A Printable Press The Blog

Doonesbury part III

2015-03-10T08:31:00.000-04:00

Now, this has happened to customers of mine. Truly. At least, when a date or location has changed and there's no time to reprint all the stationery. But now I know the beauty of titling an insert card "errata"!

Thanks you Doonesbury for so many decades or inconceivably relevant humor.

Doonesbury part II

2015-03-06T13:42:00.000-05:00

And you thought you had problems with deciding on wording for your invitations....

Again via Doonesbury comic site

Doonesbury 1981 (bear with me, it's relevant)

2015-03-06T08:24:00.002-05:00

From the era when proofing your invitations was a whole lot harder

From the Doonesbury site, pointed out to me by my beloved dad

Why the customer is always right

2015-03-04T19:59:00.000-05:00

Or perhaps it should in particular be "Why the bride- or groom-to-be is always right". This is not some catch-phrase built to avoid issues or make sales—it has a reason. They are always right because they are spending their hard-earned money on something that is important to them. You may believe that it is important to you, but if you are putting it out there to be sold, hopefully you are doing so because you want others to love it. And if you want them to love it, you should expect anxiety over it.

Now, what I'm talking about is a customer of a product. That is not the same thing as a "client". A client, whether of a law firm or design firm or any kind of what-have-you firm, they can indeed be wrong. They are not bringing their expertise to the table, they are hiring you because they want YOU to tell them what to love. Clients can be wrong. And you should find either the kindest way to explain it to them, or not work with them.

But customers, they are always right. It is important for me, for any of us in the mercantile world, to remember. We've already made our design and put it out there into the world, for others to appreciate. And weddings are an incredibly stressful time, and everything one buys is suppose to symbolize, to positively REEK of love. How can one stand straight underneath that weight?

So, dear anyone, have pity for customers. Have pity for all of us who must bear the burden of anyone thinking we're crazy during wedding planning time. When we fall in love with something we may behave wrongly but our hearts are right.

Numbers book

2015-02-25T08:34:00.000-05:00

So it has been pretty much impossible for me to start on my number 4 daily resolution, "Just start on it". Meaning, just start a personal project, any project. Stream of consciousness writing is nice and all and good for getting chops, but it is not an end goal. Common Core may be fraught with tremendous issues but I'll agree with it on that point.

Long story.

But here is something I hope to work on, with the impetus of one of my best friend's impending (or arrived??) baby girl.

The first "books" for infants are simply high contrast shapes, that you point to again and again and repeat what they are. It is intensely boring. So I've been thinking for a long time about a numbers book that has writing for adults within it. I got so exhausted trying to talk to August as a baby while showing him a book. Sleep deprivation is a murderer of imagination, an executioner in full mask and leather body suit.

At first I imagined it with classic text in it: maybe some Jane Austen, maybe some Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But now I think it should be funny. The number one is easy and I'm not sure about the flow of the others, but I know by 7 one should be allowed to bemoan how boring reading to a baby can be.

I hope I can continue and not get frustrated and give it up. I don't want to be that. I wish I were a genius who could do naught but express/enable/pass on what comes through my mind. There's a better word. Something midwives do...

Sometimes design makes me sad

2015-02-25T08:30:00.000-05:00

I don't know where this image came from, sadly sometimes the internet does not provide an original creator (tumblr makes me very mad). But it is a powerful message.

But. Sometimes, people may believe in themselves and believe in their design, and this is what comes out:

This is for a brand new café opening in my neighborhood. There have been posters covering the construction plywood, with this logo, which I prayed was just temporary. It wasn't.

You can say "Bless their heart..." But that would hurt them. And this design will hurt their business. And I am truly sad for them as it is still a struggling edge to the neighborhood and this will be the third café/bar in that location in four years. All using terrible fonts.

It hurts my heart.

Playing around

2015-02-23T11:42:00.000-05:00

It's been so long since I used gouache that my old ones dried out. Brand new gorgeous little tubes of Holbein. Let the painting games begin.

Happy Lunar New Year!

