[katehuot]

Radio Silence and The Lady Project Summit Shop

If there is one thing I have learned about myself in the last 9 months, it is that I am not a blogger. And while I do want to use this space to post updates on current projects, I am not going to be stressing myself out about creating a calendar of organic content on a weekly basis. It’s simply not my style.

So What have I been up to these past few months? I have a fantastic new minty green home office that I have been slowly curating and making as organized and comfy as possible. I have worked on a letterpress Wedding invitation suite, and have another in progress. I have been building up my behance portfolio to be a more comprehensive representation of what I do. I have helped organize a fundraiser for a local non-profit, Girls on the Run Rhode Island. And I signed up for my very first ½ marathon. gulp.

One of the main things i’ve been focusing on in the past few months is helping out with the Lady Project Summit and Shop! On Saturday, April 12, The Lady Project will be hosting it’s second annual day-long Summit at the Southside Cultural Center, and I was asked to help curate a pop-up shop of member’s products at the Summit. We have so many talented members who make beautiful handmade stationery, home goods, or design clothing, and we wanted to create a little shop that represents a sampling of the immense talent in Providence. Featherweight Printing will be selling a few Rhode Island prints alongside Dear Kates, Believe I Am, and many more!

In addition to member’s products, I also created some branded merchandise for The Lady Project, which will soon be up for sale on their website. All pieces are fun and quirky, and I can’t wait to see all our ladies sporting my swag!

[katehuot]

Alt NYC 2013

I had a FANTASTIC couple of days in NYC last week. A few friends and I headed down for the day-long Altitude Design Summit held at Martha Stewart’s headquarters. We started our visit with a dinner hosted by MailChimp and some great pre-summit networking opportunities (and some amazing food.) My good friend, Julie, who recently moved her lingerie company Dear Kate from Providence to New York, graciously let us take a peek at her new office space while we were in town.

Then on Thursday it was off to Martha’s for the most fabulous summit I have ever attended (sorry Lady Project Summit... but who can beat Martha?) We started out the day with a keynote from Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge, which is my go-to source for design and home decor inspiration. Grace spoke on adapting to change while keeping a clear goal in mind when it comes to blogging. Her speech made me realize that I need to sit down and clearly define my mission statement and what it is that I want to accomplish with my blogging, my freelance business, and my future goals as a designer. She also mentioned something called “rejection therapy” which sounds very intimidating, but the idea behind it is that you ask people for things until hearing “no” isn’t a big deal anymore.

This is me taking diligent notes during Grace Bonney's keynote. (photo credit Justin Hackworth, sponsored by Atly)

After a break and a little more networking, Martha Stewart graced us with her presence. It was really funny to see everyone tripping over each other to snap a picture, then Instagram it immediately. We heard from a panel of American Makers and their stories of starting their small businesses, had an amazing lunch (all the food had Martha’s seal of approval... how could it not be amazing?), then heard from another panel discussing what the coolest brands are doing in social media. I was interested to learn that Pinterest is much more of a game-changer than I give it credit for... and thusly, will be stepping up my pinning game. There was a Pecha Kucha style series of presentations from a wide variety of presenters, including Sara Paul of Blue Q, which might be my new favorite brand of irreverent gifty items. Finally we closed out the summit with a keynote from Garance Dore, who I’m embarrassed to admit, I had never heard of prior to last week. Garance is an amazing illustrator, and she had some helpful nuggets of wisdom to impart on us, such as “never hire a French person,” “Haters gonna hate,” and “embrace your imperfections.”

It was truly an inspiring day, followed by an amazing party with the most breathtaking views of the city at sunset. I swear Martha planned it that was on purpose. I met some really great ladies and came away with some really great resources, ideas, inspiration, and also a whole lot of thinking and plotting out to do. And because I am such a fan of print, these are some of the lovely business cards I accumulated throughout the day:

  I also need to say thank you to all the amazing sponsors, such as Bing, Martha Stewart Living, Chevy, Atly, Mailchimp, Squarespace, Vivint, and many more. Thank you all for all the awesome freebies. I can’t wait for next year!

