Weekend Loving: New Austin Finds!

I know its Thursday, closer to this weekend than last, but I've been busy this week (yay for work!) and I didn't have a chance to write about what I did last weekend, but let me tell you, it was truly awesome. On Saturday (2/26), Oliver and I went to We Heart Hand Made Art – A Pop-Up Event featuring thirteen local artisens from Etsy, sponsored by West Elm.
It. Was. Fantastic. Everyone had great work to show (and sell).  I wanted to share with you my personal favorites. By the way, get a load of the kid doing a backbend on the sofa in the background of the photo above. I didn't notice him until I was uploading these photos–hilarious!

Vertallee Letterpress

Vertallee's reputation precedes them; we'd heard of them before moving to Austin, but a new pal/fellow designer, Daphne, reminded us about them when she recommended that Oliver check them out in his search for local letterpress studios (Daphne also told us about the Etsy event–she's quite the lady about town!). A husband-and-wife team, Vertallee is a company to watch.

Check out Vertallee's etsy store and their blog.

Kimball Prints

Kimball Prints creates dreamy watercolors and pieces of art by printmaking. We were drawn in by the beautiful paintings.

Check out Kimball Print's etsy store.

Leah Duncan

Leah Duncan is an illustrator, designer and textile designer. At the etsy event, she was selling beautiful tea towels with her own custom designs printed on them. She also sells prints, cards, scarves, calendars and pillow covers.

Check out her etsy shop and blog.

Spruce

A furniture redesign studio, Spruce is one of the very few places in Austin carrying the latest (and jazziest) textiles on the market. They sell refurbished and reupholstered finds, but will also repurpose your furniture. Want to learn to upholster? Take a class!

Spruce has a brick and mortar store, so if you're in the area, stop in. Non-Austinites can find Spruce on etsy and keep up to date via their blog.

Make ATX

Comprised of two former architects/lovers of all forms of design, Make ATX is creates laser-cut, hand-assembed note and art cards. The company is also putting together a member-based design and fabrication workshop where creatives across all fields can pursue their interests and produce their work.

To purchase Make ATX's cards, visit their etsy shop. To learn more about the workshop, check out their website.

Letterpress Delicacies

Another husband-and-wife duo, Letterpress Delicacies creates lovely (and funny) cards and prints, including business cards and ephemera. Their work has made its way around the blogosphere, and with good reason.

Visit their etsy store to browse or purchase.

But the fun didn't stop at Saturday! On Sunday afternoon I met the most wonderful person: Brooke, a fellow blogger and outstanding Austin floral designer (you MUST check out her company, Pollen Floral Art) reached out to me, welcoming me to Austin and asking if I wanted to have coffee (people in Austin are unbelievably nice). I am so excited to introduce you to her her amazing company. I can't wait to learn more about her myself. Here's a sampling of Brooke's work.



Be sure to view more on her website and check out her lovely blog.

Here's to hoping for another great weekend ahead! xoxo

A New Look for The Studiolo!

First off, let me apologize for missing a post this week. We have been busy with storing our stuff, returning our moving truck, house hunting, getting new drivers licenses and handling logistical car stuff, and updating our portfolios to make the best impression possible for potential employers/clients, all while continuing work on some projects in New York. The weather has vacillated between 50 and and a balmy 75 degrees since we got here (a little colder at night), and we have eaten lunch outside for the last two days. In the sun. Without coats. We even slept with the window OPEN on Wednesday night! WA-HOO!

Onto the explanation of my brand-spanking new header and business cards! Before we left New York, we designed and printed up some new business cards for me (back to that whole making-a-good-impression thing) for when I do some networking in Austin. We started thinking about an identity for The Studiolo and sketching ideas months ago. I've had a bit of an obsession with the whole sunburst theme lately, and I was hoping to find a way to incorporate it into a logo. Initial ideas from my sketchbook:


After looking at those, Oliver hit the ground running with his own ideas:


You can see some Frisson explorations, as well as some unrealized custom lettering for Mara's calling cards.

And then he hit the jackpot with this sketch:


He tweaked parts of it in illustrator, but retained the hand-drawn feel with the final result. Once the plates were ordered, he marched off to The Arm in Brooklyn to letterpress them (his first time doing a two-sided card).


Oliver also designed the other side of the card to reflect some new information about Frisson (note the new Austin phone number)!


The Studiolo side was printed with Rhodamine Red and the Frisson side was printed using Delft Blue, both Pantone colors. We didn't have a chance to photograph the cards before we left New York, but Oliver's parents have a yard filled with spectacular trees, stumps, pine needles, pine cones and all sorts of other whimsical specimens to use for styling. I love how the natural elements contrast with the precise craftsmanship of the cards.

I promise to share some photos of our travels soon. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek of us the morning we left town:

Printers were sent from hell...

Remember how I said we were back and would be posting regularly? See how it's been almost a month from our last post? Not doing so well, huh. We've been pretty busy (a good thing) but we really shouldn't ignore our little soap box here. One thing that comes with busy-ness is getting ready for meetings and presentations, and what comes along with that is, inevitably, necessary equipment meltdown, making cheery blog posts out of the question.

It always seems that the more pressure you're under to finish something quickly, the more you can count on all of your equipment to self-destruct right at the witching hour. This has happened to me not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES in the last few weeks! I've worked on a presentation for this or that, it's all ready to go and time to print and WHAM! Meltdown. The printer runs out of ink, the paper jams, the computer freezes – the trifecta of inefficiency. Why it still surprises me, I do not know.

Image courtesy The Oatmeal

Oliver recently sent me a HILARIOUS post from The Oatmeal, a fantastic blog written and illustrated by Seattle-based web design, developer and marketer Matthew Inman, who has an outstanding sense of humor. All the content is worth looking at, but the one entitled "Why I Believe Printers Were Sent From Hell To Make Us Miserable" is my focus for today.

Favorites:

• The Setup

• Ink Colors

• Unfortunate Timing (duh)

After this complain-o-blog, I'll be sure to post something happy next time. In the meantime, share in my outrage!