sniff collector

In addition to being an UPPERCASE contributor, Amy Peppler-Adams is a graphic designer, budding surface pattern designer and co-author of the Vintage Scratch & Sniff Collector's Guide. She recently wrote about her experience as a scratch and sniff sticker collector on her blog. 

"Some of you may know that my obsession with collecting (hoarding) includes a passion for vintage stickers from the 1970s and '80s. For the first 10 years of the 2000s, right after I turned 30, I was consumed with finding and buying all the stickers I collected as a kid, replacing all those I had stuck to old notebooks and magnetic photo albums with pristine, unused stickers on their original backings. This included scratch and sniff stickers, which had to be unscratched and still have their smell. And I wasn't the only one—eBay was crawling with avid sticker collectors, especially those who wanted sniff stickers. It was a tense 10 years, watching hundreds if not thousands of listings and usually bidding at the last second to try to win. But my collection is nearly complete, and occasionally I am able to fill in some holes when I get the inkling to check out the eBay listings again.

During this time I was fortunate to collaborate with a fellow collector, bubbledog, writing a book dedicated to scratch and sniff stickers: the Vintage Scratch & Sniff Stickers Collector's Guide."

Amy says she was "thrilled to have contributed a short article about the stinky pieces of paper" for issue #17. 

If you're interested in starting your own scratch and sniff sticker collection, you're in luck. Email win@uppercasemagazine.com by May 15 to be entered to win a copy of Vintage Scratch & Sniff Stickers Collector's Guide.

even more moxie

Photos: Jamie Leonardi

Jamie Leonardi (Resident Cheerleader for a. favorite design letterpress greeting cards & blogger for Stumble & Relish) shares the The Wisdom of Moxie:

It was the first sunny, beautiful day in Chicago—Saturday at 7:45 A.M. and I walked into a day-long creative conference. You might think, “YAWN” or “I wanna play outside today”. But you’d be wrong. So wrong. This was a “conference to inspire confident creatives” and it definitely did. I was blown away by the variety of speakers, the creative fields they were from and how they all managed to really make me think.

Aside from brilliant Illustrator, Lisa Congdon, the list of speakers didn’t mean much to me before I heard them speak but they all left quite an impression on me. Designer and illustrator, Elle Luna, was memorable with her poetically, blunt style. She made me laugh, made me think and I will always remember that distractions threaten us daily—“every time you say yes to one of them, you say no to yourself”. The speakers were refreshing, easy-going, smart, forthright, honest, funny, witty, entertaining and so incredibly passionate. There was a common theme of taking the jump off that cliff, quitting your job and start doing what it is you really want to do. I think the eloquent illustrator and fine artist, Lisa Congdon, said it best “Be you. Make the work you love and embrace your path”.

It is a rare chance that you get to feel and experience the true creative passion of others. All creatives have the passion that drives them, fuels them, feeds them but to get inside some true creative genius is a gift. It was fantastic to see the rich, creative community here in Chicago in one room. There was so much to take away but mostly I walked away with many words of wisdom to share:

“Find your MUST. What do you burn for? What moves you?” —Elle Luna, designer & artist

“Safety & comfort obstruct your dreams.” —Rob Loukotka, designer

“Mistakes are so beautiful, lets go paint a million mistakes.” —in the words of a little boy to Elle Luna

“Be you. Make the work you love & embrace your path.” —Lisa Congdon, Illustrator & Fine Artist

“The original Kick Starter.“ —Max Temkin referring to Mr. Rodgers defending PBS in the senate in 1969 

“Your haters are really good at pointing out your strengths.” —Ann Friedman, Editor & Writer

“We are all writers, we are all storytellers.” —Susan Betteridge. Group Creative Director

“Always have a business card.” —Mare Swallow, Speaker, Consultant, Author

“It would be better to fail than to suck.” —Max Temkin, Designer & Gamer

“Be prolific. Be brave. Be communal. Be adaptable. Be firm. Be adventurous. Be dependable. Be gracious. Be (occasionally) disentangled. ” —Lisa Congdon, Illustrator & Fine Artist

moxie

Photos: Kept Casual

Over the weekend we were proud to support MoxieCon in Chicago by providing complimentary magazines to attendees. This one-day event was a crash course on the business side of design and technology. Workshops covered topics such as self promotion, how to market your ideas as well as dealing with legal issues. We sent Stationery Guide participants Nina from Tweedle Press, Tiffany and Mary of Kept Casual and Jamie from a. favorite design who all report that the event was very inspiring. 

