Featuring Pie Bird Press!

This morning we're delighted to feature Hannah Berman of Pie Bird Press! Hannah is another designer neighbor living in Albany, California. She's had some fantastic experiences with letterpress printing and has come to create quite an accomplished company of her own. We are so excited to feature her in our collection this year because her designs are the brightest and boldest, and we love that they stand out. Make sure to visit her shop here!

What inspired your design for the holiday collection?

I am always inspired by nostalgia and the special moments that we remember from our childhoods. There's nothing quite like seeing a perfectly wrapped gift with a big bow on it to stir up excitement on any holiday!

What are you currently working on?

I'm currently working on Pie Bird Press' 2012 spring collection of stationery, due out in May. Keep an eye out for lots of fun, new designs!

What influences your style the most?

I am influenced primarily by color, and again by nostalgia. I find most of my inspiration at vintage stores, county fairs, and other all-American events that evoke a certain sentimentality.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

My family has a latke party every year, complete with my father's non-traditional potato pancakes. It's always a treat to sit around the table with our loved ones and see how many latkes we can take down.

Best holiday memory?

My birthday falls during the holiday season, and one year when I was a child we took a trip up to Mendocino for the occasion. There were record setting lows that year, and we found icicles hanging on the beach. For a California native, that was really something special!

Check out the Pie Bird Press collection for Hello!Lucky here!

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 - Yum!

Well, better late than never! Herewith, in bite-size chunks, is our coverage of the National Stationery Show.

One of our favorite booths was Hannah's of Pie Bird Press. Her approach to creating her gorgeous 3- and 4-color letterpress cards is refreshingly unique - each design starts as a linoleum block print, which she translates into letterpress. Hannah demonstrates a DIY version of her technique in our forthcoming book, Handmade Hellos. Her images of chocolates, beets, cherries, popsicles and bundt cakes are so yummy we want to eat them up!

Speaking of yummy, who could resist Motormouth Press's candy shop booth? We sure couldn't. We especially loved the ice cream sandwiches. Mmmm!