One Charming Party!
Photo by Nicole Hill Gerulat, Graphic design ©One Charming Party.
A few weeks ago we were approached by the super talented Sara Westbrook of One Charming party who was looking to feature one of our maps in her latest party plan. It premiered yesterday and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the final result. Check it out for yourself! Make sure to see all the other amazingly creative party ideas and projects they’ve put together too!
J + O
Summer So Far!
One thing we’ve learned so far when it comes to running a small business is that things can change at the drop of a hat (or usually for us at the ding of a new e-mail). We’ve spent the vast majority of these last 18 months in total reaction mode — sometimes to good things, sometimes to not so good things. Fortunately for us, the latest batch of news we’ve received has been overwhelmingly great! We can’t divulge the details quite yet, but trust us when we say you’ll love it.
Until then, here’s some news we can report:
It’s safe to say we wouldn’t be where we are now without being featured on some very influential trendsetting and taste-making blogs. We’re still constantly e-mailing blogs whose readers we think would like our designs. These past couple of weeks we’ve been placed on some great sites like Remodelista, swissmiss and Cool Material. Speaking of swissmiss, we’re working on something for her new side project Tattly. We’re very excited about it!
Other than that, we’re also planning a little shift for the blog. Our original plan for Making It was a place where we could share what we’ve learned in running These Are Things with other artist entrepreneurs. That direction took kind of a backseat as we tried to find a good way to distill this kind of information in a form that was fit for human consumption. We think we may finally have an idea of how to do that: Videos! Check back soon to see if we can actually make it happen :)
J + O
We’ve gone wholesale Pt. 2!
If you’re a long time reader of our blog, you might remember us announcing our wholesale program over a year ago. Suffice to say, a lot has changed since then. For one, we’ve gone from having a catalog with one item in it to one with over 30 different products. Most importantly though is that we have a year more of solid experience and a brand new completely revamped wholesale program.
We’re looking for some amazing stores that not only share our visual aesthetic but also our core values of quality-handmade independent design. We’ve already got a few applications in as well as a huge list of dream stores and boutiques we’d like to be in and will be contacting soon.
If you think your store and our work would go well together, head over to thesearethings.com/wholesale and fill out an application form. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can! Also, if you know of a store that you think we’d be perfect in, head over to our Facebook page and drop us a line. We’ve already got some great recommendations!
J + O
In Print: I Home Magazine!
We got something in the mail today…
…something from a faraway land.
It was I Home magazine from China…
…featuring our cute little apartment! This is the second spread our apartment has gotten from a Chinese interior design magazine which is awesome and strange all at the same time. It’s a great write-up (we think) and we couldn’t get over how cool the packaging for the magazine was. Thanks I home!
Full set of pics, including more of the packaging, can be seen here.
Giving: The Kidney Foundation
To those that know us in real life, you’ve probably seen or heard about the many mishaps associated with my car. Last year it was involved in a hit-and-run that led to a broken seal in my trunk that led to rain water filling up the car that led to a small ecosystem of mold spores and rust throughout the entire vehicle. After many failed attempts to solve the problems on our own, we eventually decided to donate it a few weeks ago. This morning, the car was towed away to its new home at the Kidney Foundation. Fortunately we still have Jen’s Honda Civic and are happy being a one-car family. Plus we never go anywhere anyways :)
Volvo R.I.P.
1999-2011
J + O
In Print: Columbus Monthly
We just spotted this nice writeup in the July issue of Columbus Monthly. Best of Columbus, oh yeah!
J + O
Two new things for summer…
These Are Things + Expedia!
If you’re in the UK, keep an eye out for this Expedia commercial:
Why, you ask? Look closer…
Okay, a little closer…
Did you catch them? Yes, those are two of our maps! Europa Touring / Paris and Europa Touring / Rome made it onto the set of this Expedia spot that’s currently airing in the UK. This is one of those moments where we have to sit back and say, wow, is this really happening?! Too cool!
J + O
Sketch time!
While cleaning my desk, I found the first (and only) sketch we made of the American Flags Map.
It started out like this…
…and turned into this!
We had a pretty clear vision of this piece from the beginning, so this super simple drawing was all we needed to get started. Pretty funny to look back on it now that it’s finished!
J + O
In Print: HOW Magazine!
We were very excited when HOW magazine approached us earlier this year to write about one of our many products. We were a little surprised but still just as excited to find out they wanted to write about our wildly popular Haters Gonna Hate wristband. The HGH wristband is featured in the July issue in a great article about type-centric buyable wares along with some other beautifully designed pieces. We’ve been sold out of the wristbands for quite a while but perhaps we might just need to bring them out of retirement :) One clarification on the article: the wristbands were J’s mom’s idea, not O’s mom.
Read the full article and see the photos here.
J + O