2015-02-19T11:28:00.002-05:00

It is the year of the yang—which in some roman languages is translated as goat, and in some as sheep. There is a great debate over this, with westerners wrassling over the connotations! Cuddly! Voracious! Poofy! Head-butting! And some approaches of course get downright silly.

But in China much of this debate is relegated to simply scratching-of-the-head status, since the word "yang" in mandarin means both sheep and goat. And you know why? Because it is not just between cute vs eats-anything-including-cans. Because many of these creatures look like THIS:

The badass bighorn sheep. Which I have been lucky enough to see in the wild once, albeit it from such a distance that it was mostly a climbing leaping dot on the side of a mountain far away, where for two minutes I had to say, "Is that one? Is it?? Yes it is! No wait... No, yes!!"

A dear friend of my mother's, Marilyn Wagner, makes Chinese zodiac magnets every year to celebrate the lunar new year. I seem to have lost my yang one (or rather my toddler did as he loves them). But here is a photo of my favorite by her, year of the rat. I'm partial to it as it is both my year and my mother's:

So now. Now, it is the year of the bighorn sheep. Lower your horns and get ready to charge.

Top photo from nytimes.com, taken by Credit Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Bottom photo from hdwallpapersnew.net, no photographer credited (bad form)

Together Forever (temporarily)

2015-02-10T16:51:00.004-05:00

Want a really unique way to say "I love you shmoopy bear" this Valentine's Day? Check out these free printable temporary tattoos I created for A Practical Wedding! You can customize them with your honey's name, print them backwards on temporary tattoo paper (printing backwards is easy, it's a part of any printer's settings), cut 'em out and adhere.

This Valentine’s Day printable was inspired by a total anti-Valentine story. A friend of mine once had a crush, a SERIOUS crush, and the object of her crush turned out to be a serious jerk. So to thumb her nose at her my friend played crazy stalker and said, “Guess what—I got a tattoo of your name,” and lifted up her shirt. Across her belly she had written, “Goodbye” and walked off. This is the positive version of that. But still worth a laugh and a high five.

See the post on A Practical Wedding here, or download directly here!

Aw, how sweet!

2015-02-03T13:26:00.000-05:00

The lovely Wedding Lovely blog featured last year's printable Valentine's Day matchbook in their best-of 2015 roundup!

And I've got a new printable going up tomorrow.

So many posts in one week. Ya just know I have to watch out for falling off the wagon again. But what can I say, Valentine's Day is kind of a big deal for stationery!

Well hello again

2015-02-03T08:27:00.005-05:00

It is not exactly a new year's resolution to get back to Printable Press blogging, since it's February, but rather trying to get over a block. You know how you have to face something you got out of the habit of a million years ago? How it's super hard? How it's so much easier to keep putting it off? That's this. It's like an old friend you fell out of touch with—you think about them all the time, you feel guilty you fell off the map, you still love them, and you've kept an unanswered email at the bottom of your inbox for six months. Sitting there waiting patiently. I am trying to clear out my inbox.

Oddly what got me off my guilt-ass was a note from a friend/neighbor. Her sister, a print-maker, collaborated with a calligrapher/artist on a gorgeous calendar. The artist provided black and white illustrations and my friend's sister (Hisako Otani) interpreted them into hand-cut rubber stamps. There's nothing like hand-cut stamps, and they make the original illustrations come alive.

And this took me to the calligrapher's work which is a delectable surprise. They're called Handmade Letters, which I sort of can't believe wasn't already taken by another calligrapher. I want to share their site because it has a beauty that is not standard in addressing envelopes. I want to shout out their beauty. And somehow, weirdly, that is what made me want to do a blog entry. No amount of my own work could bring me to do a blog post. No amount of people telling me I had to as a contemporary business owner. Only the desire to show off someone else's work.

So here it is, Handmade Letters. Bask in the beauty.

New wedding logos!

2014-05-13T08:39:00.000-04:00

These have been in the works for months. Months I tell you! But it was so worth it.
Introducing (drumroll please)… Our brand new line of wedding logos!

These logos are a unique way to give your wedding a signature look. Our round or square stickers and rubber stamps can be used in a number of ways, and thick beautiful coasters remind guests of your special day with every clink of their glass. And the printable logo can be scaled to any size you want, and the sky's the limit in how you want to use them.

