Haute Holiday

We’re sure most people moan and groan at the sight of holiday merchandise in stores before Halloween. Is anyone really thinking about Christmas gifts in September and October? Okay, maybe you aren’t, but at Haute Papier we certainly are, and we couldn’t be more excited.  We are thrilled to announce that we have designed (with a little help from our interns Allison and Christine) nine fun and festive gift tags for the 2009 holiday season! These letterpress holiday gift tags will add the perfect finishing touch to any gift this winter.

Individual designs are available in boxes of ten for ten dollars. Each box also contains matching ribbon for tying your gifts.  If you’d like to get your hands on some visit our local retailer or contact us.

Happy (almost) Holidays!

Washington Printmakers Gallery

In a city that calls itself home to the most visited museums and art galleries in the nation, it's easy for a boutique gallery for art and education to get forgotten.  But the Washington Printmakers Gallery is a gem for guests and locals alike.  During my most recent outing to the gallery back in July, compelled to return by the exhibit "Meet Your Printmaker", I was reminded of how much I enjoy every visit to the space that dedicates it's walls to an art form often forgotten in our larger galleries.  As a printer, I'm always inspired by what I see fellow printers creating and it's refreshing to remember that letterpressing can be art and not just a business model!

So if you've not visited the Washington Printmakers Gallery, I certainly encourage you to visit the DuPont Circle based gallery at your next opportunity.  The gallery is open seven days a week, is free to the public and features a fabulous lecture series for it's more impressed guests!

Featured In: Washington Life

Haute Papier Field Trip

Last Friday, Haute Papier trekked up to Baltimore to pick up our largest ever order of silk stationery boxes.  We were racing against the clock to get to the warehouse before a union-mandated hour lunch break.  We just squeeked in under the cut off time.  Whew! The whole way up we were worried about the possibility of unexpected problems at the warehouse.  You see, domestic and international shipments come to the same warehouse and if there's a suspected problem (like the radioactive matter that was "oozing" out of a crate last time we were there) Customs can come in and shut the place down at any time.  Needless to say, no one wants to wait hours for their freight pick-up after driving an hour to get there. 

Prepared as always, we had plenty of reading material (Twlight and New Moon) with us just in case.  Luckily, that wasn't our fate this time.  We made it in time, all our paperwork cleared the front office and the loading dock operator was nice enough to help us unload our beautiful silk boxes.

It was so exciting to open all the gorgeous, colorful boxes and even more exciting when all thirteen crates fit in our two small sedans.  The experience can definitely be intimidating if you're not used to all the procedures associated with freight pick-up, but everything is back at our studio safe and sound and ready to be shipped out to our vendors!

Typefaces - 101

So finally a Periodic Table for printers to enjoy - yes even me.  No, I was definitely not the best chemistry student much to the disappointment of my very scientific parents.   (Just to clarify this is Erin a major history and lit geek and not Sarah who is a total geek so probably aced every pop quiz on the Periodic Table of Elements thrown her way - but don't worry there won't be a quiz at the end of this post).  It's just something cool that the designers over at Squidspot came up with.  The table places fonts into "families" by column and groups the typefaces by popularity.  Of course the table only captures a small sampling of the the millions of fonts out there, but it's still tons of fun.  I'm hoping to stumble across another soon with all the beautiful scripts I'm particularly keen on.  In the meantime, I can't wait to pass someone on the street who took advantage of the gear shop at Squidspot and snatched up one of their Helvetica tees.