Kept Casual’s TOP 10 List of the Most Noteworthy Observations and Moments from Our Inspiring Experience at MoxieCon:

10. Lots of prints, patterns and cool eye wear all around us. Designers are so chic.

9. Cool bag of swag, including a back issue of UPPERCASE Magazine and a bundle of Field Notes!

8. From Susan Betteridge—tell a story when presenting your work. Don’t undersell the journey you took to get to your idea.

7. Lawyer up!

6. Jen Myers talked about Girl Develop It, a meetup community of women that offers classes and resources to women interested in learning how to code. Sign us up!

5. Read autobiographies of really successful people. 

4. From Mare Swallows —“Inspire confidence [in yourself and your work] from the start.” And, “Create a web presence, and keep up with it.”

3. Elle Luna advised, “Know the difference between the work that you can do and the work that you must do. What do you burn for?” 

2. Favourite piece of advice from Lisa Congdon—“Be communal. Surround yourself with good people. Don’t bother with the jerks.”

1. Hands down best thing said all day came from Ann Friedman, “You’re doing something right if you have haters.” Amen.

animated cut paper

you oughta be in print

Publish your news in honest-to-goodness ink on paper.

We're now accepting peeps for our Summer issue.

Think of a peep as a creative cross between a tweet, the community newspaper classifieds and a type specimen. Thanks to lithographic technology, these "paper tweets" leave a lasting impression. And with beautiful typography and design for each message (typeset by UPPERCASE designer Janine Vangool), these peeps transform a classified into something classy.

Submit your peep by Friday, May 17 for inclusion in our Summer issue!

come what may...

Our May desktop wallpaper featuring artwork by Cécile Daladier, photo by Jas Tang and lettering by Janine.

Yesterday, readers of our e-newsletters received a link to download this free desktop wallpaper. If you'd like to download the image, please sign up for our newsletter here.

working on work/life: Lea Vervoort

The submission deadline for my 100 artists is nearing, so my inbox is bursting with questions, artwork and downloads. While I'm busy sorting, here are some images of Lea Vervoort working on her illustration for the forthcoming Work/Life book.

From her home studio in the Netherlands, Lea answered some of our questions on her illustrated life:

Has being an illustrator affected your personal life? (ie the choice of where or how you live?) Actually I can live where ever I want to. My work is international orientated. As long as I have a roof, my computer and my paper with pencils I can work. 

Does your personal life (i.e. children, working from a home studio) affect your career? Working from a home studio sometimes affects my career. I would love to work at a studio away from home, but I'm not able to afford it (yet).

Lea's sketch for her Work/Life illustration.

How do you maintain a balance between your work and your life? (or not?) Illustration is a really big part of my life. It’s my passion and it's my work. And even if I’m not working I’m thinking about it, so there's not really a balance between work and life here. But I don't mind, it makes me happy.

What is your ideal day? A day with lots of sun! Living in the Netherlands with all the rain can be a bit depressing sometime.

Where do you work? Do you have a studio at home or somewhere else? How is your workspace enhance or hinder creativity? I work at home. I live together with my boyfriend. He is an animator and works from home too. We share the office, a room (15m2) next to our living room. It's quite nice to have company of another creative soul.

The full illustration will be revealed in the book!

Is your image-making inspired by personal interests or do you prefer to be driven by specific assignment? Mostly my image-making is inspired by a specific assignment, but I always try to put some things of own interest in it too. And when I have some spare time I love to make personal work.

How is your creative vision expressed through your work? Because of my imagination I love to create/make up worlds. In my work you are likely to find things like environments, surroundings and cities with a certain atmosphere or characters such as animals, people or non-existing beings. Sometimes I’m still a kid who thinks that grown-ups are boring. With my work I hope to surprise and bring back a little sparkle to dusty lives.

creative calgary: wreck city

A row of houses in my neighbourhood is slated for demolition (seems to be a recurring theme) and a community of artists have transformed the buildings before they're torn down. We headed down to see Wreck City before this art installation project ends tonight.

