The Card Designer Highlight is a sequence that includes unbiased makers whose greeting playing cards you’ll find in Paper Supply shops. Meet and be impressed by a brand new designer each month on our weblog!
This month we need to introduce our featured card designer, Meghan Hopkins founding father of And Right here We Are. Learn the way she began in her tiny Brooklyn NY Residence renting press time at a close-by letterpress studio to a 4,000 sq. foot warehouse in Worthington, Ohio!
Meghan Hopkins Sokorai based And Right here We Are in 2012, creating customized wedding ceremony invites in a tiny Brooklyn NY residence and renting press time at a close-by letterpress studio. In 2015 she relocated to Columbus, Ohio, and acquired her first presses (a Vandercook SP-15 and a tabletop C&P). She launched her first line of merchandise on the Nationwide Stationery Present in 2017, and later that 12 months moved the studio out of her house; ultimately including 2 Heidelberg Windmills, and several other hundred merchandise to the lineup. And Right here We Are not too long ago relocated to a 4,000 sq ft warehouse and workplace area north of Columbus in Worthington, OH.
How did you start your card-making profession?
I got here to greeting playing cards by the use of my love of letterpress printing and illustration; once I first left my company design profession I used to be doing numerous customized wedding ceremony invites, and letterpress printing at a shared studio in Brooklyn. Once we determined to go away NYC and transfer again to my house state of Ohio, I purchased my first letterpress of my very own, which then led to me making my very own stuff *only for enjoyable,* which led to promoting it at craft gala’s, then to slowly selecting up some native consignment and wholesale outlets, and ultimately to exhibiting at my first commerce present, the Nationwide Stationery Present in 2017.
The place do you draw inspiration from?
I draw inspiration from all types of on a regular basis stuff. I really like travelling, mountain climbing, or visiting artwork museums for inspiration; however I additionally simply attempt to be observant of standard life, like foolish issues my youngsters say, or a random music lyric on the radio, the colours in a rug. Or typically, simply working backwards from a brand new approach I’ve been eager to play with, like overprinting or die reducing. I principally have about 30 lists on my telephone filled with random ideas and concepts that I’m continuously including to, and a few instances a 12 months I’ll scroll via these lists and see which concepts float to the highest.
What does your day appear like as a card maker and designer?
Our crew at the moment consists of seven full time members and a handful of half time helpers, so numerous my day-to-day is spent in conferences, or doing admin, or answering emails; then I attempt to sneak in some drawings the place I can (usually at house after the children go to mattress). We not too long ago moved to a brand new location, and for the primary time I’ve my very own workplace with a door—so I hope that I’ll be capable of discover some extra pockets of quiet inventive time. I’ve discovered that apart from the apparent loves of drawing and printing, I truly actually take pleasure in taking a look at our analytics and discovering tendencies, brainstorming new concepts with the crew.
What’s your most well-liked medium?
Most of our merchandise are letterpress printed, and I wish to work with the constraints of the method after which discover methods to push or get away of them. Most of my drawings are 2 or 3 ink colours most; any further colours are created by the overlay of the inks on high of each other. I begin with a drawing on my iPad, which I then convey backwards and forwards into Illustrator till I’ve a closing piece. Then, we separate the colours and make plates from the paintings. Loads of closing selections are made when the artwork goes onto the press, the place i may make a last-minute ink change or lower up the plate to rearrange it.
What are you most happy with as a creator and card maker?
As a designer & copywriter, I’m usually the proudest of my weirdest or dumbest concepts, particularly when our viewers likes them, too. As a printer, I’m proud when a print comes out how I’d envisioned it; like determining the way to overprint 3 colours of our Reel Good birthday card to make 5. And as an entrepreneur, I’m proud to helm a vibrant and profitable enterprise.
