Sunday, December 28, 2008

Brooklyn Lyceum 08

Who doesn't like the squeel and bloodcurdling scratch of chalk on a chalkboard? Not us. We love it.

We were thrilled to participate in the first annual Holiday Craft Market last weekend at the Brooklyn Lyceum. The weather was freezing , the roads were ice but there were plenty of folks who turned out to see what all the excitement was about. As an added bonus our space had a chalkboard mounted behind it. Chalk broke, dust flew, and our pants were covered with multicolored silt.

You can view photos below- right after you go out in the hall and clap those erasers.

































Sunday, December 21, 2008

Core77 Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide

Some exciting and unexpected news for us here at PS: We've been featured in the 3rd annual Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide over at Core77!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Giveaway on Oh How Lovely!


Currently among many other really great folks, we're participating in an amazing giveaway at Oh! How Lovely!

For information on how to participate and win our goodies, go to:
www.ohhowlovely.net/shops or click the title of this post.

Thank you Jamie for including us!

Bust Craftacular 2008



Gosh it's been a hectic week!  I wanted to say thanks to those that came to the Bust show last Sunday, we enjoyed being a part of it and meeting some really nice people!

We hope to see and meet more this weekend at the Brooklyn Lyceum, in spite of the weather! We'll have gift tags,  ribbon, and holiday cards for any of your last minute needs!

Visit www.bkcraftcentral.com for details.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Somewhere, beyond the sea...

In an attempt to make all of our dedicated readers here at the Product Superior blog tense up and sweat with barely restrained anticipation we have decided to post up some sneak peaks of the in progress artwork for a forthcoming line of nautical themed mini-posters. All will be 8" x 10" print size and will no doubt appeal to sea lovers, sea haters, or those who like the smell of the fisherman's wharf after dark.


Thursday, December 4, 2008

Sleeve Notes


As we get deeper into the holiday season, the ever-growing To-Do list and Other Tasks, get difficult to organize. Among all of the things I'd love to be doing for Product Superior, there are gifts that must be purchased and wrapped for friends and family, greetings that must be mailed, trees that must be decorated, ornaments to be hand painted, and sweets that must be baked—all of which I also love doing. I know I'm leaving something out here, but you get the point. Which is precisely why, after reviewing more of my photos from DC, I found the perfect solution. Check out this shot I took of the SR-71 pilot suit, from the National Air and Space Museum (Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center). While I would imagine that remembering to "Enter the Raft" and "Secure Gear" are significantly more important than remembering to mail my holiday cards ON TIME, I do nonetheless think the placement of the reminder makes for a great solution to all of my various scraps of paper. 

Now, if only I could have all of the High Priority tasks sewn on my sleeves and look equally as cool and graphic—as opposed to just crazy.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

American History Museum











Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we took a drive down to Washington DC. The main mission was to finally see the American History Museum—which after having been closed due to renovations for 2 years, finally reopened. I'm being a bit ambitious, but I hope to have a full review posted here soon (we weren't too pleased), as well as photos from our visits to the National Air and Space Museum (Steven F. Udvar Hazy center hangar and from the National Mall space), Arlington Cemetery, and the U.S. Botanic Garden. HOPE. Please be patient—I alone have about 700 photos to go through!

For now, here's some photos John took.

Top to bottom: from the American History Museum, from the Air and Space center, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery, and from the U.S. Botanic garden
.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Pencil Inspiration



Whoa! Check out these super neat pencils I found on this blog called Pencil Talk. As usual, I'm not sure how I wound up on this site, but am certainly glad to have made the discovery. You'll notice it's been added to my "Curiosities" links list.

Photo is from the Pencil Talk site, click title for the original page.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Giftware News


We received our first bit of press in the Greeting Card Gazette of this month's Giftware News!



Thanks to Ashley Trent for the opportunity and all of the great words.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Because nothing says "Bicycle" like twenty degree temperatures....

