Meet the Artists and Giveaway: Melissa and JW from Little Friends of Printmaking

I feel like I'm on a giveaway freenze, not that I'm complaining. 

In fact, I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity to offer

one lucky reader the print of their choice 

from my new favorite Etsy shop,

Little Friends of Printmaking!

Buy it here

Melissa let me pick out a print, and I think it took me over an hour to devour every amazing image on their website. Still, I knew EXACTLY which one I was going to pick because I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. The funtastic Flight of the Conchords print is a must have! Check out the amazing detail.

I don't always talk about the great customer service I get from my sponsors, and I've had some pretty good experiences, but this one is just over-the-top outstanding. Melissa sent me a print and unfortunately the post office crushed it (a rare occasion for lfop). I sheepishly reported it to Melissa and she immediately offered to resend it. That just didn't seem fair! Reluctantly I asked if she could send one to my newly married sister-in-law, a screen printer as well as Flight of the Conchords fan (perfect wedding gift, right?) Without hesitation Melissa sent it. You won't believe what happened next. I gave her the wrong address! It hadn't arrived after a few weeks and she offered to send ANOTHER! I simply couldn't take advantage. Well, it ended coming back to lfop, and Melissa resent it with the correct address! BEST customer service EVER. 

And I don't have to tell you how amazing the art is, you can see for yourself! Don't get lost on their website, make sure you come back when you're done shopping! Get to know the talented creators of these unique creations:

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.

A: We're The Little Friends of Printmaking (or LFOP), a husband-and-wife team of illustrator/designers living in Milwaukee. We're known primarily for designing concert posters, which is how we got our start, but it's become a sort of ill-fitting definition—These days, we mostly do editorial illustration, graphic design work, and make and sell art prints.

Q: How did LFOP come to be?

A: We met in art school and were collaborating on everything, back when that could more accurately be called "cheating." But, in printmaking, you need a buddy and so people mostly looked the other way. Working together was so natural, and as a team we could accomplish so much more, that it was almost like waking up with super-powers. We had all this energy. Eventually, we were hired by a concert promoter to make some posters, and we were blown away by the genuine thrill of making something that people would see and talk about and have an opinion on (and we were getting paid, no less). Up to then, art for us existed in the classroom or the gallery, and the only people who saw it were other artists. That experience transformed us, it recalibrated our ambitions.

Q: I could spend hours looking at your prints! Tell us a little about the creative process behind the art.

A: Thanks! There are prints of ours that we're assigned to make by a client (or a gallery), and I say assigned, because it's not unlike an assignment in school—We're looking for the most novel, most apt solution that fulfils their needs. The assignment is like a puzzle that need solving. And, to be sure, there's an element of creative expression, the application of our own visual style, but our approach is to come up with a killer concept that we know will work before we ever put pen to paper (or cursor to artboard, as it were).

Then, there are other prints that are self-initiated, and with those, the process is to just make something we'd like to see. Our art prints, more than anything, are our opportunity to try things out and advance our aesthetic. Clients and art directors see our art prints and use them as a point of reference for new design work. Those prints are more likely to start from a sketch or a doodle, to evolve visually.

Q: What design has received the most attention?

A: Maybe "Tastee Treats" or "Pacific Jammzzz," which are art prints that have sold hundreds (or thousands) of copies. The Flight of the Conchords poster we sent you just won a design award, so maybe it sort of qualifies? [Definitely!]

Buy it here

Q: What piece holds the most personal meaning?

A: Probably our "Rescue Pets Will Love You Better" poster, because we love our cats.

Buy it here

Q: What are you currently working on?

A: We've been doing a series of posters for Columbia Records artists; Over the summer, we designed a cheese label (cross that one off the ol' Designers' Bucket List); We're heading out to Maine soon to do an artists' residency thing; We're designing the promo stuff for our great hometown hipster craft fair, Art vs. Craft; We're doing some super-secret prints for one of our very favorite TV shows (hopefully those turn out well); And we're making a bunch of new art prints for the holidays, so be sure to check into the shop.

Buy it here

Q: Where do you promote your shop?

A: Nowhere! Really, we should be better about that. While it's not an advisable business strategy, in our experience, good work leads to more opportunities to make good work, which leads to attention and more people discovering our work (and so on and so forth). Frankly, it's a minor miracle that people end up in our webstore or our Etsy shop at all, but the internet works in mysterious ways.

Q: Just for fun, what are your favorite Etsy stores to window shop?

A: Our favorites are somethingshidinghere, whimsyandspice, thesmallobject, and yokoo. 

Alright, now go ahead, go get lost in their amazing work! Then head on back over here and enter win your pick of the litter :)

How to Enter the Giveaway:

1. Follow this blog (Mandatory)

and leave a comment here saying you did.

2. Visit lfop on Etsy or their website

and leave a separate comment here 

about your favorite print(s).

3. "Tweet" about the lfop giveaway

and leave a separate comment here saying you did.

Fine Print:

Only 3 entries per household please
1 winner will be chosen October 3rd at midnight PST
Winner will be chosen by random.org
Entries will be validated
Winner will be announced here
Winner will have 3 days to contact me, 

after which a new winner will be chosen

Must be 18 years of age or older to enter