Two weekends ago, I drove down to Austin for one night. It was SXSW and I really wanted to go to Flatstock. I made it happen. IF you have never been to Flatstock, this is what it looks like
Imagine a whole convention center room filled with brilliant design/designers.
(The potty mouth banner belongs to Decoder Ring)
Needless to say, I was in Heaven. We did one complete walk through without purchasing a thing so we could view it all and soak it up. I snagged A LOT of business cards and FREE postcards during the first round. The second round was for buying and chatting it up even more than the second time. All the Designers were getting pretty friendly during the last hour of Flatstock. Poor Julie was practically Dragging me out of there towards the end.
Keep in mind that these people = my "Rock Stars."
Keep in mind that these people = my "Rock Stars."
(The rag says "Don't Forget To Wipe)
I met Ron Jasin from Mad Pixel Design and he was super friendly right from the get go. We exchanged typical Kentucky/Texas jokes and I bought a singing bird print from him. CLICK HERE TO VIEW HIS PRINTS.
Julie bought a print from Hero Design Studio (run by Husband & Wife in Buffalo, Ny) and I think it now lives in her office. I wanted an owl print! I just found the Hero etsy shop where you can still buy them :)
I wanted this print the mostest (below from Hero)!
I started laughing uncontrollably when I saw this guy in the corner and really strange little voice came out of my mouth when reading"I Believe in Magic."
Then I came across some familiar faces...
The lovely Carol and Dirk Fowler of F-2 Design from good ol' Lubbock, TX. There are just too many wonderful things to say about these two. If you haven't been to their site, please, do it now! I had most of my designy classes with Dirk at TTU, but I never had the opportunity to take class with Carol (I hear she's a wiz at packaging and typography) so this was the first time I met her. It was their 16th Anniversary and they were spending the weekend doing what they love at Flatstock.
The 3 images above were taken from Dirk's Gigposter.com page. Be prepared to go
through 16 pages of yummy design.
through 16 pages of yummy design.
They brought a friend from Lubbock to show people how Letterpress posters are made. I was stoked because this is something I have always wanted to try and I finally got to (thanks Dirk). It was really cool seeing all the other people stop and give this thing a go. Here is a short video of Julie working the press.
Then, it was my turn and I was such a spaz. Ready to ink it up!
and ta-da!
Just look at my face. That's not an expression you'll see very often. It's actually quite embarrassing how geeked out I get over this stuff. Oh well, everyone else in that room was right there with me.
How cool is it that F-2 Design brought stuff down so that people could be a part of the poster production process? I believe the correct answer is VERY COOL.
I bought a few posters including
from Dan Stiles (Portland, OR)
He was also very nice and helpful.
This was the first poster I bought that day. It is a print from Mark Pedini (Austin, TX) titled "2 dogs."
Shirts I bought
one for me
and one for my nephew Ryder bear!
Both shirts are from My Associate Cornelius (Gardner, KS)
(btw he has a great picture of Bill Murray with bright orange luggage on his BLOG)
Other Prints my mouth watered for, but couldn't get
Print by Lure Design (Orlando, FL)
The Lemonheads were one of my favorite bands elementary school. I specifically remember skating (pre- inlines) on my friends drive to The Lemonheads. Brandi listened to them a lot and she was a young teen at the time so everyone in our house knew what she was listening to. Also, look at all that hair! I love big hair and it's RED! You know me, I like my redheads <3
I would love to own the whole set, but that would = $335. For now, these four will remain in my dreams.
I can't wait to go next year. Hopefully Alan will come with me and go crazy with me. We may have to make handkerchiefs so we don't get drool all over the posters. I still feel overwhelmed with inspiration two weeks later and it's amazing. I kind of don't want to post what I've been working on after showing you all this beautiful/smart design. Maybe after a weekend with the sister, I'll work up the guts. Happy (Easter) Weekend.
muchos besos,
Kel