[katehuot]

Getting it Right

This past month, I got back into the printshop to take another crack at printing my business cards. Since the first run, I had gotten more comfortable with lining up my plates properly, mixing inks, and using the guillotine cutter. I knew after my first round, that my design would look best on a thicker stock of paper so I invested in some Crane Letra 220lb stock. Now my imprint from the front doesn't smoosh out my pattern on the back, and my colors are much richer than before.

It was always my plan to edge paint these cards, and I knew the thicker stock paper would lend itself nicely to a bold edge of color. I was a little nervous to spray these, since i had spent so much time and care on each step along the way, but I am very pleased with the outcome and hope to have more edge painting opportunities soon.

I have a hard time setting deadlines for myself, but I knew i wanted these cards to be perfect for Alt NYC in a few weeks. Now i just need to figure out what i'm going to wear!

[katehuot]

A Multi-Location Wedding

I was asked by a childhood friend if I would create an invitation suite for his wedding, and my answer was “Yes of course! Are you kidding me?” The oh-so-important wedding invitation suite is a project I’ve been dying to get my hands on since I started letterpressing, so this was a very exciting opportunity for me. It was also a very big learning experience, since it was the first time I was working with a client on a letterpress project, having to create quotes and price options and invoices and all the tedious but very important aspects of getting paid. Another thing I learned is the importance of spell-check before making your plate and going on press, but thats a story for another day.

One of my favorite aspects of this invitation was that the couple was having a ceremony and reception in Kansas (the bride’s home town) and then another celebration here in Rhode Island (the groom’s home town) at a later date. It was important for the couple that the invitation married both Kansas and Rhode Island visually. This also meant there would be a whole lot of text, which, to me, was just another fun design challenge. We went with dark blue ink on white paper and kraft envelopes. I am looking forward to stalking their Facebook pages to see photos from the big day, and it’s always fun to see how closely the invitations represent the actual event.

[katehuot]

Run with Ro

Yes. We’re still doing this. We started this ladies-only run group late last summer as a way to get some of the Lady Project members together on a regular basis to network and connect, while also exercising and enjoying the outdoors. Our fearless leader, Ro McGettigan (Olympian, mother, owner of Believe I Am, and all-around bad-ass) leads us in a stretch and will then break us into groups based on skill level, so everyone has a workout suited to them.

I really wanted this group to be a good mix of various skill levels where everyone would feel comfortable whether they were walking and chatting with strollers or pups, or trying to beat a personal record. We started back up again in March and I created this poster to hang up around town and post all over the internet to get the word out

As the weather is finally starting to get a bit nicer out, our usually small group is starting to grow. As of right now, we are all runners with similar levels of experience, but I’m hoping the warmer weather will encourage some newbies to join us. For anyone interested, we meet every Wednesday evening at 6:30pm at the top of Lippitt Park in Providence. Please follow us on twitter at @runwithro for more information. Also, be sure to check out Ro’s company Believe I Am and buy one of her awesome t-shirts.

[katehuot]

The Lady Project Summit

This is a few weeks late but i needed to get a post in about the Lady Project Summit we had on April 13. Although I was “in the know” about the summit almost from it’s inception, it went ahead and exceeded all of my expectations! It was a fabulous day-long event with keynote speakers from Bust Magazine, Brown University, and the Kati Roll Company. We had amazing workshops on everything from how to network effectively to how to price your crafts properly. I taught a class on visually branding your social media where I went over simple ways to make your company look cohesive across various template sites.

In addition to teaching the workshop (which was totally out of my comfort zone, for the record) I was also asked to create the invitation, which served as our branding guideline for the event. The summit logo was created by Erika of Foxtrot Press and I worked in the color scheme and the PVD Lady Project’s almost-signature gold glitter graphic. I was also asked to create a graphic for a tote bag that all attendees received. After a bit of brainstorming, we decided to use a quote from an inspirational lady, and who is more relevant to our summit than Sheryl Sandberg? The quote we chose was “In the future, there will be no female leaders, there will just be leaders.” and I had the graphic printed on purple bags, which tied in nicely with our invitations.

