Cards at The Curiosity Shoppe

I'm a big fan of The Curiosity Shoppe-- they have great taste, carry lots of unique products, and have a love for the handmade. To that end, you can find these terrifically UPBEAT cards (who couldn't use one?) among their collection of letterpress, silkscreened, and Gocco-printed cards. Pictured are "Hey," You're Swell," and "DIY LCD Card."

ESSIMAR

Well, by now, it's clear how I feel about the paper arts of Essimar-- innovative, simple, striking, cool. She screenprints up to 9 olors on brown chip board to create these small pieces of art. I find them incredibly appealing.

Bubbledog

I think the creative mind(s) over at Bubbledog are right on with these cool Gocco-printed cards of trees. Each color combination is a separate card. The design is one of my favorite techniques-- a line drawing over a block of color. (Hey, just look at my profile picture for a similar look!) This is one thing I always liked about Warhol's early commercial art-- very simple clean line drawings and uncomplicated color (see bottom picture). More inspiration here.

Essimar

I've mentioned Essimar's cards before-- her work is original and compelling. Silkscreening usually gives us a very uniform look-- it's a way of standardizing a small number of works. I like that she's using this method to create pieces that seem random and hand drawn. For these "la mano" cards, she screen printed "thin angled lines and graphite lines while improvising hand die cut shapes." See more of her work at her online store.

Renegade Holiday Favorites

Above is the very talented a. favorite, a graphic designer turned letterpress artist who uses type and clever messages to create her line of stationery goods. I really liked the "I (heart) U" cards and the letterpress line she created using old typewriter fonts.


Artgoodies is a line of handmade goods from Lisa Price. She uses woodblock printing to create aprons, pillows, towels, and paper goods with woodland or holiday themes. Her technique and subject matter is a perfect combination.

Bookplates

I love the idea of bookplates-- especially as gifts for new parents or children. One Good Bumblebee is your one-stop shop for hip and cool bookplates. Clever and stylish, the folks at Bumblebee really know good design.

Lisa Jones

Great illustration and design from stationery guru Lisa Jones. Her hand-screened cards and wrapping paper can be found here and on her website.

Essimar

These great screenprinted cards are from Chicago etsy seller Esther, an interior designer who clearly knows her way around good stationery design. I think they almost look like paintings. This is one of my favorite design styles-- simple geometrics and color. Exceptional. These cards are all hand screenprinted. Shop here.

Holiday from BiNTH

I know it's early (or is it?), but here are some choice holiday / winter cards from BiNTH. Cards are screenprinted on warm gray stock.
See entire line.

New from Tall Cow

New cards from the talented Deanna Ebner at Tall Cow stationery. All the cards are hand printed with silkscreen on premium recycled papers. Visit the Tall Cow website.

IN STUDIO: La Familia Green

This week, IN STUDIO focuses on the dymanic duo of Mollie Green and Andrew Miners, the creative force behind La Familia Green. Since 2005, the company has produced a whimsical line of cards and journals that are each uniquely handmade. Mollie uses templates and scissors to create their cut-paper designs. And, being a night owl, she has tremendous patience in constructing each card, a single layer at a time. Not only do you get great design, but the handmade quality of each card makes them each a valuable little art piece. Mollie explained, “Cards are intimate. There’s something interesting about my making a card and someone else buying it, adding their own thoughts to it, and sending it to a third person, who responds both to my work and to the message of their friend.” It’s a card as performance piece.
Andrew scoures flea markets, eBay, and thrift stores for VHS tape boxes, used postcards, and album covers. From these, the pair make a line of journals. “The authenticity of the material is really important,” says Andrew. With these very appealing journals, Andrew has taken a discarded object and reinvented it as a boutique item.

The studio, as you can guess, is an exceptionally creative space, bright, interesting, and filled with objects that inspire. And all of their production tools fit nicely onto a tall set of shelves! Seeing this, you really understand the individual effort that's required for each of their cards. There are no big die-cutting machines or screen print presses here. Just small hand tools and an exceptionally talented team. What’s Next? Mollie explained that they are open to exploring collaboration with others. Secondly, they are always working to tighten the production process and improve efficiency. Finally, they’re interested in the growing community of etsy and offering original cut paper artwork or prints there. In the immediate future, you can catch La Familia Green at Paper Doll in Chicago on October 27 and at Greer Chicago in December. See their website right here.

Pink Loves Brown

At Renegade this weekend, I met the industrious Nicole Balch, who screenprints and gooco prints her own line of stationery products. She has great designs and execution. I picked up these bicycle and paper airplane cards but check out her very nice website (and her terrific blog) to see more of her work.

paper+cup design

This Brooklyn-based design company consistently makes great cards and journals. Founded by Minhee and Truman Cho, the products are largely letterpressed but these journals have a vellum cover with a silkscreened image in one-color. Ingenious and smart. Check out the full line of products at paper+cup.

TALL COW Stationery

Tall cow is the brainchild of designer / artist Deanna Ebner, who responded to the clamor for her linoleum block cards by founding Tall Cow in 2004. All the cards are hand printed with silkscreen on premium recycled papers. Her designs are now in 80 stores and museums across the country! Wow. Great designs and simple technique—beautiful. The titles of the pieces above are (clockwise): Hola, Thanks a ton, Hang in There, and Fancy Pants. Check out the Tall Cow website.

LA FAMILIA GREEN

La Familia Green consists of the clever duo of Mollie Green and Andrew Miners, a couple who incorporate their love of handmade journals and cards with themes ranging from Mexican folk art to pop heroes like Tim Gunn. Their work is colorful, witty, and ultra sophisticated. From their site: "All paper goods are either graciously Gocco printed or crafted from hand- cut and collaged paper. We like to emphasize that all offerings from La Familia Green are produced in small quantities by hand... each piece a little work of art." This is high impact meets lo-tech but the result is perfect and beautifully executed. Take a look right here.

LINDA & HARRIETT Handmade Cards

These notecards and invitations are all letterpressed with hand-stamped names-- a technique that creates a very handmade feel. Linda & Harriett is another example of a company born from an individual desire to create and design-- Liz Coulson Libre thought she could offer more than answering phones and photocopying, so she began designing and voila! A new company. Very inspiring. Don't we dream of this? My favorite pieces are the personalized kid cards. See more on the official website.