info@hellolucky.com or 415.355.0008  UK: ukinfo@hellolucky.com or 020 7378 9740

Chicago Skyline is here!

Drum roll please......Introducing, the newest member of the Skyline collection, Chicago! We know all you mid-westerners have been waiting patiently for the Chicago Skyline invitation suite to arrive, and the time has finally come! The invitation, reply card, and details card have carefully selected images of Chicago's finest monuments, buildings, and railways. We are so proud to welcome the windy city to the H!L family!

We're still working on getting the invitation up on our site, so if you're interested in Chicago Skyline just give us a call and we'll tell you how to order!

Studio Snapshot: Personalized Stationery

One of the many perks of working in a letterpress studio is the access to the presses (and quality printers!). Kristine and Christina both fell in love with the same personal stationery design, but put their own unique twist on the concept. Christina's version (above) features a "from the desk of" line along with a feather motif, while Kristine (below) favored a more simple approach.

Both designs were hand-printed on our 1950's Vandercook press.

Now get to those handwritten notes girls!

...introducing Elliot!

There's a new babe in town! Elliot is the newest baby to join the growing H!L family and we are thrilled! Almost as adorable as Elliot's button nose is his letterpress printed birth announcement designed by our very own Anna Hurley. How cute are the worms and mushrooms?!

Welcome Elliot and congratulations Kelly & Erich!

Sunshine at the Curiosity Shoppe

The Curiosity Shoppe, a local San Francisco boutique that carries quirky home decor and funky personal accessories, is hosting a letterpress poster show that features a print (above) by our very own printer, James Tucker! We couldn't be more excited for him!  The show opens July 8th and also showcasing some of our favorite fellow Bay Area letterpress artists, like Pie Bird Press and Dutch Door Press. For more information about the show, please click here.

James' double-sided print, "Who Loves the Sun" was produced in a limited edition of 50 and is available for $40.

Real Wedding: Michelle and Jacob

Just married! We recently had the pleasure of designing a "Just Married!" photo card for Michelle and Jacob's private June celebration. This one couldn't be any more playful! The whimsical watercolor, precious pinks and tell-all photograph just screams pure joy.

Michelle and Jacob wed at the San Francisco City Hall, accompanied by 15 close family and friends. The photographer, our dear friend Edyta Szyszlo, shot these utterly romantic images of the big day, and their reception at Bar Jules in Hayes Valley (below). We're loving the simplicity of the event, and the casual/comfortable setting for their reception. Just the right amount of table decor paired with classic dinnerware makes for an effortless yet chic display.

All photos by Edyta Szyszlo.

Studio Snapshot: New Visit Series Letterpress Invitations!

We've always loved our Visit Series created with Lab Partners so we just about fainted when we saw these babies on press today.  Watch out LA - we've got stunning 3-color letterpress Visit Los Angeles save the dates and wedding invites ready to make an impression (pun very much intended)!

This shot gets up close and personal showing an inked plate moments before it presses into the paper.

Two colors printed, and one more to go!

Each new color requires that the machine be cleaned, re-inked and fitted with a new plate.  Here invites-in-progress wait patiently to be pressed into wedding perfection.

Can you guess which designs these will turn out to be?  Okay we'll spill, its Visit Texas and Visit Chicago!

Adding the second color to Visit Chicago brings out details in the train and fountain.

We can't wait to see what new details will come out when the third color is added!

National Stationery Show: Our favorites!

We saw a ton of inspiring work at this past National Stationery Show, including these cheeky postcards (above) from La Familia Green. We were also pretty smitten with these adorable pencil cases and tea towels from Pie Bird Press:

Our neighbors at Egg Press wowed us with their bold colors and quirky illustrations:

Suzy Jack had these fun pencil cups:

And first time exhibitor Fig. 2 wowed us with these neon cards:

National Stationery Show!

Whew! We just wrapped up another National Stationery Show - complete with old friends, new designs and lots and lots of inspiring new work. Our own booth featured a lovely felt sign made by our staff (above) and a couple projects from Handmade Weddings, like these yarn wrapped bottles...

...and fun paper link chains!

We were super excited about our new products, like this "Treat Yourself" card from Julia Rothman....

...and our reversible journals!

Some amazing people stopped by our booth to visit, but our favorite visitor was Eunice's son Jude - he really put the rest of us to shame with his amazing sales skills!

National Stationery Show Sneak Peek!

It's that time of year again when we're packing our bags and heading east to the National Stationery Show where we'll be debuting our Spring Release! We'll be at booth #1536 if you're planning on attending, stop by and say hello.

And now here's a sneak peek of the latest and greatest including a new product we are super excited about!

Drum roll please....introducing our new reversible letterpress journals to bring out the word smith in you whether you've got a hare-brained scheme (doh!) or a big idea (yay!).

But wait there's more! More hilariously genius greeting card designs from Julia Rothman and Esther Aarts:

Julia's Rockin' Birthday conjures up childhood memories of Jem and the Holograms or Kids, Incorporated!

Whether to say bon voyage or congratulations on your engagement, this adorable card from Esther Aarts is sure to wish you well on your new adventure.

Stay Tuned for more sneak peeks!

New destination wedding invitation: Visit Texas!

We are thrilled to announce the newest addition to our Lab Partners destination wedding invitations! Yee haw! Who doesn't love the good 'ol country? Durn tootin' we adore our new Texas themed wedding invitation suite!

Are these not the most amazing cowboy boots ever? We all want a pair!

Studio Snapshot: Hot Off the Press!

Our printers have been busy cranking out a delicious new crop of letterpress greeting cards including some adorable designs by Esther Aarts.

Max adjusts a plate to ready it for the press.

Stacks of printed cards await their turn for trimming and folding.

We're so excited to send these out - Christmas in July maybe?

Hot of the Presses: Visit the Riviera

What could be romantic than a wedding in the Riviera?! Our most recent collaboration with Lab Partners features bougainvillea, yachts, postcards and suntans! See the whole suite here.

Hot off the Presses: Visit Boston!

Brides in Beantown will be so happy! We've added Lab Partners' beautiful Visit Boston wedding invitations and save the dates to our collection. Get a closer look here, and stay tuned for more to come!

Hot off the presses: Visit Miami!

It may be cold and rainy here in San Francisco, but it's bright and warm in Miami! We are thrilled to showcase our newest collaboration with our friends at Lab Partners - Visit Miami. See the whole suite here.

Stay tuned for more destinations!