Things you can do with our stickers:

Customize your favor boxes
Use them to seal an envelope
Decorate a flower cone
Seal a belly band

Things you can do with our rubber stamps:

Customize your envelopes
Use on favor tags
Stamp on favor boxes
Stamp on paper napkins
Stamp on fabric with pigment ink pads
Use on table number cards

Things you can do with printable logos:

Favor tags—we can set them several per page, so all you have to do is print them on card stock, cut them out and punch holes in them.
Seating charts—make it big and put it at the top of your seating chart
Fans—having a wedding in a warm month? Use it on a diy fan [link to printable]
Order custom cocktail napkins
Make an embosser to use on french flap envelopes
Get custom notepads

Have any questions? Want to add to our list of ideas? Email us with all your thoughts at info@printablepress.com

Free Valentine's Printables!

2014-02-07T08:32:00.001-05:00

They're up! Go to A Practical Wedding for full instructions, and here for the free download.

A pre-Valentine's Day hello!

2014-01-17T14:03:00.002-05:00

I am in the midst of a new year's revamp of the Printable Press website, a revamp of my understanding of the business, and adjusting my ideas about our crazy cat. Which is, that if I want to stage some photography, he had better be locked into another room.

Typical outtakes of every stationery photo shoot. And the printable valentines are coming soon with A Practical Wedding!

Time to 'fess up

2013-07-08T13:40:00.003-04:00

I'm going to confess something to you. From April 2012 to April 2013 we experienced 5 deaths, attended 4 funerals, lost our last remaining grandparents, and both of our pets. And it was this final one, my cat of 17 years, that spun me into silence. I flipped out.

I had been preparing for her death for years, essentially ever since I moved in with Paul. She and I had been sole companions for over a decade and it was quite traumatic for her to move in with a boy ("What??") and a dog ("What the fuck??"). She was skittish, quiet, the runt of a litter found in a car engine, and it took her a year to trust me. Do you know how special that is? To be the only trusted one? It was like having a little wild animal around whom you had tempted with tiny bits of food to approach your campfire, the little animal creeping closer and closer, until one day you look down and realize it's sitting on your feet. You don't even breathe, not wanting to scare it off.

That's what it was like—ever precious. And then she joined me on all my adventures.

When her time finally came I knew that no matter how much preparing I had done that I would still flip out. And so I let myself weep for days, and then on and off for weeks, and if the wrong commercial comes on or tender moment in a movie, I still tear up.

But what I had not expected was the depth of flip-out. Her death, for some reason, made me doubt everything. This is sort of what happened to my head for a few months:

What has happened to my life? Who's that two-year-old in the other room? Who's this man sitting next to me? What is this, I own a stationery business? And I've fooled myself into thinking I'm capable of doing that?

Where did so many things go, those things I did when it was her and me alone? Where was art and staying up until 4am sketching, where was staying at the beach until sunset, where was staying at the cabin with a cat hiding under the bed when we heard a deer outside at night? Because it is always deer, not bears, definitely. Absolutely. It couldn't be bears.

Where where where did I go...

I stopped being able to do a happy blog, and I couldn't do an honest blog either, because I knew even my nearest and dearest were tired of hearing my confused dementia-esque repeated questions and flailings. When you do not recognize your life or your deepest self, you gotta solve it yourself.

One of the things that I am receding from is social media. I have a whooooole lot to say on that front, which I'm still pondering, because if every single person in the business world is telling me I have to maintain social media then obviously I need to take them seriously. Perhaps. But sometimes, when things get to be too much, you have to slice off just a couple of things that are too much.

I am not solved, but I am pushing forwards. Right now with just a stick trying to force aside mental brambles and vines, I want to be strong enough to turn it into a machete, and go THWACK THWACK through the dead weight I've let twine up around my brain.

I'm not even going to re-read this: here is my post. Please pardon any spelling errors...