Though it was certainly interesting to see something like this on mass scale and I can see how this was a fun project for lots of young artists to do whatever they wanted, it did feel a bit like a missed conceptual opportunity. Perhaps there could have been some way to comment intelligently on development (ie 'progress'), on respect for the past, on recycling and upcycling, on 'home-fullness' and homelessness... or the history of the houses? Who used to live there? How do they feel about their former homes being torn down? Where are they now?

Maybe I missed some of these concepts as I held tightly to Finley's hand in some potentially hazardous spaces (for a curious 3-year-old) and juggled my camera. I'm not sure. (There was a house with a lineup and controlled entry that intrigued me but we couldn't wait in line.) The overall experience left me melancholic.

A commenter on the Wreck City site wrote something that I agree with:

"As a neighbour, I am glad to see the demolisher (aka Developer) interested in some of the neighbourhood’s culture by supporting WRECK CITY, however, I find it a bit funny that we’re going to have this influx of art and culture just to have the culture entirely wiped out by a colossal condominium spanning an entire city block in the heart of this heritage community." 

got craft?

Springtime in Vancouver is wonderful—and I hear it's in full swing. Running this weekend, Got Craft? is another reason to be envious of those in the area. Visit their  website for updated venue information.

thanks for the thanks

Sass Cocker and Diesel

Our current issue features an extensive Stationery Guide with 50 profiled stationers and paper goods companies. Australian company Ask Alice is included and proprietor Sass Cocker emailed this fun image in thanks:

"Congratulations on another freakin' A-M-A-Z-I-N-G issue of UPPERCASE. I can't thank you enough for featuring Ask Alice... not once, but twice! It's a real honour for me. My cute Mum was teary eyed when I showed her and has since purchased several copies!"

Looks like her dog Diesel was a little too enthusiastic with the paper flag! (But we love to devour paper products, too. Like this lovely blank notebook with multiple found and upcycled paper stocks.)

Thanks, Sass!

Bee Kingdom Glass

Vinciane in the Bee Kingdom gallery/house for the interview.

Vinciane pulls some molten glass.

It is always enjoyable to spend time in artists' studios and peek in on their process. In our current issue, our Work-in-Progress Society article took a new direction in that we decided to focus on an in-person interview rather than curating from the Flickr pool. Bee Kingdom Glass is an exciting 4-person studio hidden in an unassuming house in a Calgary residential neighbourhood. At one point, some of the members of Bee Kingdom were also roommates living in the house; now the living room is a small gallery, bedrooms are office studios—and the glass studio is out back in a converted garage. This close-knit group is aptly named; as glassblowers they are dependent on one another to see their individual creative visions come into form.

Vinciane de Pape, regular UPPERCASE contributor, interviewed Phillip, Kai, Ryan and Tim while I took photos for the article. When the Bees started a demo, I took an impromptu video of the process. You'll find more of my photos and full article about Bee Kingdom in our current issue.

Join Bee Kingdom this weekend for an open house from 1-5pm Saturday and Sunday. More details on their site right here.

your instagrams in #17

Instagrams by @pennycooke, @coxlaboratories, @artschoolgirl, @dottieangel, @onahazymorning and @fluxahedra are featured in the current issue. Thank you!

Click on the image to read larger.

Subscribe today!

instant love

@kathryncole

@kathryncole

@butterflyandbloom

I love seeing your Instagrams of UPPERCASE. Make sure to tag them @uppercasemag or #uppercase so that I can find them! Here's our Pinterest board of reader images.

my studio as seen by Tracey Ayton

Vancouver-based photographer Tracey Ayton was recently in Calgary on some shoots and she stopped by to visit the UPPERCASE studio. Here are some images of my workspace that she captured; there are more on Tracey's blog. We have published Tracey's work in the current issue (#17) where you can see a photo essay about Granville Eyeland Framemakers.

