Designer Spotlight: Duet by Page Stationery

Remember how we told you that we'd found all sorts of new goodies and a few new albums as the stationery show this year? Well one of those fabulous new albums just arrived at our doorstep and we couldn't be happier to share it with you!

Paper hounds, please meet Duet by Page Stationery. Page Stationery, based in Richmond, VA, was originally started by designer Sue Corral in 1999 and has grown into an industry leading brand. Over the years, Page has become known for classic, timeless designs and high-quality printing. Their newest album, Duet, is a multi-faceted, mix-and-match concept album that offers gorgeous, customizable, digitally-printed designs at affordable pricing and with quick turnaround (just 5-7 business days from proof approval!).

The album contains several categories including: stationery for her, stationery for him, stationery for kids, birth announcements, shower invitations, save the dates and holiday cards. All of the designs can be customized (change colors! change fonts! turn into a party invitation, rehearsal dinner invite or graduation announcement!) and include super fun double-sided printing for a pop of graphic pattern or a beautiful full-color photo on the back. We love the mix of classic and quirky designs and we think the album is a perfect addition to our library for the design savvy and budget conscious shopper.

Need another reason to love Duet by Page Stationery?  Through the month of July, Page is offering 10% OFF all Duet album orders with a quantity of 50 or more! 

One of my favorite Duet designs is their "Design by Me!" personal stationery for kids. Being able to use your own child's drawn self portrait to create adorable and personal custom stationery is pretty sweet, right?

Check out just a few of the hundreds of designs that are available in the Duet album and then stop by the shop to see for yourself!

 

(all images courtesy of Page Stationery)

Stationery Show Recap

Hello lovelies!  I hope you had a relaxing and BBQ-filled holiday weekend. Whit and I are home and back in the swing of things here at the shop/press after a whirlwind and wonderful trip to NYC for the National Stationery Show last week.  It's hard to believe that this was our 4th year attending the show; the old adage holds true for us: time flies when you're having fun.

We had a blast strolling the aisles of the Javits Center and feasting our eyes on all the incredible paper goodies that vendors new and old brought out to display.  Our tried and true favorites like Smock, Bella Figura, Chewing the Cud, Rifle Paper, Blue Barnhouse, Mr. Boddington's Studio and Divine Twine (to name just a very few) all had gorgeous new goodies, but a few brand-newby lines really stood out for us this year:

Seed House
Perhaps the freshest and most charming new line we picked up is is Seed House Stationers.  This darling 2-man (err...man and woman!) shop is run by a super duper talented hubby and wifey team (the brainiacs behind Forage Bow Ties, too!)  And, while this new line may be little, but dang is it full of BIG ideas.  A few of our favorite goodies:

 Flower press to save your favorite flora finds from the seasons!
(above photo courtesy of Design*Sponge)

 Extra-thick and super luxurious "specimen cards" to use in the hand-press.

 A fabulous alternative to the traditional guest book, these "The Key to a Brilliant/Marvelous Marriage" cards can be left for guests to fill out for the happy newlyweds. 

And, perhaps my favorite new item, Stationery Scent!  We scooped up 4 delicious varieties of scent so you can spritz your love letters before sending them off to your one and only.  Pretty amazing, right?

Belle & Union
Started by a sweet Southern belle, Meg, as a creative outlet for all her big ideas, this new foodie-focused line had us melting.  We adored the bold graphics, fun colors and, well, deliciousness of just about everything this Georgia-based line had to offer.

Hi, Meg!! Such a cute booth! 

 Oh, you know, just butter and pickle wrapping paper.  No big deal. 

Adorbs tea-towels in the cutest little berry-baskets. 

Simplesong Design
We've been longtime fans of the custom work done by this incredible letterpress shop - run by the ridiculously talented designer and printer Suann and based out of Alexandria, Virginia.  So, when Simplesong debuted a new wholesale line at the show this year, we just couldn't wait to see what they had dreamed up.  And they didn't disappoint!  The clean, classic design and gorgeous typesetting makes us just giddy.  And, guess what, we found some amazing stick-on wax seals for all you letter-writing-loves who've been asking for them.  Hooray!

(Photo above courtesy of Simplesong)

 

Wild Ink Press

Whit and I have been following designer Rebekah's progress for some time now and were jazzed to see what she'd produced for this year's show (and to see her rad booth - as Whit noted in this previous post). We just loved her cheeky "3 Things" line of cards, her foodie sense and the adorable kiddo birthday party invites & thank you notes.  

 Pretty funny "3 Things" cards. 

 

Any card with the phrase "Heritage Turkey" is a winner in my book.

I see some pretty happy princesses and tractor-drivers in our future! :)

(several images above courtesy of Wild Ink Press)

So, there you have it - a tiny snippet of our time at the show. We found SO many amazing new goodies, picked up 2 new invitation lines (full blog posts on those coming soon) and got to catch up with some of the best in the biz.  Products will be arriving throughout the next few months, so stop by to see what's new!

Dylan & Kristy's super rad, type-driven invitations

Here at Gus & Ruby Letterpress we LOVE designing and printing custom wedding invitations for our super awesome clients, but we also enjoy letterpress printing for many of the super talented designers that reside in the greater metro Portsmouth area. It is so much fun collaborating with artists as they dream up designs for their very own wedding invitations knowing that we get to make the finished pieces come to life for them! 


The first couple we ever collaborated with was the fantastically rad duo of Dylan Haigh & Kristy Martino, known now simply as HAM (Haigh and Martino), who moved to Portsmouth in 2009 on a bit of a whim after leaving their design agency down south. I was obsessed with these two immediately, mostly because they seemed so cool in their skinny jeans and retro glasses, but also because the colors they had chosen for their wedding invites were warm red and yellow with pops of black and teal. Nobody E V E R picks colors like that for wedding invites. They even brought Pantone chips with them. Enough said. The two were working on designs for their save the dates "together", which hilariously consisted of them each arguing their case as to why their design was better than the other's. Yet there was no arguing. It was kind of mind blowing. 


Anyways, I could go on and on about these two, but I'll get right to their awesome designs. We printed on 220# duplex in fluorescent white to make their bright colors pop as much as possible. I honestly can't remember who's design "won" and/or if the final designs were truly a collaboration of both of their talents, but it doesn't really matter because they were super duper awesome and pretty cool to print.

Here is a detailed shot of the save the date (how flippin' cute is that?):

Full shot of the No. 10 (approx. 4x9") save the date:

Here is a pic of the whole suite:

Custom gatefold printed in black ink on kraft paper that housed the invite and reply card: 

Invitation:

Outer envelope:

 Love the reply postcard:

Super bright envelopes! Wouldn't you love receiving this in the mail?

Not quite sure what this is, but I like it:

Whole suite:

Pretty cute right? Dylan & Kristy saved money by printing each piece in 1-color, printing their own gatefolds and stickers and using a reply postcard rather than a reply card and envelope. Since joining their lives together in holy matrimony, the two have founded their own design agency, appropriately named, HAM. Check out their work and musings:


Haigh & Martino Website
HAM Blog


All photos by HAM
Design by HAM, Letterpress printing by Gus & Ruby Letterpress