Zoo shots

2013-03-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Baboon butt, paintings by sea lions and porcupines, meerkat alertness, sea lion training, feeling cold. Continuing to have fun with my new camera. These aren't much or terribly original, but animals are always a good time, and this is the first time I've been able to capture one of the sea lions in action! They are one of the few creatures who have fun the way we do—not just to practice their hunting skills, not just something they grow out of, not just instinctually chasing the laser light, but doing something "just because". Like chasing and retrieving frisbees! Painting! The Prospect Park Zoo is only about 1 long block away from us through the park, we go like every two weeks. August refuses to learn the world "seals", since all he sees are sea lions. He gets furious with us when we say seals at all.

I'll learn 'im when he's older.

Watercolor and boarding the bandwagon

2013-03-04T09:47:00.000-05:00

What I've been up to—lots of thinking, and lots of watercoloring. Here's what I've been feeling—conflicted.

A while ago I came across the sun prints of Anna Atkins made of British ferns, published in 1843. I wrote about her here. Ever since then I've been wanting to make watercolors of ferns (since I'm not much of a sun print type), but have been busy with the business/baby/life trilogy. I've finally found the time to fiddle with watercolor, and am discovering that these new designs look an awful lot like a lot of stationery and illustrations out there. Hand-painted artwork is very trendy right now, artwork informed by old illustrations and vintage-y colors. So these designs will look very much, or ARE very much, like I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

The current message sent out to all designers is to be true to your own vision and nurture your original look. But to be honest I don't really have one. Trained as a children's book designer, I was trained to be at the service of a narrative—to create designs that brought out other people's work, where the designer is and should be essentially invisible. It's all about the story, it's not about you.

Now as a stationery designer (and still book designer, designing 2 right now, how do I think I have the time for this...) I find that although I do have a specific perspective, I do not have a single unified look. I'm swept away by too many things. And I want to share these things with people. In a way, I feel that my design skills should be at the service of those looking for unique stationery that could still be within their budget.

So, about this bandwagon thing. I feel bad about creating things that will smack of other people's work, even if I'd had it in mind for years. But when custom artwork is out of most people's grasp, is it such a bad thing to find a way to give it to them? Especially if you happen to have a background in watercolor?

What does it mean to feel in service to customers rather than your own "style"? It's not the motto out there. If you're a small business you are not supposed to be talking about money or sales, you are supposed to be true to yourself and stick to your guns.

I guess I'm not on that bandwagon. I guess I think that mindset is its own bandwagon. A good one, one that everyone should aspire to! But I simply don't have a singular design style. If "eclectic" is the word of the day for interiors, can't it be that way for design as well? I design with other people in mind, I design things to make people happy. Design is at the service of others, to be used and loved. It's not art, and THAT'S OKAY.

I'll talk about my artwork some other time!

Some pics from last weekend at the cabin

2013-02-22T09:56:00.000-05:00

It was 47 degrees when I got there Saturday afternoon, and nary a frozen drop of water was to be found. Kinda disheartening in mid-February. But then the cold snap snapped that night, and by the next morning I discovered just how ice forms in the creek. I always assumed a thin skim of ice would creep out from the shores where the water eddies in pools, and then layer by layer it would thicken into those giant slabs. But when I went down to refill my water jugs (we turn off the water in winter and just filter creek or streamlet water) I discovered that those big shelves of ice were in fact thousands of tiny shards, smushed together in a clear slushy mix. I suppose they gather and pack together and then the water in between the shards, trapped and still, then freezes the whole thing together.

It's amazing to continuously discover the little acts of the world around you. One time when I was out camping with my dad there was a cold front that blew through during the night, like the one this last weekend. In the morning I exited my tent with my breath going out in poofy white gusts, which is always fun because you can pretend you're smoking, or steaming like a dragon. I went to pick up my water bottle, which was just a repurposed liter coke bottle [a camping hint if you're hiking very far—soda bottles are much lighter than any canteens they sell in stores, and BPA's only gather in the liquid if it's been in there for a while]. Anyway, I picked it up to take a swig, but as soon as I touched it there was a krrak and the clear water suddenly froze into shards of ice! It was like a film trick. My dad, an ex-physicist, explained that that was supercooling, which happens under very specific conditions. Despite a hiking career of 50+ years he had never seen it before.