I was happy that Tracey was here to capture some images of the space "au naturel" (no tidying!), though I am also planning on a final photographic study of the studio to feature in the fall issue of UPPERCASE. By the time the fall issue is out, this space will be a memory and UPPERCASE will be nestled into our new office. It is hard to believe that I'll have to move it all in a few short months.

a little video from the Makerie

guy friday: typewriter show and tell with Smokeproof Press

Brad's collection of typewriters are housed in their cases on a shelving system he devised.

During my last few hours in Boulder, I was happily surprised with an invitation to visit Brad O'Sullivan's letterpress studio. (We featured Smokeproof Press back in issue #8's Letterpress Sampler. Copies are still available for sale in our shop.)

Thank you to Allison of Bird Dog Press for making this happen and for my Crafting Content partner-in-crime Heide Murray of All Good Wishes who also drove me to the airport after our visit. (Check out Heide's amazing felt creatures.)

Brad shows us one of his many machines. 

A gorgeous "Floating Shift" key.

Allison and Heide admire the details.

An Italian Olivetti art deco-era in mint condition.

An Hermes Rocket in hot orange.

A later model Hermes Rocket is workhorse grey.

For me, the ephemera of typewriters are part of the appeal.

An Odell Typewriter wooden box.

Thanks, Brad, for climbing up and retrieving one amazing machine after another.

A cursive model.

Brad saves ink samples in old film cannisters, with typewritten labels of course.

In addition to the typewriter collection, there were plenty of things to keep an eye happy at Smokeproof Press.

Note the collection of UPPERCASE magazines on the upper shelves!

Thanks again, Brad, Allison and Heide for your hospitality.

lovely letters pressed with Bird Dog Press

Loved instructor Allison Bozeman's style.

Re: joyce

Like candy.

Not sure what this is, but I like the way it looks!

Designs for printing.

Lots of happiness in this class!

Piles of supplies.

Hands-on instruction.

Always place the brayer on its handle to avoid damaging the cylinder.

Printmaking on the Excelsior.

Allison and Holland made a numbered edition of 100 inserts for our bookmaking project.

A great class at the Makerie. Maybe next time I can do more than snoop with my camera!

From the Makerie website: "Allison Bozeman wears many aprons as a letterpress pixie / woodtype worshiper / indie ink siren / vintage fabric vixen and owner of BirdDog Press in Lyons. What started as a penchant for pen and paper in the digital age, an obsession with a more tactile, interactive experience grew. Feathered with more than 14 years of design expertise in her cap, Allison began spreading her wings into letterpress printing, non-traditional materials and a handmade eco-friendly approach. BirdDog Press was born when a rescued hunting dog inspired a design + letterpress studio with a trained eye for craftsmanship in place of perfectionism, a love of pattern and perspective and a collaboration of history and modern technology."

Find out more about Bird Dog Press here.

40

Today's a milestone birthday. Forty! 

Another birthday doesn't really bother me. The passage of time is well-marked in smaller and more significant increments: with a quarterly magazine and a young son who is growing by leaps and bounds, I see how quickly time flies. My days are filled with work that I love doing. There is no time wasted, no regrets or unfulfilled wish lists...  there's a bookcase full of the results of my labour. I have no shortage of inspiration or projects that I look forward to exploring. I'm very lucky.

My amazing family is very supportive of everything that I do. A birthday like this is a good occasion to pause and say:

Thank you!

typewriter update

The Typewriter: a Graphic History of the Beloved Machine is just about at our goal! We're just $1,690 away.... please pledge to one of the various levels of support and get the book plus a project perk. Or simply preorder the book for $45 (we would need to sell 38 preordered copies, for example.) It would be great to see this reach 100% this week!

There's an interesting article on the Dell website about our project and the challenges of crowdfunding outside of the popular Kickstarter platform.

doodle draw with Jennifer Mercede

Jennifer Mercede taught doodling and painting.

Lots of great supplies; looks like a lot of people bought fresh pencil crayons and paints.

Students were coached on stream-of-consciousness writing and drawing.

This class was held in a tent.

Free yourself with mark-making.

Read more about Jennifer Mercede on the Makerie blog and view her artwork on Etsy.