photo by Jessica Comingore

Fall 2014 issue, Design Matters

It's been a long time coming....

We're featured in the current Fall issue of Anthology magazine focusing on design! I'm so excited to share this since it feels like a huge exclamation mark to our journey to building our home. This is the long awaited light at the end of the tunnel is here.

I couldn't have wished for a better dream team to make it look so good! Jessica Comingore shot these amazing photographs while Dabito styled our home beyond our dreams.  I couldn't believe that's what our place looked like in their eyes. Carren Jao helped tell our story. 

The evolution of our home has been a sustained figure in my life as well as my husband, Richard. We began the process as almost strangers (just dating), became engaged during the first phase of constructing the lower level which now where my studio is, married during framing of the main house, adopted our dog Bagel during the finished and now we live in it happily ever after. It's a dream come true now and building our home made us grow strong and fast. We learned so much about each other - the amazing, good, bad and the really ugly. 

Bagel living the good life / photo by Jessica Comingore

photo by Jessica Comingore

upper mezzanine / by Jessica Comingore

photo by Jessica Comingore

Along with photos of our home completed, I  wanted to share some process photos of our 5-year journey. It was really 4 years which is still a really long time, but the 5 years include the year we took a break to live in Germany. In Munich, Richard worked on the BMW electric cars and I learned the craft of letterpress printing at Fliegenkopf.

The rest is history.  For now.

To see more photos and outtakes, hop on over to Jessica Comingore's blog.  

Head over to newstands to grab this issue. It's a pretty good one with write ups on Barbara Bestor, Jessica Hische, Silvia Song and more.

At this point, I can say that I've printed business cards for a pretty wide range of creative types, but I've never met a client like this one I'm about to present.

Azalea Lee is not a paper person. It's just not her thing. Instead, ask her about mineral, gems, stones and she can go on for days. This is Azalea's element (pun intended). With her sleeves rolled up, she mines for each stone, brings them to a cutter coaxing out each stone's unique characteristic, and uses them for healings, sells them in their beautiful natural state and even makes jewerly from smaller pieces.

After printing her business cards, I hand delivered them during a family & friends pre-sale event and it wasn't until then that I understood her craft. I had no expectations during our first meeting, but was completely inspired by her passion and for showing me the beauty of these gems. It still astounds me that these rocks come from the earth just like this. 

                                the spread of gems

                                my pyrite rock

I picked up a sizable rock of pyrite (aka fool's gold) and it now shimmers in the center of my studio table. It's not only pretty to look at, but it helps increase energy, manage projects, and brings prosperity.  Exacly what I need.

Fascinated? Me too. Visit them here.

The specs:

• 220# Lettra, fluorescent white
• 2/0 colors (blind deboss + black)
• silver edge paint

To kick off the new year, I was so happy to be commissioned to create these calendars. Taskforce, one of favorite cleints to work with, let me let my hair down with this piece. At first, they approached me for a unique gift for about 10 people and then it ended up as 100 custom designed, all letterpress printed and watercolored calendar.

On this special project, we added a wash of neon watercolor over the blind debossed 2014 and even pulled off a gradient pattern. For the letterpress nerds, I had to make crazy layers of packing to pull it off.  I had a trash can full of paper by the time I got it right.

To package it all up, I pressed a custom address area on the front of a kraft mailer and pressed a few notecards for a personal note.

Success and quite the unique gift for the new year.

Cheers!
 

These months are available as individual cards or as a set here.

Printed by yours truly with hand-lettering by Paper & Type.

It's not everyday that one of LA's buzzing fried chicken joints asks you to do letterpress business cards. Fried chicken for business cards almost sounds fair, right. It seemed more convincing after tasting their Japanese twist on a familiar and comforting food especially when coupled with their sides like mac-n-cheese, curry creamed corn, shishito peppers and a pint of craft beer. 

Take a bite and taste for yourself.

Tokyo Fried Chicken
122 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 282-9829
 

Card specs:
These cards are printed on 220# Lettra with 2/2 color and a bright red on the edges.
Design by James Iida