And the winner is . .

Congratulations to Doug today - his illustration(below) was selected out of 7000 entries to be featured in the American Illustration Annual, 30th anniversary edition. This is a juried annual with stiff competition and I'm very proud of him :-).

This illustration was for Bicycling Magazine.

Doug's new illustrations

Doug has been working on some very cool illustrations recently. I specifically love this piece that he did for the Wall Street Journal. Doug's been illustrating for a long time now with clients that include the New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times. Very cool. You can see more of his new work on his site which I updated for him yesterday :-)

Doug Jones - vintage inspiration

You may, or may not, know that Doug is an illustrator. He works mostly for the Wall Street Journal and other US dailys. Every so often he illustrates some cards for us at Cartolina and he was the main force behind the Cartolina app(Oh, did I mention we have another app releasing in about 2 weeks?) Anyway, every so often I troll through Doug's great big folder of inspiration on his desk top to see what's new - here's what caught my eye yesterday. . . . .

Cartolina - Collection 10

Every so often I feature my own stuff here at The Cafe! So today I'd like to introduce you to Cartolina Collection 10. This collection is in response to Collection IX which has been very popular since we launched it in May(you can see it here, here and here!)

One of the next buying seasons in the stationery industry is Valentines so we have a couple of new lovey dovey cards - one of which features our always popular bunny that Doug illustrates for us. And also we have 4 new blank cards - a fabulous bunch of flowers which will be a best seller I'm sure because it covers so many occasions - and 3 blank cards featuring the amazing french dresses worn by les trés belle femmes of Collection IX (and also featured on notebook number 9.) I think that the 3 dresses would look wonderful framed in a powder room, don't you?

If you'd like to be a Cartolina Insider and hear about all our new product, hot off the press, just leave your email address in the field under the pictures of me(top right of this page.) You'll be first to see what's new - including our top secret project that we can reveal in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, enjoy Collection 10. . . . . . . .

The pretty silk flowers in this shoot are my new favourite accessories - I pin them on everything! They are all from Sparrow Blu on Etsy (except for the fab red one which was a gift from Fancy Linda!)

Inspiration - who do you work with?

Good morning! How are you?

I bought these vintage Turquoise Drawing Pencils for Doug the other day from Mushroom and Moss - thought they might inspire him - there's nothing like having a row of fresh new pencils lined up on your drawing table ready for action! Doug and I have worked together for 16 years - I can't imagine having a better person to work with, he inspires me everyday. I was wondering how many of you also work with your partners? Do you share a studio? Have you worked together for long or is this new for you both? I'm interested to know how you feel about living and working together. Leave me a comment if you have time - thanks!

Happy Earth Day!

It's Earth Day. I wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about what we do here at Cartolina to protect the world we live in. It's my belief that if you are in the paper industry you are obligated to take responsibility for the environment in whatever ways you can. When we first started out we researched our options until we came up with a product and a process that we felt good about. We chose a recycled paper to print all our products on and we jumped through the hoops that enabled us to use the FSC logo on all our products. You've probably seen the FSC logo - it represents products produced from well-managed forests, controlled sources and recycled wood. You can't automatically slap that logo on your products they have to be approved - the paper and the printing process have to meet all the requirements of the FSC before they can qualify. When we chose a printer it was important to us that we could develop a relationship with a company that cares about the environment as much as we do. Our printer has been named the most environmental printer in Canada for 5 years in a row - they run a carbon neutral plant - and strict recycling program.

Our decision to stop packaging all our cards in clear plastic sleeves has proved to be one of best decisions yet - clear sleeves are produced in China(a country with less than stellar human rights records - and on Earth Day it's not just all about the trees.) We have always been proud to be a domestic product - thus reducing our carbon footprint and supporting local business. Retailers have been thrilled with sleeveless cards and sales have gone up. Waste has been reduced which is very important to us.

It's great to be connected to other business that care like Modern Paper Goods who are our sole online retailer in the US - for every 10 cards you buy at Modern Paper Goods their partner, Ecolibris, will plant a tree on your behalf! They have already planted a thousand trees - we think that's very cool!

On a personal note - Doug and I chose to flee the big city 16 years ago and move to a quieter lifestyle in the country where we can be closer to nature. Living and working surrounded by such beauty makes you very aware of how fragile the world around you is every day, not just Earth Day, I am grateful to be so lucky to live and work here. Yesterday, as if on queue, Doug was out picking up a huge shipment of envelopes - he was crossing the bridge over the wetlands near Creston and noticed a Painted Turtle crossing the road. With cars whizzing past - he stopped the truck, got out and rescued the turtle from it's inevitable demise - here's a picture . . . . it's beautiful thing . . .