I don't quite how to break it to you so I'm just going to come out and say it- we have a bicycle problem. Some would classify us as "bike nuts" for lack of a better phrase. Between my co-conspirator and I here at product superior we are the somewhat ashamed owners of approximately six pieces of pedal powered metallic fury.

"Whoa! Ha ha. Maybe you should get another bike losers!" Don't suggest it even in jest because we will. Seriously. And then we'll come to your house and ride wheelies all over your lawn, sucka.

Being the doting parent of a happy house of bikes you would expect some investment into their well being, no? If you said "yes" then you are correct! Just today one of our bikes received just such an investment in the form of some flashy new handlebar grips. I dare say- the cat's meow of handlebar grips. The bad news is I'm out seven fifty. The good news is you get some pictures.


**Note: These grips are a signature grip for Odyssey pro BMX rider Aaron Ross. The flange of the grip (the second pic) has a record of the text messages between Odyssey and Aaron regarding the creation of the grip. Very cool.

Monday, November 17, 2008

What's On My Desk!

Look - I'm a guy. As a guy, I'm likely to sniff things which I know are predisposed to smell wretched and I'm willing to pretty much eat most things which don't have a coat of green fur—in patent disregard to the posted expiration date. I, like most men, have a magnetic attraction to things which are: made of metal, loud, dangerous, explode, fly, or float.

In reverence to all things macho, today I'm featuring some photos from my collection of illustrated military related books. Some are old, some are new. Duck and cover, soldier!















Monday, November 10, 2008

2008 Holiday Cards


They're finally here! Send lovely warm greetings this holiday to your friends, family, or coworkers with our wintry designs of horses dashing in the snow or an ice skating swan. Both cards are letterpressed on 100% Crane's cotton paper stock (that means tree free).

We're so excited at how they look, we hope you will be too!


For more details and to purchase, please click the title.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

What's on my desk!

Ahoy and welcome aboard for the highly anticipated, sophomore edition of "What's on my desk!"- a fascinating, drama charged voyage through the stacks of sometimes interesting, wildly nerdy, and frequently disorganized possessions which litter my worktable. Today's entry is so scintillating, so sensational, so OMG (for you texters out there) that I feel the subject announcement should be accompanied by the crack of a whip or the roar of a wild beast. I present to you...... POSTAGE STAMPS!


Alright, alright I *may* have implied a bit more excitement than philately usually arouses in folks but I, for one, have always loved stamps. I have decided to quantify the things I love about stamps into an informative, concise list designed to persuade you, my occasional reader, into loving them too. The aforementioned list is as follows:


1. Stamps are an excellent way to attract finer specimens of the opposite sex. Who doesn't want to hang out with someone who rummages around old, dusty, faintly cheese smelling books in search of something someone may have licked years and years ago? This is the number one reason, although frequently unspoken, that people get into stamps- sex appeal. Ask any stamp collector. They'll tell you

2. They're amazing pieces of period graphic design and illustration shrunk into a highly portable, easily stored format. Most countries try to be current and cutting edge with their stamps (much more so than currency) and as a result they act as a really great retrospective of the current aesthetic at the time of their manufacture.

3. *Most* stamps are cheap. You can get a handful of art deco stamps- many MNH (which means Mint Never Hinged) for a few dollars. A book featuring full color plates of art deco design would cost considerably more, take up lots of space on that overcrowded book shelf, and likely not have designs as interesting or well executed as the postage stamps.

4. You get to act like you know what you're doing. You get to move everything with tweezers, look through a magnifying glass, and catalog everything in those awesome little plastic holders. It's like being an anthropologist without that pesky degree or all that damn dirt. Plus no airplane food! Additionally, unlike your closet, you can organize and maintain your stamp collection.


Today, my occasional reader, I'd like to share a few photos of my unsorted stamps in my stockbook. These are a collection of stamps from all countries, in all conditions that I've collected because I like them on an individual basis as opposed to the usual desire to obtain a complete set of a certain kind of stamp in a specific condition(for instance non cancelled Swedish special delivery stamps or all US stamps with geese on them). I do have a large collection of US airmail stamps but that will have to wait for another entry! I hope you can restrain your anticipation.

