what a full and wonderful weekend we had!

Things have been very busy here at Ink+Smog, we've been working on a lot of new projects, some for the shop and others for custom orders. On saturday we had the opportunity to debut some of our new designs at Eastside Handmade in Highland Park hosted by Shopclass. 

L-R: Rosemary standing at the Ink+Smog table, our summer edition letterpress ice cream cards, the view from our table at Eastside Handmade.

It was great to meet so many fun and creative people. These kinds of events are a wonderful way to meet up with people we haven't seen in a while like Cathy Callahan from Cathy of California and Stephanie from Ok Universe, to finally meet people we'd only ever met online like Carrie from Anemone Letterpress, Elinor from Krank Press, and Erin from Cotton & Flax and to meet new people like Crystal from BlendBlend. There was so much great work, and the weather mostly cooperated, we're looking forward to more Eastside Handmade events in the future!

L-R: COVET! one of our favorite pieces in the new collection, the invitation for Kat and Roger at Platform, the collection!

After Eastside Handmade on Saturday, we walked down the street to visit our friends Kat and Roger of K&R. They were launching their new collection at Platform on York Blvd. The collection looks fantastic and we have to say, we are working on making some room in the kitchen cupboards for a piece or two...

L-R: our new Eastside Postcard collection, the Ink+Smog logo rendered in chalk by Robin, our notecard sets.

The rest of the weekend was spent working on a big custom order we're trying to get out by the end of this week. It's been a great project to work on, with many twists and turns. We're looking forward to writing a blog post about it once it's all finished and sent on it's merry way to our customer in France. We also made some time for a much needed catching up session and business consultation with Anne, Rosemary's sister who runs the amazing soap empire Dot&Lil in Montreal.  It was a very full but wonderful weekend. We're working on some really fun projects right now, looking forward to sharing them soon!

Rosemary+Robin.

Ink+Smog at Eastside Handmade in Highland Park

Just a quick heads up that we'll be at Eastside Handmade this Saturday in Highland Park hosted by Shopclass. We'll be debuting some of our latest projects before they're even listed in the shop.

Hope to see you there!

Rosemary+Robin

we've joined the mohawk paper family!

L-R: pink magnolia tree in bloom down the street, our new name and logo, re-orgazining our tests and proofs, our new paper cutter.

Spring is here and change is in the air! We've been doing a lot of cleaning up and re-arranging. As a result, you may have noticed that we've been making a lot of changes around here lately. Some of those changes have been small (we have some new work configurations, new tools and storage solutions, yay!) and some of those changes have been pretty big (hey, we have a new name!). But we've also been implementing some other changes that you may not be aware of, chief among those has been changing out our ink and paper. We are now using Mohawk paper! 

L-R: Our new Johnny's Pastrami cards printed on Mohawk Superfine, new packages of Mohawk paper, Johnny's Pastrami drying.

Mohawk started off as the Mohawk and Hudson Paper Company in upstate New York where the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers meet. It was purchased by Frank Gilbert in 1866 and renamed the Frank Gilbert Paper Company. They filed for bankruptcy in 1930 and relaunched a year later by George E. O'Connor as the Mohawk Papermakers Inc. Asides from a short stint during the early 1970s, the company has stayed in the O'Connor family ever since. They are now headquartered in Cohoes, NY.

All images from Introducing Luxe, by Moo video.

Mohawk uses renewable energy, recycles and uses sustainable sourcing practices. In 2003, they became the only paper mill and one of the first large-scale production facilities in the U.S. to offset emissions from electric power generation with the purchase of renewable energy credits (RECs) issued by wind farms. Today, 100% of the electricity used in Mohawk’s operations is matched with RECs.

Mohawk makes beautiful paper, it's used by a lot of artists and printers. It's also used by Moo to make the Luxe business cards that we LOVE (as we speak, we are somewhat patiently awaiting the arrival of new Luxe cards with our brand new logo!). So far, we love working with Mohawk Superfine and Mohawk Vellum papers. They're both so easy to work with an incredibly luscious touch! We also really like the idea that Simon Dardick, Rosemary's father used to print on Mohawk paper from time to time when Véhicule Press still used to do their own printing. It kind of brings things full circle in a nice way. We've made some other big changes, but more about those later!