[Top photo is the view from our studio]

Pink Pony

I ran across this when I was searching for vintage storefronts the other day for my Blog It Forward post(which I am still recovering from - longest post in the world!) So the Pink Pony looks like my kind of place - have any of you been here? Lower East Side, NY? Let's go! You know, I have been trying to get Doug to write restaurant reviews on Cafe Cartolina - he plans all our eats when we go to NY, Vancouver etc and he does a great job. He's a very good writer, good photographer and good wine drinker - that would make him a good restaurant critic, right? I think we should get him to be a contributor here at The Cafe! (he recently started Tweeting - you can follow him here)

"Perhaps one of the best places for an uptowner or out-of-towner to observe the hipster in his natural habitat, this tin ceiling-ed Lower East Side café is the quintessential Bohemian hangout." --New York Magazine - I think Doug could have written that!

Illustration Update

Remember I showed you this drawing that Doug was working on in August? I really loved it - it is part of a publication that he was working on throughout the summer. Well - he is very excited today because this illustration plus the cover illustration are winners in this year's Society of Iillustrators of Los Angeles juried competition and show. I am very proud of him!

The competition is always very stiff in the illustration world but I just knew there was something special about this series of illustrations that he was working on. The juried show will be at the Gallery Nucleus in LA starting March - maybe we'll go - how fun!

It's a Wonderful Life - in Japan!

We got this book in the mail on Friday. It is the Japanese version of It's a Wonderful Life!  A couple of years ago Doug was asked by Penguin Books to collaborate with Jimmy Hawkins(who played the youngest child in the original movie) to produce a kid's illustrated version of It's a Wonderful Life. It was really fun for me to watch the book come together that summer. The finished book, It's a Wonderful Life For Kids has been selling well for the last couple of years. It was fun to check out the Japanese version.

Here is the first scene in the movie and the book - Doug's illustration of a wintery night in Bedford Falls! The US version of the book is available here(Amazon). And here's a link to all Doug's books(Market Day is my favourite!)

Studio News | 3x3 Magazine

Congratulations to Doug who has had two illustrations accepted into the 5th annual 3x3 Magazine international "Pro Show" illustration annual! He is one of only 200 illustrators, worldwide, accepted from out of 4000 entries. Winners will be featured in the 3x3 Illustration Annual N0.5 available on newstands in the U.S. Canada, the UK and Europe.

3x3 Magazine is a magazine devoted entirely to the art of contemporary illustration. Three times a year they publish articles on the best international artists working today and encourage a new focus on the use of illustration by the advertising and design communities.

You can buy these posters at Doug's Etsy Store.

More of Doug's work can be seen here 

Up and Down New York

While we were in New York last week Doug was lucky enough to get this book for his birthday - Up and Down New York, illustrated by Tony Sarg. I love this book, everything about it from its dust cover to the preface by Jonathon Adler. The clever gift giver found this book at none other than Fish's Eddy. The illustrations were done in the 20's and 30's and have been compiled into a book published by Universe Publishing(Rizzoli). Tony Sarg was a famous artist, puppeteer and cartoonist(he apparently was responsible for developing the flying helium character balloons used in the Macy's parades). He also had his own chain of stores where he sold textiles, wallpaper and rugs - of his own designs.....hmmm, note to self, research more about Tony Sarg's wallpaper designs. I think his illustrations are wonderful and remind me of another great illustrator from that era, John Held Jr (who illustrated the classic flapper girl). 

We have a lot of books on illustration and illustrators in our studio. One of the reasons that the Tony Sarg book caught my eye was because I am an avid New Yorker reader - I love the articles and I love the cartoons. 

My love of New Yorker cartoons has a rather odd beginning - when I was a kid growing up in Scotland we used to spend our summers in a tiny village on the SW coast of Scotland called Monreith. We had a tiny cottage by the sea that was about as big as a garden shed - and it was filled to the brim with very odd artifacts. There was a collection of strange musty smelling books and amongst the more interesting was an album of New Yorker cartoons. I loved it - and used to practice copying the drawings - not that I understood the humour or the references. Rather odd really for an 8 yr old to be reading New Yorker cartoons in a rose covered, seaside cottage in Scotland. Well years later I found a copy of that book in a flea market, snapped it up and laughed again at all the cartoons that I remembered so well. 

Oh, and by the way, if you are ever in Scotland take a side trip to Monreith and stay at the Steam Packet Inn - it's a magical place!

New business cards.

Just took a picture of Dougs new business cards. I love them. He whipped these up in about 10 minutes and I think they are the prettiest business cards I have seen in ages - though I may be biased!