Little moments like that, where you get startled by a new understanding... I don't have a phrase for it. I considered writing "that's what life is all about", but that is intensely stupid. Life is about many things. I guess it's just a joy of learning constantly. And of being outside a lot. Who knew I would get so excited about ice!

The last two photos of what I got a craving for—that's right, FRITO PIE. Do you know it? Fritos topped by chili topped by cheese and whatever else you want. Do you like how I made a side salad to assuage my guilt?

The pic says it all!

2013-02-21T09:21:00.001-05:00

We are doing a $100 giveaway with A Practical Wedding! Just write a comment to enter [EDIT: I meant to say, go to A Practical wedding and write a comment to enter the giveaway—my bad!], and a winner will be chosen at the end of the week.

It's weird to write a post that's strictly bidness, which goes to show just how non-bidness my brain is!

Some recent Instagram pics

2013-02-18T08:13:00.000-05:00

Everyone waking up from nap, Moke having slept on my chest

Stained glass in the roof of the Oriental Pavilion (I know, •groan•) in Prospect Park

Snowdrops getting a little ahead of themselves

Misty snow across the way, spangled by park lamps like the lamp in the middle of Narnia's woods that grew from a tossed crossbar. It's like it seeded and they are spreading.

Despite loving my new camera, which is aces, I still love using Instagram...

I guess the sucky has to happen too...

2013-02-14T08:58:00.000-05:00

Do any of you know the Curious George story where he puts the wrong soap in the dishwasher? I wasn't looking and dumped in regular liquid soap. Afternoon wasted cleaning out gallons of suds.
And what an awesome thing to discover when you go to move your car. I'm betting it was sideswiped by an aggressive NYC snowplow. SIGH. This is on top of having a cold for 2 weeks and now potential pink-eye. The joys of motherhood.Rargh.But maybe I could also tag this as being a not so bad part of being a freelancer, that at least you discover these things early. And they're both resolved, or will be soon. Silver lining, right? Right?Maybe I'll just let myself be crabby.

Fun in the sunny snow

2013-02-13T08:52:00.000-05:00

Cookie sheet sleds, a city and park transformed, three Akitas who looked like they were about to go on a sled, successful mitten-wearing, and only one tearful moment over the fact that there weren't any ducks.

As many of you know, this past weekend in the northeast was a mixture of foreboding fear ("Snowstorm of the century is coming!") to joyous celebration (NYC just had a pristine fluffy foot of snow, perfect for sledding!). I feel for you, Massachusetts and Long Island, that you got so hammered...

For the first time we were able to convince August to wear his mittens, which made all the difference. The previous time we'd taken him out in the snow he refused to wear them and unsurprisingly his hands became icicles, which he held out and cried to us piteously, "Hurt! Hurt". It was both pathetic and infuriating.

So being able to watch him experience snow with joy was a wonderful thing, and in a way it felt like an inauguration. His first time enjoying snow. You know, throwing it up in the air and watching it sparkle (it was fine dry snow), tasting it, smacking branches to watch it patter down, and of course sledding. When we went out the everything was still at that magical point of a city transformed, the buildings a geometric backdrop to the soft lines of pure white, the trees graphic linear elements with branches framing bright blue sky in black and white. Lacy. Everything felt lacy.

We haven't gotten August a sled yet so Paul suggested we make one out of a cookie sheet, harking back to his childhood in Texas, where it was never worth buying a sled but also never worth missing out on the rare snowfull and a good swoop down a hill. I discovered my cookie sheets have holes in one end, I suppose for potentially hanging on a hook. Who would hang a cookie sheet on a wall?? But the holes were perfect for attaching twine pulls which we used to haul around August and his best friend in the building Leo.

August was fearless, as he often is in front of Leo, like he's showing off. Look Leo, check me out! Leo is happy to gaze on in admiration. This isn't just me saying it, his parents say it too and laugh. There was much "Ageh? Ageh? AGEH!!" from August which equals "Again".

