Letterpress stationery is incredibly popular now (I don't know why, but typing that sentence made me crave egg nog). It has so much texture and the quality of being one-of-a-kind, even if the stationery is mass-produced.
Most letterpress stationery I come across is handmade, and my favorite stationer is a woman named Kat Feuerstein, creator of Gilah Press. I discovered a set of her sassy polka dot cards at my favorite store in Hampden, In Watermelon Sugar. The owner, Leslie, is perhaps the best merchandiser in Baltimore City, and a woman with impeccable taste. Kat had been creating Leslie's store signage, price tags, and business correspondence (I still have a hand-written note from Leslie on her salmon pink cardstock) and was also retailing her work there when I came across her cards. Now I buy them at Wholly Terra (shh, it's where I get my secret stash). Red Tree also carries her work.
What I like best about Kat's work is that she injects it with just the right amount of personality. Sometimes people like to hit you over the head with how witty they are, but she knows how to carefully edit her words and images. I have a set of postcards that pit black and white etchings of serene landscapes against colorful, sans serif slang, such as "gnarly" or "bad ass". My favorite is below:
Coincidentally, her studio is next to Spur Design's studio in Hampden and Dave Plunkert is her landlord. Also, design*sponge beat me to the punch and featured Kat's studio in a blog post on June 30th. I should have posted sooner. I'm not copying, I swear.
"Gnarly" postcard image courtesy of www.gilahpress.com. Copyright Gilah Press, 2008.
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