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!
Lucky Friday Week #3!
Now onto the third edition of our weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we’ll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card. Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!
The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):
Melissa, Anneleen and Amorette!
Heather will contact you shortly to arrange sending your Stinky Skunk Card!
This week’s feature:
Design: Support
Artist: Julia Rothman
Inspiration: We don’t mean to leave you hanging, but we’ll tell you when you’re older.
Send it to: A female confidant, a bosom friend, or a gentleman that you wish to befuddle udderly.
Our Favorite Detail: We like that we can’t quite tell if the lingerie style depicted is staying abreast of the trends, or if it’s a little behind the times.
Ideas we scrapped for this one: We were a little “strapped” for ideas for a men’s version of the card.
Why Letterpress? Gives you the street cred to make designer in-jokes about Pantone and PMS, type-drawers and point size. (Whuh?!)
Don't forget to post your comment and check next Friday to see if you’ve won!
Introducing Lucky Fridays!
We're delighted to announce a new weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we'll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we'll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card. Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we'll announce the winners on the following Friday!
Design: Oompah Band
Artist: Esther Aarts
Inspiration: Tahoe Swiss Chalet restaurant; Swiss Oompah bands, Lowly Worm, Esther's fabulous retro illustrations
Send it to: Your best drinking buddy, nephew who is learning to play the recorder (gateway to any number of crazy, erm, AWESOME, instruments), anyone who plays the flugelhorn or tuba.
Our favorite detail: The musicians' curly chins
Ideas we scrapped for this one: Dutch milkmaid milking a flower-garland & bell-bedecked cow: "Happy Birthday! Milk it for all it's worth!" Erm, might conjure up image of cow's udder...
Why letterpress? Makes it feel like an heirloom you found in your Swiss uncle's attic, next to his size 56XXL lederhosen.
Photo credit: Alan Morrison via Just Brass
Remember, post a comment and check back next Friday to see if you won!
designworklife
Love this blog, designworklife. We found they had posted about our Jude Turns 1 party invitation, and in the process turned up all sorts of beautiful things! Foremost in our minds today were these amazing wee artist books by Elsa Mora (click on her name and be awed at her cut paper creations!)
Be sure not to get completely derailed by Elsa's amazing stuff, though, as there are all other sorts of goodies to see on designworklife.
Enjoy!
Invitation evolution & inspiration
Many of our designs start as custom commissions created in collaboration with our clients -- and take on a new life from there! Our Big Day invitation is a great example -- originally created for bride Jean Weisman, a writer who wrote the invitation copy, the design was featured in Martha Stewart Weddings along with the rest of Jean & Devin's gorgeous wedding (planned by AE Planning & Design). We made a version that could be ordered on our website...
...and adapted a DIY version for our new book, Handmade Weddings...
A bride in Brooklyn loved the design but wanted us to replace the Golden Gate with the Brooklyn Bridge, and put her own unique spin on the text...
... and we created an invitation in a similar style for Bear Flag Farm...
Here's a save the date variation with photos and cute flags!
Today we spotted this design on Brooklyn Bride and this design by Kenzie Kate -- more designs inspired by Big Day?
Regardless, this is a shout-out to all of our awesome, creative clients, who give us the opportunity to create new designs every day!
Photo credit (top): Sabine Scherer
AE Planning + Design Holiday Greetings!
We're a wee bit tardy on this (ha!) but check out this interactive map we designed for the ever marvelous Alison Events.
They traveled something like 84 (!) days out of the year last year, orchestrating fab destination weddings the world over. Each icon opens up stunning photos from each destination. Check it out in action here!
Figural Cameos
Figural cameos is an advertising technique in which the text is placed within the shape of the product that it is advertising. We are especially drawn to the return addresses (we are a stationery company after all!). See more 
k. studio custom gifts
Pretty Please Mix 'n' Match Stationery Set
We're very excited to present our latest offering from Chronicle Books: the Pretty Please Mix 'n' Match stationery set - we just got our advance copies! It comes with 16 sheets of pretty (as advertised!) stationery, adorable little envelopes with scalloped flaps and a set of whimsical stickers. It's pretty darned cute, if we do say so ourselves, and you can find it here (available for pre-order)!
The Exquisite Corpse!
Check it out: 7x7 magazine is challenging all you artists out there to participate in their rendition of game that served as the basis for the book The Exquisite Book: 100 Artists Play a Collaborative Game (we were very flattered that they used our page from the book as the first drawing in the game! Woot!). The details can be found here!
Esther Aarts exhibit
One of our favorite illustrators, Esther Aarts, is currently exhibiting at the Arnhem Museum of Modern Arts in the Netherlands. She was sweet enough to send us a photo of the exhibition, featuring her Season's Salutations and Retro Christmas greeting cards! Congrats Esther!
The Periodic Sweetshop
Loving this Periodic Sweetshop from British designer Stephen Wildish.
Winter Wonderland
Our Winter Wonderland card was featuring in Apartment Therapy's Festive Cards from Illustrators and Artists round up.
Thanks AT!
Julia Rothman interview
One of our favorite design blogs, Grain Edit, did an interview with one of our favorite illustrators, Julia Rothman today. Read it here!
Magnolia Gastropub
In addition to the delicious food and beers at our local pub Magnolia, this new identity system from Nothing Something is also rather fabulous. Check out those fun coasters!
Via designworklife.
Happy Halloween!
Here's wishing you a fun Halloween!
The Exquisite Book Signing Party!
Last night we attended a book signing party for The Exquisite Book, a project headed by the lovely Julia Rothman. We were honored to be asked to participate in the book (see Eunice's contribution here). The signing took place at the ever fabulous Rare Device.
Eunice was on hand to sign books with her trusty companion Jude (trying to take credit for her hard work! Some people....).
The party hosted a live drawing event featuring contributing artists Caitlin Keegan, Kelly Lynn Jones, Susie Ghahremani,Tom Neely, Lorena Siminovich and Lisa Congdon.
Eunice adds her signature hot dog!
Read more about The Exquisite Book here.
All photos by Kelly Braun.
Exquisite Book Signing in San Francsico
Attention design enthusiasts! If you're in the bay area you should give this a gander. Our own Eunice Moyle will be at Rare Device doing collaborative drawings with Julia Rothman and other great illustrators! Here's some more info.
Tattoo couple
This tattooed couple reminds us of our Still Going Strong anniversary card - what a cute gift this hip pair would make!
Exquisite book video
Check out this cute video for The Exquisite Book done by our talented friends at Also. There are a ton of fun events happening too - hopefully one is in your city!