Don't you love the feeling of finding the perfect greeting card or invitation? If you haven't already guessed through numerous posts involving stationery, we both find scary amounts of joy in beautiful paper products. We've always admired the work of the local letterpress company Hello! Lucky and are jealous of brides who now have access to their DIY Wedding Invitations. Needless to say, we were thrilled when owners (and sisters!) Eunice and Sabrina agreed to answer a few of our questions...
How did you decide to create Hello! Lucky?
Eunice initially fell in love with letterpress printing after taking a class at the San Francisco Center for the Book. At the time, she was working as a web designer and loved the idea of going back to a tactile print medium. She printed a few cards on a whim and sent them to Kate's Paperie, which placed an order. Sabrina had just graduated from business school and offered to help turn the project into a business, and it took off from there.
When did your love for paper and design begin?
We grew up in Asia and were always surrounded by design and paper goods - everything from cute Japanese stationery to intricate Chinese paper cuts, and our parents knew a lot of artists and illustrators. Our mom and grandmother were super crafty and taught us how to sew, knit, make our own glue, fold origami, and paint from an early age, so art and design were always around us!
What's the most satisfying part of your work?
Coming up with new design ideas and seeing them come to fruition in the form of a printed piece, and hearing people's responses. It's fun to make things that inspire and delight people, and that help make events like weddings more unique and personal.
What's the most challenging aspect of your work?
Staying fresh and creative while keeping up with the demands of our customers and fans. We operate in a tough, competitive industry. Anyone can decide to be a card designer and lots of people dream of starting their own creative business. Not to mention, there are a lot of large corporations with deep pockets that can out-do small studios like ours in terms of product variety, lower prices, and making it super easy to order online, which has become critical as people get used to the instant gratification of the websites and apps we use every day. It's hard to keep up with all these demands while continuing to develop our unique design perspective - which is, after all, one of the things that people love about us!
If you were going to do it all over again, what advice would you give yourselves?
It would probably be to slow down and stay small. There is a lot of pressure as a business to grow and to rush to keep up with the competition and the changing environment. Small is beautiful!
Thanks again, Eunice and Sabrina! For even more information about these ladies and Hello! Lucky, check out this fun video.
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