It seems as though more artists are multitasking these days. At last month's Stationery Show in New York, I noticed that more exhibitors were featuring their designs across a wider range of products, instead of focusing specifically on paper products. Designers have been doing this for a long time, but I'm seeing a lot more of the smaller, more sophisticated artists branching out this way than I have in the past. Sometimes these 'line extensions' work, sometimes they don't.
When items such as pillows, dishes, notebooks, greeting cards and prints carry the same type of design and are displayed together in a booth, the effect can be really beautiful. Alicia Peck of Bella Muse does this well.
Alicia uses vintage icons and clever typography to illustrate paper goods as well as tees, prints and onesies. Here she uses the bee icon from one of her card designs on a women's tee. Not everything translates in every medium, so she chooses carefully. Not surprisingly, I prefer wall prints which are either inspiration for or inspired by designers' greeting cards and stationery. I'm a huge fan of Brian Reed's letterpess designs for Old School Stationers. They are eye-catching, original and saturated with color. Gorgeous.
The image on the left is a wall print - I 'borrowed' this image from Rare Device, where you can buy it. On the right is one of my favorite greeting card designs.
No one can accuse Karin Spraggs and Adrienne Wong from Superdeluxe of lacking talent - far from it. They have a popular store in nyc and they group their products by design instead of type, which illustrates the brand's tagline a bespoke life.
My only gripe? I wish they went a little deeper and offered several more selections in each design. When merchandised together [like the serving plate and menu cards and place cards, above], as I'm sure they're intended to be, it works beautifully. But what about the smaller stationery stores or websites that only sell paper and don't sell pillows or plates? By not offering just a little more depth, they are leaving money on the table.
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