We looooove Fab! Brad and I eagerly check the new deals every morning, and we’ve ordered several wonderful items at really great prices. This color wheel necklace from Yellow Owl Workshop came in the mail recently. It’s gorgeous, well made, and it’s packaging is just too darn cute. (That’s our cat Scout’s paw of approval.)
This weekend we participated in the 10th annual Wayzgoose event at the School of Visual Concepts. (For general Wayzgoose info/history, check out our previous blog post.) SVC is a great school with relevant classes on web topics, digital media, advertising, etc., as well as a full print shop, offering letterpress classes each quarter. (The best of both worlds, I’d say!) SVC is also the host of the Seattle Wayzgoose, and has been for 10 years!
With all the 619 hullabaloo, we’ve been excited to put it behind us and start planning for the new studio. We’ve found the space (details coming soon, I promise!), and we’ll be moving sometime before October 1st (as soon as the new space is ready). We’ve got a plan brewing for the new studio that takes into account the style of the building, the additional space (Yes, it’s going to be bigger!), and our aesthetic desires. We love our current studio and had so much fun designing the space, painting, decorating, etc. – but we’re even more excited to take what we learned on that “project” and improve upon it. Here’s some of the photos we’ve been gathering on Pinterest for inspiration.
DIY Built-in Shelving from The Brick House, Metal Truss Work Table from West Elm, Architect’s Boom Sconce from Restoration Hardware
We’re moving soon from our 1 bedroom apartment (in a noisy downtown neighborhood) to a 2 bedroom duplex (in a cute, quiet residential neighborhood). We’re excited to start making our new place a home! Our new place is painted all white, with neutral colored carpet and white cabinets. We’re really digging the shades of gray lately, and are planning to keep things clean, classic and neutral with pops of color that we can change with the seasons. (We’re not actually in the market to buy new furniture right now, but a girl can dream! And some of the small touches (shower curtain, kitchen towels, etc.) can make a big difference!) Here’s some of the home inspiration we’ve been collecting on Pinterest lately.
Tea towels from Olive Manna, Duvet from Dwell Studio, Hand Towel from West Elm
A few weeks ago, we went to an estate sale that listed a printing press among the items for sale (jackpot!). We didn’t come home with the press (it was a Chandler & Price 8×12 just like ours, and in a basement), but we did find some really great printer’s items to bring home.
Tara, a local letterpress printer and owner of Ephemera, put together a super fun envelope exchange called “The Elevated Envelope.” The theme was “summer,” and the envelopes had to be mostly handmade and definitely creative. We decided to join in the fun, and signed up (before the giant move fiasco came to be). With all that’s going on, the deadline snuck up on me (why does this always happen to the fun stuff!?), so we put together a pretty restrained envelope. Had I more time, it would have been much more elaborate – but instead of what i’d initially planned, I went with a theme that is the the theme of my life lately… Summer Time Flies! (And hey, sometimes restraint isn’t a bad thing.)
We really enjoy working with the talented designers in our city to produce great print pieces. However, our business & equipment are really not set up as a “job shop” or full service print shop. We’re a small operation, and it’s become more and more important for us to be specific about the kind of work we want to be doing. Otherwise, we say yes to everything and have time for nothing. (And trust me, that’s my tendency! I hate to turn down work, and I love to overfill my plate.) We’ve decided to narrow our focus – We will still be printing for designers in our network, but on a more limited basis. This shift will give us more time to pursue the things that we love: offering high quality, full service design & letterpress packages for weddings, business stationery, baby announcements, etc., as well as expanding our line of letterpress cards and gifts.
We are so thankful that local designers have used us for their letterpress projects. Here are a few of the great client projects that we’ve gotten to print lately.
We are excited to announce that we’ll have a table in the letterpress marketplace for the 2011 Seattle Wayzgoose! We’ll be in good company with 20+ vendors, offering their best letterpress goodies for perusal and purchase.
Wayzgoose is a tradition in the printing world that goes back to the days of working by candlelight. Each year on or around St. Bartholomew’s Day (the 24th of August), a wayzgoose would be given by the master printer to mark the end of summer and the start of the darker winter season of working by candlelight.
The Dream is a series of 24 letterpress prints sized 5 1/2 inches square. Each print is one of a kind – only one final print of each piece exists, and each one is signed and framed. Brad and I designed and printed this series in collaboration, using our collection of wood type and vintage printer’s blocks, along with original linoleum carvings. It was one of the first major print projects we took on together, and we had so much fun dreaming them up (puns!) and putting them together.
Hey Everybody, my name is Sarah and I’ve been interning at Constellation & Co. all summer long. I am a graphic design student at Ringling College of Art + Design, which is how I know Sara and Brad. They were graduating while I entered the school! I had contacted Constellation because I was interested in branding and I love working with typography, and Constellation has done a lot of beautiful work that I am impressed by. I have never had an internship before nor have I done much “real world” client work before either, so I was really excited to work for a studio and dip into the creative world.
Sarah at the Constellation table for Seattle Square Market