エピソード

  • Victoria Kirst of Pouch Studio (2 of 2)

    Victoria Kirst of Pouch Studio (2 of 2)
    2025/09/30
    While journalers and junk journalers exist in this digital age alongside the rest of us, they crave the tactile and in-person elements of the analog world. In part 2 of my chat with Software Engineer Victoria Kirst, we take a deep dive into this non-digital community in the pages of her stationery zine Pouch and beyond. If you are unfamiliar with stationery clubs and swaps, it is positively heartwarming to learn of tools like washi tape or stickers being lovingly bartered or shared by these offline groups. Here, stationery is not a commodity but a tool for collective expression. For Victoria, Pouch is the ultimate passion project turned side hustle, and she perceives it as a tool to grow her community as she scratches her own creative itches. This becomes exceedingly clear in Victoria's surprising Nerd Notes, where this micro-bride turns her very wedding into stationery to mail and share! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    続きを読む 一部表示
    44 分
  • Victoria Kirst of Pouch Studio (1 of 2)

    Victoria Kirst of Pouch Studio (1 of 2)
    2025/08/27
    Like me, my guest today is a huge paper nerd who is the founding editor of a stationery publication. Unlike me, Victoria Kirst is also a software engineer who created her fabulous zine Pouch as an offline labor of love to share her passion for analog tools with an ever-growing community. If you haven't seen a zine in a few decades or so, prepare to be dazzled! This purely 21st-century publication truly celebrates our medium, showcasing its endless potential — as well as the seemingly endless creative ways individuals in the stationery community express their inner lives and experiences through journals, planners, washi tapes, pens, cards, rubber stamps, and the like. With a mission is to inspire every reader to start doodling, junk journaling or other stationery project, of course I have plenty of questions that we begin tackling in the first of two episodes. What attracts a software engineer to the world of analog — and what does stationery have that the digital domain lacks? Why are stationery clubs and meetups and junk journaling retreats happening now? Whatever your role in stationery, it is nearly impossible to not catch Victoria's excitement — or begin a journal of one's own! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    続きを読む 一部表示
    40 分
  • Vicky Barone of Barone & Co.

    Vicky Barone of Barone & Co.
    2025/07/24
    Just because a maker isn't already a household name, that doesn't mean you're not already a big fan! You have most likely seen (many times!) and possibly even purchased the uplifting, inspiring and heartfelt greeting card designs of my guest today — and not even known it. For the past 24 years, Vicky Barone has been quietly licensing her designs behind the scenes to larger card brands like Papyrus and American Greetings. While she has stayed behind the design curtain, her thousands of cards have generated millions of dollars in products sold. Now Vicky has officially entered the stationery spotlight solo with her own brand, Barone & Co. While it’s a huge shift and a big risk, it’s also an enormous creative opportunity. We discuss Vicky's transition from freelancer to founder, but also the evolution within greeting cards and communication over the past quarter century. What is the difference between humor and relatable humor? How difficult is it to debut an inclusive brand in these times — to say nothing of this challenging economy? We also discuss the role of social media, specifically Instagram, to a brand. Vicky's personal IG page, starring much of the same work that adorns her cards, has over 50K followers, while that for her brand is still growing. Do online likes translate into business growth? Does generating work for social media undercut creativity? Whatever role you play in the stationery community, there's plenty to consider here — including of course Vicky's colorful, uplifting work! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 10 分
  • Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co. (2 of 2)

    Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co. (2 of 2)
    2025/06/30
    For Anna Bond, being a creative is certainly about generating jaw-dropping imagery to be presented just so on irresistible products — but creativity is also a key to enabling this CEO to navigate Rifle Paper Co. forward as both a business and a brand. In Part 2 of our chat, we discuss subtly evolving the Rifle look to keep it consistently looking fresh and new, yet true to its signature style, as time passes and tastes evolve. We also delve into navigating the larger challenges facing small businesses, such as tariffs. It's rather unsurprising that Anna often feels like she is facing a wily carnival Whack-A-Mole. And while I knew my listeners and I would be treated to an incredible Nerd Note, even *I* was wowed by her childhood correspondence! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    続きを読む 一部表示
    35 分
  • Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co.

    Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co.
    2025/05/30
    In 2009, freelance illustrator Anna Bond and her musician husband Nathan debuted Rifle Paper Co. to the trade in a double booth buried deep in the back aisles of the National Stationery Show. They were but one of dozens upon dozens of small (often forgotten) stationery brands showing there, but in Rifle's case, a stationery, gift and lifestyle star was born those five days in May. Rifle's dizzying trajectory into the collective American design unconscious was singularly dramatic, with Anna's signature hand-painted artwork and vibrant color palette having headlining collaborations over the years with Keds, Target and Pottery Barn Kids, among seemingly countless other high-profile brands. Meanwhile, every stationery maker setting up shop dreams of a similar ascent. Still, at the core of every Rifle offering remains the brand's tagline: 'We create moments of unexpected beauty in the real world.' So when I was given the real-world opportunity to interview Anna — now Rifle CEO — of course I had questions! In this, part one of two, we discuss Rifle's humble origins, how Anna differentiated it from the very start, dealt with imitators over the years, and grew the brand alongside Nathan as they simultaneously grew their own family. With five young children and an ever-growing brand and body of work, Anna's strategy of success may surprise you as much as it did me! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    続きを読む 一部表示
    38 分
  • Sally Diguette (2 of 2)

    Sally Diguette (2 of 2)
    2025/04/23
    Don't miss Part 2 of my chat with type A über-creative Sally Diguette! In Sally's role as specialty buyer for Anthropologie, the merchandise she painstakingly sources from small, quirky makers are often where the brand's fans find the connection and community they seek as they shop. Sally honed this expertise at Atlanta's Citizen Suppy, an artisan marketplace that showcases handmade goods, clothing, and standout finds from independent makers. Sally joined the Ponce City Market venue at its inception in 2017 to build all operations — and then heralded it through COVID, finessing her skill set all the more. These lessons and skills are put to great use in her independent consultancy — and we close discussing the types of challenges we see our small maker clients grappling with, and our approaches to solving them. Finally, epistolary lovers will be utterly knocked out by Sally's precious Nerd Note — it's definitely Anthropologie shelf-worthy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    続きを読む 一部表示
    29 分
  • Sally Diguette

    Sally Diguette
    2025/03/27
    This Type A über-creative wears a lot of hats, every last one of them impressive and fabulous. Sally Diguette is a specialty retail buyer for Anthropologie, tasked with buying in the stationery and related gift and home categories, as well as spearheading collaborations such as Papier x Anthropologie. But Anthropologie is also where many a small maker gets her first big break — even if it's just one greeting card on its enormous website. Not only does Sally undertake the enormous task of selecting each maker to tell certain trend stories across every inch of Anthropologie retail space (both actual + virtual), she also offers consulting services to help brands get shelf-ready. Sally and I delve into defining the Anthropologie magic — and the nuts and bolts of generating it. How does she navigate the overstimulation of trade shows to ascertain the trend stories to fill store shelves? What catches Sally's eye — and what are the design must-haves on a given product? With that kind of perspective and drive, I was thrilled to have audience with her here, and accordingly, this is the first of two episodes of our interview! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    続きを読む 一部表示
    34 分
  • Catherine Hildner of KMB/Shade Tree Greetings

    Catherine Hildner of KMB/Shade Tree Greetings
    2025/02/20
    For many in our community, running a stationery brand turns out to be but a single milestone on an incredible larger journey. That's the case with Catherine Hildner of Kitty Meow Boutique, now a part of Shade Tree Greetings. Over the past several years, this dynamo — also my guest in episode 20 — not only established her own brand, she also helped create the Ultimate Product Party series of events and podcasts to empower other product-based creatives (mostly women) to bring their own visions to life. But part of being a smart entrepreneur is knowing when it's time to move on. And in Catherine's case, it turns out that I actually helped jumpstart the process just over a year ago, at the February edition of NY NOW 2024. Tune in to hear this fantastic tale and what's next for Catherine! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    続きを読む 一部表示
    39 分