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I’m giggling like a schoolgirl, now that my new Naughty Undies valentine is here! This is my latest pop-up card collaboration with Igloo Letterpress—Allison came up with with the mischievous rhyme and die-cut structure, and I did an entirely typographic illustration of a pair of pink unmentionables. Want to make your Valentine’s eyes pop a little? You can pick up your card in the shop!
Tomorrow is the first day of the 64th annual National Stationery Show in New York City, the largest paper goods trade event in the country. Around 1300 exhibitors and 15,000 national and international retailers will be there, and my friend Allison Chapman will be showing off her Igloo Letterpress products in her own booth!
Among Allison’s impressive collection of cards and paper goods will be these newest additions to our collaborative greeting collection.
(This pun is all my fault, I’m afraid. I know, I deserve to go to a punitentiary in Punnsylvania for that.)
NSS isn’t open to the general public, but the goal of attending is to expose our cards to a wide variety of retailers, and to meet like-minded letterpress folk.
If you’ll happen to be there (either as an exhibitor or with a guest pass), say hello to Allison for me—she’ll be in booth 1550. The National Stationery Show runs from May 16 to 19, at the Javits Center on West 34th Street.
Best of luck, Allison!
Allison of Igloo Letterpress and I have been doing some more cross-country collaboration lately. This time I illustrated a set of hand-bound journals featuring a pattern of Brownstones—one of my favorite types of houses, and a recurring theme in my drawings.
I’m so lucky to work with Allison—despite the distance, and the fact that we haven’t seen each other for two years, I feel like I we’re on the same wavelength. I love the fact that we can trust each other to make independent creative decisions, and have faith that they’ll come together into a harmonious whole. But my part of the project is finished when I send her black-and-white illustrations for printing—since I can’t exactly pop into her shop whenever I want, I really have no idea how the finished product will look until she sends it to me.
So imagine my delight when a package arrived containing four beautifully-bound hardcover books, with my illustration splashed on the cover in gorgeous color—
—and printed right onto the book cloth, no less!
I did a little hopping dance around the living room after that.
Here’s the best part, and a flash of Allison’s brilliance: not only do the books fit together thematically, but when they stand together on a bookshelf, the spines line up to complete the picture.
Since these are so labor-intensive to make, Allison is offering them only as a limited edition. But they’ve already been a big hit so far—which makes everything so, so satisfying.
Every year I make a resolution to create a whole slew of greeting cards for the holidays, and every year I’m lucky if I can scrape together one postcard design to send to my own friends and family. Maybe it’s because I’m not really capable of getting in the mood for Christmas or Hanukkah in July, but by the time November rolls around and I finally think of it, there never seems to be enough time. Good thing I have my friend Allison to think of these things.
Allison Chapman runs Igloo Letterpress, a lovely little shop in Worthington, Ohio. She called me up this summer and asked me if I’d like to start a line of letterpress cards with her—since neither of us had time to do both the design and the printing, it was a match made in heaven.
Collaborating when you have a couple thousand miles between you can be quite a challenge—especially when you’re trying to reinvent the wheel a bit. But Allison and I were on the same wavelength from the first moment, and it was so easy to leave the printing in her capable hands. Besides, her ideas for 3D pop-up cards turned out to be perfect for letterpress. Each of these cards is a kinetic greeting, with a unique folding structure that delivers the message in an unexpected way. And as always, the illustrations are created from hand-lettered type and hand-drawn patterns and imagery (as if you hadn’t guessed).
And for after the holiday gifts are opened, we threw a thank-you card into the mix as well. Instead of a pop-up piece, this card slides out of a die-cut sleeve to reveal the whole story.
All of these cards come with a standard A2 envelope, and are available either individually or in packs of six.
For more images and ordering information, visit the shop.
One last thing: many thanks to the wonderful Sarah Christianson for sweeping in with her professional lighting and photographing the cards for me! Happy holidays!