Inspired by vintage wallpaper and lush textiles, Apiary Design’s paper products are crafted with a combination of patterns and hand sewn details. Printed with raised ink, the real beauty of the cards lies in the way they feel. I love the matching envelope labels you can purchase to match any of the patterns and the sets of inviatations, menus and placecards are incedible as well.
Ever see the motivational poster with the eagle soaring high above the plains that’s supposed to fill you with inspiration of an unmeasuarable magnitude? These posters aren’t those. Back in the day – 2005 – Right Brain Terrain came to the conclusion that they weren’t moved by those posters, so they must not be motivating too many others either. What followed shortly thereafter was the birth of Alternative Motivaional Posters – AMPs for short. AMPs are bold, contemporary and well-designed. My favorite is Focus. I’d actually come across the poster imagery a few years ago and had no idea where it came from, but hung on to it. I’m thrilled to have finally located the genius behind the posters. And I think the Focus print will my gift to me for moving into an office with an actual door.
Posh Betty is full of fresh, modern, custom-designed announcements, business cards, invitations and letterhead among other things. Everything has a clean, retro feel to it which I adore. I think the brown invitation would be so much fun for a cocktail party.
It seems so many designers trip upon becoming invitation specialists when they can’t find the exact thing they’re looking for. The I-can’t-find-it-so-I’ll-create-it mindset runs rampant. Sometimes it pans out and sometimes it doesn’t. L.A.’s Soolip is a great success story.
This is my favorite invitation on Soolip’s site. Using a tea dye process gives this vintage-inspired invitation an antiqued, almost leathered look. No two pieces are alike thanks to inconsistancies in the tea. The entire invitation package has a very organic feel to it, which the hand-sewn beads and flax linen envelopes add to nicely. Lovely and inventive.
It’s been a while since I’ve come across any stationary that’s been really different. Don’t get me wrong, I love quite a bit of what’s out there, but there has been an area that’s lacking. And that area is modern design. That’s where Fabulous Stationary picks up the slack and creates some amazing work. Take a look for yourself.
I love these wedding invitations by Abby Jean Press. Beautiful use of color combinations and type. Let’s put it this way: if I received one of these in the mail for a rodeo, which I despise, it would make me want to go to even that.
Lengendary notebook maker, Moleskine, has just introduced an incredible new line of City Notebooks. So far they exist for Boston, NYC, San Francisco, DC, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Prague, Rome and Vienna. They cover all possible information you could need in a city you’re only visiting or already live in. The Key Map summarizes the overal layout, showing the metro system and listing stations. That’s followed up by Zone Maps that show large-scale maps of the city’s center and an alphabetical street index. Up to 76 blank pages give you space to write notes, while there’s also a 96-page tabbed section to organize information and thoughts. As if that’s not enough, there are 32 removable sheets and 12 translucent sticky sheets to overlay maps and route as you go. Oh, and did I mention they’re only hardbacked, 3.5 x 5.5″ and $16.95?
Moo dreams up new tools that help people turn their virtual content into beautiful print products. I’m loving their MiniCards and StickerBooks!
The StickerBooks are generated out of your Flickr stream or from your very own designs – 90 different, full color, glossy Stickers, printed on 15 different sheets and bound into a pocket-sized book ($9.99). There are also readymades available if your pictures suck and you want to use Moo’s. There’s free shipping on StickerBooks for July only, so hurry up and take advantage.
MiniCards are roughly half the size of a normal business card. Same deal – choose up to 100 of your own designs or pictures from your Flickr stream (or use Moos) and add up to six different lines of text on the back. The cards show up on your doorstep in a reusable plastic box ($19.99). And I figure you can probably do tons of different things with these besides using them as their intended purpose.
Posted In business cards, office, paper goodsYet another great Etsy find. Vera June (not the designer’s real name) studied at the Art Academy in San Francisco first as a Photography major, then after one visit to the Fine Art building was hooked on Graphic Design and changed her major. Very cool. I love people who go after what they want. No regrets, right?
Besides creating and selling her wares on Etsy, she also will create a web banner for you for only $14.99 – a great deal for all of those who aren’t design-program savvy.
DKim is an artist working and playing in New York because she couldn’t make it as a ninja. She said so, I didn’t! I’m really glad that the ninja gig didn’t work out for her because her illustrations are beautiful and she has fantastic names for each one like ‘le sigh’ and ‘the stranger.’ Her work is available on Etsy and most pieces are around $30 with one exceptional $275 piece. Here are a few that I’d love to own.