Overall, it was a really wonderful and inspiring day and I think everyone left with a newfound sense of empowerment, new connections, and maybe even a few new ideas. I can’t wait to see what's in store for next year's summit!

[katehuot]

Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month and the PVD Lady Project is having it's first members-only event! Sierra and Julie contacted me to create this invitation and, in the spirit of Women's History month, I felt it necessary to showcase as many powerful and historic ladies as I possibly could. This will be a really great event benefitting the Women's Fund of Rhode Island and i hope to see all my fellow Lady Project members there! If you are not yet a member and you would like to be, HERE is where you can join!

[katehuot]

New print up in the shop! Perfect in any kitchen or dining room... or anywhere really.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/121259673/enjoy-print

[katehuot]

I don't care for "resolutions" but these are a few guidelines I'm trying to live by in the new year. Here's to productivity!

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New print coming soon to etsy!

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Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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PVD Lady Project's First Annual Holiday Gift Guide

Woo Hoo! This Gift Guide is live! After many hours of work and a few meeting over brunch, Erika of Foxtrot Press and I completed the first ever Holiday Gift Guide for the PVD Lady Project. Im so honored to be showcased among some truly talented and inspiring ladies. (Check me out on page 12)

Now get out there and shop local, shop small business, and support your fellow ladies!

[katehuot]

The magic of lasers!

About a month ago, I took a class at AS220 on making letterpress labels and then using their laser cutter to cut into custom shapes. I quickly became a huge fan of the laser cutter and the endless possibilities. I am hoping to take a class soon on the proper use and maintenance so that I can go in on my own time and laser away!

(these are a little off, but I'll have plenty of time to go totally OCD on my own projects)

I love all the classes I've taken at AS220, and I hope to be taking a silk screening class next month as well. Looks like this is going to be a crafty Christmas :)

[katehuot]

... and sometimes things DO work out

The lovely people over at Elemental Theatre contacted me to design a poster for their 44 Plays for 44 Presidents show happening in November. I was given very few instructions other than "don't make it blaringly patriotic," so I was able to do my own thing. This poster called for a lot of text and information, so I knew I wouldn't be relying on imagery so much, like in the Vacancy poster. An all text poster that doesn't seem too cluttered and still catches your eye? I was up for the challenge. And I am very much looking forward to seeing this show next month!

[katehuot]

Sometimes things just don't work out...

I was contacts by the Wilbury Group, a theatre collective in Providence, to work on a poster for their upcoming play Lungs. In the end, they decided to go in another direction style-wise, but I was still pretty proud of what I created and wanted to share it. 

[katehuot]

They see me running...

For most of my adult life, I've been a fair-weather friend to running, in that I would run only on days that it was super nice out, I was feeling particularly motivated, or to do an occasional 5k. It wasn't until this past spring that I got a little more serious. With the help of Ro McGettigan of Believe I Am, Sierra and I started training for a 5k benefitting Girls on the Run RI, where we both finished with our personal best, despite the pouring rain. I loved the weekly workouts with Ro so much, I contacted her to see if we could form a little weekly run club through the PVD Lady Project. Ro was on board, so I created this logo to help get the word out.

Since August, I have been running about 3 miles 5 times a week... which is a pretty big deal for me. This Sunday (today, if I scheduled this post right... I know im cheating) Sierra and I will be running another 5k in support of the YWCA and we are both hoping for our best time yet!

[katehuot]

While we're talking about PVD Ladies...

The PVD Lady Project had another event on September 6 themed "Bring your own mentor." It was a fantastic networking event with round table discussions (really bringing me out of my comfort zone, but in a good way) a few mentor talks, and some entertainment provided by Girls Rock RI. Sierra and Julie wanted a way for mentees to be able to write a note of appreciation about their mentors, and it was my job to make it look cute! I created these triangle love notes with fun patterns on the back so they would look nice whether you wanted to show the world why you love your mentor, or keep it private. I'd say they were a hit, and they looked great in Nail's amazing office!

(photo credit I Am the Everyday Girl)