We are so lucky to live across from such a park as this, one often reviewed as one of the loveliest in the country. And doubly lucky that it is our entire view, because from here we can still see pristine snow fading off up the hill into the woodsy part, where no one has walked. Untrammeled snow is one of the most beautiful views in life.

A belated wish to all of you that you hopefully went through the snowstorm safe and warm, with no power outages or stuck cars! And for those not in the northeast, that you are enjoying fine weather and t-shirts.

Kimi

DIY Matchbook Valentine!

2013-02-06T13:07:00.000-05:00

I recently came across some vintage matchbooks and discovered I missed those jars at the bar filled with little packages of great design. Remember those? Do any bars or restaurants still have those?

So I in collaboration with A Practical Wedding I made these sassy Valentine's Day printables for you, to indulge in a little nostalgia and a little lovin'. Find the full post here at A Practical Wedding, or download the PDF directly here. You can customize them to say anything you want, whether sweet-as-pie, or sexy-veering-on-dirty. Make them into a simple card, a note attached to their gift, or a coupon book which is a gift itself. Get sassy with it.

My dad got the same camera as me

2013-02-04T10:37:00.004-05:00

And is a much better photographer than I am.

August does not have football shoulders, his shirt is pushed up in back. But his hair is that goofy, sometimes even goofier. When it's at its most mussed and all sticky-uppy we call it "frowsty", a word borrowed from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It's used to describe the children after they slept poorly in a cave and emerge all blinky into the sunlight. They looked frowsty. Isn't that an amazing word? Frowsty!

Oh and "all sticky-uppy" is taken from a Doctor Who episode—an old coot, trying to describe David Tennant's hairstyle (last doctor before current Matt Smith), says "He's got one of those modern hairdos, you know, all sticky-uppy". Or something like that.

Can you tell what highly intellectual and refined media tastes I have?

Superbowl Sunday!

2013-02-04T10:04:00.000-05:00

My boys, chowin' down during kickoff. The photos are awful, I was too engaged to try and get better shots. What a game! Despite the boring half hour of black out and the fact that we're not wed to either team, the Superbowl is inevitably a drama and battle of epic proportions. Like spartans all over again. But I'm going to explain a little later on how we also feel bad about watching. But I'm also first going to explain why it was so awesome.

We made what a friend called "gourmet junk food", but when it's that bad for you I think it doesn't deserve the gourmet appellation. But it does deserve the label "sinfully delicious". I made double-fried korean chicken wings and asian cole slaw, Paul made double-fried tostones (plantains) salted to high heaven (or hell?), and shockingly August ate it all. Well, not the cole slaw. We gave him pickles to make sure he had his incredibly unhealthy salt quota required for the Superbowl.

We sat down at our little tables and pigged out and kept August engaged by yelling, "Look! He's throwing the ball! Oh, look, he caught it! Oh nooooo, he fell down!". August seemed a little dubious of our play-by-play, but happily joined in since his parents were yelling which meant he could yell too.

Now the explication of guilt.

Paul, being a Texan and general All-American Boy, was always a football fan. Not the kind who has to wear a lucky jersey anytime his favorite team played, and in fact he didn't have a favorite team, but the kind to still shout with joy at any exciting play. But in recent years there has been exposé after exposé showing the nigh-inevitable brain damage caused by football, from high school onwards. And the lack of care given to ex-pros, abandoned by the NFL and any thought of health insurance. There is horror in the sight of what happens so many ex-players. It's a little, just a little, like seeing war veterans abandoned by their army.

But oh, even I can't escape the guilty pleasure of the Superbowl. The pageantry, the war-like athleticism, the emotions, the coaches who always look like they're going to have an aneurysm mid-game. And the COMMERCIALS and their unbelievable production values! And good grief was Beyoncé hot last night.

I hope one day that the hysteria over the World Cup takes over the United States at some point, with just as many traditions of fried food and high-production value commercials and hot ladies singing at halftime. Or it doesn't have to be a sports event—let's make mid-term elections an event! Bust out the deep fryer for the traditional korean fried chicken wings!

Because I just can't give up the Superbowl. Man, it's like being addicted to war movies.