A little professional development

It's an exciting week for us this week. Lots of gorgeous new designs and clients, as well as a 3-day course specialising in creative businesses. I love the opportunity to sit down with other creative business owners and bounce ideas off eachother. I always end up learning so much that I can take back to Poppy. So stay tuned - I've already got some great ideas on improving our processes and production, and can't wait to bring them on board.

The course runs Wed-Fri this week, all day, so please accept my apologies for being late to respond to emails and phonecalls during this time (but it'll be worth it!).

We love illustrations!

Here at Poppy we think that there's nothing more special than having your stationery custom designed and printed just for your big event. Well, perhaps the only thing that could top that is to have a custom illustration as part of your design.

I've been illustrating and painting my entire life, and I'm just so happy now to have a job that lets me do it every day! And I've been watching Eessu's talent for art develop for the past 14 or so years (her drawing skills are far better than mine!), and you can bet that I'll be encouraging her to use these skills at Poppy Letterpress.



We've been working on designs for some baby announcement cards for an expectant couple, and have had the pleasure of developing a couple of illustrations for them to consider using on the cards. We started with a galah, but he didn't quite fit right, so we then spent some time on a Palm Cockatoo. I just love him, he looks so cheeky.

The original illustration is quite large and detailed and too good to just use only once, so we've decided to produce a short edition of prints. I'll be framing the first one off the press to put in our new baby's room. More details to come.

Claire & Adam

I recently worked with two dear friends of mine on their engagement invitation postcards. Being the creative folk that they are, Claire and Adam designed and screenprinted a tree graphic on the front of the card, then had Poppy print the details on the back with the press.

I'd love to do more collaborations like this. I find that letterpress can look incredibly effective when combined with other types of printing. And it's quite easy to match the ink colours as well.

Rosemary & Kui

I loved working on this design. The peachy colour was so unique, and I really enjoyed drawing flowers for a while. It turned out to be such a clean, crisp design, and is one of my personal favourites.

The font for the names printed so well that it looks like actual handwriting. I'd encourage more brides to use fonts like this. It's classy, but still has that personal touch to it.

You may recognise the flowers from Eessu's first print. I had the plates handy after finishing these invites, and couldn't help but print from them again. Even in black they still look so feminine and soft.

Poppy on Canberra's Got Style

Today Poppy Letterpress is proud to be featured on Canberra's Got Style, a great site showcasing the many talented folk here in Canberra. I find it incredible that for such a small city, we have so many crafty people, which is easy to see when you visit one of our markets on the weekends.

Kate & Rob

We had the pleasure of working on this design with Kate and Rob recently. Like many couples these days, Kate and Rob wanted to steer clear of complicated and elaborate designs, and instead focus on the country garden theme of their wedding. Kate is lucky to have an aunt to handle the calligraphy of the guest's names. The names were written in a yellow, so the invitation needed to be simple and neutral.

Meet Eessu!

I'm so excited to welcome Eessu to the Poppy Letterpress team!

Eessu has been one of my dearest friends since we were kids, and she's got to be the most creative person I've ever met. Sporting a visual arts degree in printmaking, Eessu will be here helping me print while I'm pregnant (and hopefully for much longer!). This means that we won't have to shut up shop for the last months of my pregnancy, and we can still offer full service to all clients. It will also give me more time to work on exciting new designs.

We've been doing a little training in the studio, and Eessu completed her first print run today: black peony notecards.

Keep your eye on this girl, she's going to be printing up a storm!