New York Stationery Show

P works in the giftware industry. In fact, that's how we met...at my first job out of college. I designed the product, he sold it. So this past weekend when he was headed to NYC for the annual New York Stationery Show at the Javitz Center, I begged him to take me along. That way I could finally (hopefully) maybe meet some of the wonderful stationers I've been stalking online for years now:) I couldn't take any pictures while there, but I really want to thank the following ladies and gents for taking the time to speak with me...they were all so nice and gave me some great tips for getting started in the business. Plus I got to drool over all their gorgeous paper wares in person, very different from just drooling over them on the web:)

• Hello!Lucky: I was almost too nervous to talk to these ladies because they are so famous, but they were so welcoming and helpful...and their booth design was soooo cool. A letterpress printer and design studio with offices in SF and London, Hello!Lucky was started by sisters Eunice and Sabrina Moyle in 2003. They told me to stay persistent and watch my costs!

• Two Trick Pony: Laura and Carrie of Two Trick Pony focus on green design, using 100% recycled materials and screen printing by hand. Click here to see the printing process on their blog The Pony Express. Great sense of humors too! They recommend I focus on customer service, because while product is important, so are your people skills, especially when doing custom work.

• Chewing the Cud: This was their first year at the show, and wow, you couldn't tell! Definitely gave me hope. I love Chewing the Cud's custom wedding letterpress work, its so intricate and personal. Their advice was to establish a great relationship with a printer.

• Dutch Door Press: I had just seen these gals featured on design*sponge, so when I walked by their booth I let out a little exclamation of joy! Another San Francisco shop, friends Anna and Mara teamed up in 2006 (yikes, around the same time I started and look where they are now!) to start their own letterpress line. Anna was manning the booth when I was there and she was awesome! We chatted illustrator to illustrator about layouts, coming up with card concepts and time management. I am in love with their latest letterpress line of prints, Birds and Blooms of the 50 States (so far they only have 3 states done). I put in a request to Anna for the 2 states I would love to buy for our house, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and she promised to move those to the top of the list:)
  

Because this blog is about home decor as well as wedding paper stuff, I wanted to show you some photos from both Anna's and Mara's homes (isn't it so interesting to see inside artists' homes?!). Conveniently, design*sponge did sneak peeks of both of their gorgeous spaces, so check them out here and here.

(Anna's SF home)

(Mara's SF home)

• Paper+Cup: I met both founders of Paper+Cup Design (merchants of upscale stationery and fine paper goods based out of NYC) , Minhee and Truman Cho, and they were super down to earth. They admitted that they too had trouble coming up with a name for their company in the beginning, so then I didn't feel so bad that I don't have one yet either:) They also had some really nice, unique ways of displaying their cards and custom invitations in their booth too... picture a glass cloche sitting on a round stump of wood. Nestled inside the cloche is some moss and sitting up, open is one of their greeting cards...sigh, so pretty...and a really unexpected way to display paper goods.

Thanks again to everyone for being so gracious and approachable! Grace from design*sponge walked the show too, and she was allowed to take pictures (its ok that she's one of my idols, right?), so check out her write-ups about NYSS here, here, and here.