colette paperie | blawg-it: TypeDelicious

(Saturday, 9/3/11)

Here we are at the new coolest-place-on-my list, Big Table Studio in St. Paul, MN.
Here's a little bit about Big Table:

"Big Table Studio is a working design and print studio, located in beautiful downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. It's a completely unique store front, where designers and printers rent a seat at the Table, getting access to print facilities, a studio to use as an office, and access to selling their hand made products through the retail shop. Big Table Studio aims to be a screen-printing community center, hosting printing classes, mounting poster exhibitions, throwing poster-related parties, and working with the community to spread the word about design and printing."

There I am, enjoying a beautiful day in St. Paul.

Yeah, that 'bout sums up this gem. We had the opportunity to peruse this beautiful joint during some down time, and couldn't be happier about the discovery. While one may think this kind of screenprinting/design collective would only exist in the less-conservative Minneapolis, owners of BTS purposely brought it to St. Paul along with Amsterdam Bar + Hall, as well as resurrected Eclipse Records (so close to opening you can taste it.)

(This trio all instrumental of the mayor's Director of Arts + Culture, Joe Spencer, St. Paul's "arts guy".)

The expert dudes that run Big Table are Peet Fetsch and Jeff Johnson of Spunk Design Machine

We got to meet Peet, who entertained no fewer than 5,000 questions from us. Thanks Peet!

Talk about a sa-weet postcard for the place. Lovin' it like a 2 dollar whore.

We begin with the Hamilton Wood Type + Printing Museum (which I'm so stoked about, because I'm visiting them for Wayzgoose in November! Hopefully I don't pee myself when I meet the dude that designed Verdana.) Jim + Bill Moran run this droolworthy location. Yes, you may have heard of this museum via Target's new vintage varsity collection. If bringing beautiful type to Target is the way to get it out into the world and on people's asses via pajama pants, I say go for it. Lots of old pals of mine were involved in the designing of the collection, so I'm uber-proud of them.

The head honchos at Hamilton.

I'm pretty sure Peet had to stop me from just plain EATING this baby. Metallics... mmmm.

Return of the BUGS MADE OF TYPE

Ain't it the truth.

Texture shot!

That's one voluptuous calendar.

Other local artists below, including mah dude Adam Turman, who has become basically THE screenprinter of Minneapolis. (total BAMF, trust.) I enjoy several prints by Turman in my pad, most purchased at his amazing garage sale, where hoards of people invaded his yard and picked through everything he's ever made in his entire lifetime, I assume.

Other artists included are Aesthetic Apparatus, Landland, Erik Hamline, and many others. But this is just the current selection. It'll be changin' up often.

We love our Minnesota pride.


I'm kind of dying to get my paws on some of this Aesthetic Apparatus swag.

Adam Turman + Minneapolis, sittin' in a tree...k-i-s-s-i-n-g.

An art print titled "All of Them" made for the Aesthetic Apparatus-curated "Dead Wood" printmaking folio exchange, inspired by the HBO series "Deadwood" (in which the word "fuck" appears 2980 times over the course of three seasons). Illustration by Dan Black & Jessica Seamans - Landland.

(I loved this so much I needed my photo taken next to it....)