Posts Tagged ‘Allison Chapman’

May 15, 2010
Igloo’s Big Adventure

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Tomorrow is the first day of the 64th annual National Stationery Show in New York City, the largest paper goods trade event in the country. Around 1300 exhibitors and 15,000 national and international retailers will be there, and my friend Allison Chapman will be showing off her Igloo Letterpress products in her own booth!

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Among Allison’s impressive collection of cards and paper goods will be these newest additions to our collaborative greeting collection.

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(This pun is all my fault, I’m afraid. I know, I deserve to go to a punitentiary in Punnsylvania for that.)

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NSS isn’t open to the general public, but the goal of attending is to expose our cards to a wide variety of retailers, and to meet like-minded letterpress folk.

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If you’ll happen to be there (either as an exhibitor or with a guest pass), say hello to Allison for me—she’ll be in booth 1550. The National Stationery Show runs from May 16 to 19, at the Javits Center on West 34th Street.

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In the meantime, since I won’t have these cards in my shop until next month (and since she’s closed until May 25), you can find them in the current edition of Poppytalk Handmade Marketplace, and Igloo’s new blog.

Best of luck, Allison!

Posted by Chandler at 12:19 PM in Illustration, Kindred Spirits, Letterpress  |  Permalink  |   Comments (2)
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March 02, 2010
Architectural digest

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Allison of Igloo Letterpress and I have been doing some more cross-country collaboration lately. This time we’re working on a Bookshelf Series of handmade journals. This first set is called “Brownstones”—one of my favorite types of houses, and a recurring theme in my drawings.

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I’m so lucky to work with Allison—despite the distance, and the fact that we haven’t seen each other for two years, I feel like I we’re on the same wavelength. I love the fact that we can trust each other to make independent creative decisions, and have faith that they’ll come together into a harmonious whole. But my part of the project is finished when I send her black-and-white illustrations for printing—since I can’t exactly pop into her shop whenever I want, I really have no idea how the finished product will look until she sends it to me.

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So imagine my delight when a package arrived containing four beautifully-bound hardcover books, with my illustration splashed on the cover in gorgeous color—

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—and printed right onto the book cloth, no less!

I did a little hopping dance around the living room after that.

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Here’s the best part, and a flash of Allison’s brilliance: not only do the books fit together thematically, but when they stand together on a bookshelf, the spines line up to complete the picture!

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Since these are so labor-intensive to make, I think Allison is binding them in very small batches, and only offering them for sale as they are ordered. But they’ve already been a big hit in Ohio, so I’m sure there will be more in the future. If you’re interested in ordering a set, drop her a line here.

Posted by Chandler at 11:52 PM in Illustration, Kindred Spirits, Letterpress  |  Permalink  |   Comments (2)
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November 27, 2009
Season’s greetings

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Every year I make a resolution to create a whole slew of greeting cards for the holidays, and every year I’m lucky if I can scrape together one postcard design to send to my own friends and family. Maybe it’s because I’m not really capable of getting in the mood for Christmas or Hanukkah in July, but by the time November rolls around and I finally think of it, there never seems to be enough time. Good thing I have my friend Allison to think of these things.

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Allison Chapman runs Igloo Press, a lovely little letterpress shop in Worthington, Ohio. She called me up this summer and asked me if I’d like to start a line of letterpress cards with her—since neither of us had time to do both the design and the printing, it was a match made in heaven.

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Collaborating when you have a couple thousand miles between you can be quite a challenge—especially when you’re trying to reinvent the wheel a bit. But Allison and I were on the same wavelength from the first moment, and it was so easy to leave the printing in her capable hands. Besides, her ideas for 3D pop-up cards turned out to be perfect for letterpress. Each of these cards is a kinetic greeting, with a unique folding structure that delivers the message in an unexpected way. And as always, the illustrations are created from hand-lettered type and hand-drawn patterns and imagery (as if you hadn’t guessed).

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And for after the holiday gifts are opened, we threw a thank-you card into the mix as well. Instead of a pop-up piece, this card slides out of a die-cut sleeve to reveal the whole story.

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All of these cards come with a standard A2 envelope, and are available either individually ($6.00 each) or in packs of six ($24.00 per set).

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(Just FYI, we’re still waiting for the “skates” card to arrive from the die-cutter, so it’s not up in the shop yet. I’ll post it online as soon as I can get my hands on them in the next couple of weeks. If you’d like to pre-order, though, just shoot me an email.)

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For more images and ordering information, visit the shop.

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One last thing: many thanks to the wonderful Sarah Christianson for sweeping in with her professional lighting and photographing the cards for me! Happy holidays!

Posted by Chandler at 12:52 PM in Illustration, Kindred Spirits, Letterpress  |  Permalink  |   Comments (7)
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