"Enough talk! Let's see those photos already!" you say. I agree.






It's getting to be that time...


...for giving thanks, gorging, and of course napping. What better way to celebrate than picking up one of our season-specific notebooks to capture the moment, and all of your wild turkey scribbles!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Sneak Peek: Holiday cards


We've been working on getting our first set of holiday cards out and can't wait to see the final printed pieces! Here's a peek of what to expect to see added to our shop in the next week...

Friday, October 31, 2008

It's Dia de Los Muertos!


While we were recently visiting Houston spending quality time with family, we did a little shopping on the stretch of antique and boutique shops in the Heights (historical neighborhood near downtown). I always enjoy when we can make a quick pit stop there, as for one, my all-time favorite vietnamese food restaurant is now located here. The other reason is because like any of the old little towns (though Houston is large) I pass through, I love seeing the mix mash of storefronts. There was a shop dedicated to mexican culture with items like coconut masks, prayer dolls, candles, and more. I stumbled on a table that had a pile of various colored glazed tiles. On their faces, there were many different depictions of skeleton scenes—portraits, dancing, and horseback fighting. Being the horse lover, I opted for the latter. Here's a photo of the tile. 

Gosh, I wish I had some fresh pan dulce.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Stamp of the Day


Last night, we were organizing our ever-growing pile of stamps into archival books. I'm always so taken with these miniature masterpieces of design. Ranging in style from simple color forms to millions of tiny engraved lines, each small square area is created to convey one simple concept at one quick glance. The other great aspect I observed in the stamps we've collected is how the creator of each has also taken on another big task: designing each stamp to not only function alone, but also in a series that expands to multiple ideas (in color and form), all the while maintaining the same overall feel.

Here's a pair of two really lovely illustrated ones I found last night.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

More Muscle


This morning when I opened my email box, I found a few more notes from a happy customer. If only they also owned a de Tomaso Pantera.

Anyone, anyone?

Photo: Moolee Bunnag and Matt Kabel

Sunday, October 12, 2008

What's on my desk!


Today I'm going to start a new series on the Product Superior blog titled "What's on my desk". As the smarter amongst you will gather I will feature a single item, or related group of items that currently reside on- you guessed it- my desk. Hopefully this will prove much more interesting than my previous ideas, some of which included the novel but ultimately speculative "Who's sock is in my laundry" or the scintillating but rather crass "What's in my pants". Both of these ideas luckily fell prey to editorial revue.
So what is on my desk? Today it's a Frederick Post Tru-Point pencil pointer circa 1960, variable taper, Model D-3046 complete with original packaging. For those of you thinking "Nice orange thing dufus, what's it do?" the Tru-Point is a lead pointer, used for putting a point on a now relatively obsolete form of mechanical drafting pencil known as a leadholder. Leadholders, such as the two (one vintage, one new) in the foreground of my photo, acted as ratcheting holders for a stick of 2mm graphite and just like a wooden pencil, they required constant sharpening to stay pointed. The Tru-Point sharpened by scraping the graphite along the inside of an abrasive drum rather than with razor blades like the small sharpeners we all used to sharpen our No. 2 pencils as schoolkids. And wow does it sharpen. Despite the fact that the design is some forty odd years old it points better, breaks my lead less, and spills far fewer shavings than all of the newer designs I've tried.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Embroidery Book


We've been working on something for the upcoming season, which will utilize one of my favorite things: this amazing little embroidery pattern book I found some time ago. It is such an inspiration for me, therefore I am always looking for a perfect way to use it. Hopefully an upcoming item we'll have will prove just that...

In the meantime, here's some art I put together just for this post.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Notes from a Happy Customer


Ours and Theirs


Photo: Moolee Bunnag and Matt Kabel