Vendor Profile: Hello!Lucky

Sabrina Moyle of Hello!Lucky was kind enough to fill me in on all the yummy details of this incredible design shop. Hello!Lucky specializes in custom design – all of the designs can be adapted to a customer’s preferences (think inks, paper colors, envelope colors, etc.). Sabrina adds, “While we’re known for letterpress printing, we just launched our digital invitation line which is printed on letterpress-quality papers.” Yahoo!

What is Hello!Lucky?

We’re a design and letterpress stationery studio dedicated to promoting great design and the craft of letterpress printing. We print a range of humorous and whimsical vintage-inspired letterpress greeting cards, as well as both letterpress and digitally printed wedding invitations, birth announcements, and personal stationery. We originally started only doing letterpress but gravitated towards offering letterpress-quality digital printing this year as well in order to make our designs accessible to a broader audience. Good design for all!

What do you love about what you do?

The design process is by far our favorite. We love creating new designs and brainstorming hilarious card ideas. We also love collaborating with fellow artists. Last year, we published Handmade Hellos, a DIY card crafting book from Chronicle Books that entailed collaborating with about 20 designers and artists around the world. It was serious fun and super inspiring.

How did you get into doing what you do?

Eunice, our creative director and co-founder, was working at a pet boutique and the owners asked her to design some cards they could sell there. They were a hit and Kate’s Paperie placed an order for them. Around the same time, she took a letterpress printing class and immediately bought her own press on eBay. Sabrina, our CEO, had just finished business school and got involved because of her passion for helping turn art into a sustainable business. We started with maybe 8 greeting cards and slowing started adding to our line. Now, we sell our cards to over 800 retail stores and have a popular website where we sell our custom invitations. Oh, and an office in London!

What do you wear when you’re doing what you do?

Jeans and whatever was hanging around the closet that’ll keep us warm (it can get pretty chilly in our studio!). As a result, Eunice often ends up looking like a 5 year-old in mismatched sweaters and scarves! When we’re motivated, we wear cute vintage dresses!

If you have done work for a gay wedding, what is one thing you had to change your assumptions about?

We’ve worked on numerous gay weddings. The main thing it’s caused us to question is traditional invitation wording etiquette – for example, invitations being formally addressed to Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, or the traditional wording for wedding invitations (e.g. Mr. and Mrs. John Smith request the pleasure of your company…). We find it’s often more comfortable not emphasize traditional gender roles, for example omitting the Mr. and Mrs. salutations from names. At the same time, we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easily a lot of the invitation etiquette does translate to gay weddings. We’ve had more than a few clients deliberately use the traditional wording to underscore the legitimacy of their union and keep things on an even field with what their heterosexual friends and family experience. We think that’s great, too.

The most important thing we’ve learned from our experience with gay weddings is how meaningful every detail becomes. We once received feedback from a gay couple for whom we’d done beautiful custom letterpress invitations that the thought and care that went into the invitation design really legitimized their marriage in the eyes of their friends and family, since it’s the first thing guests receive. It sent the whole tone, and helping make it the experience they dreamed about having.

RAVE time!

“Thank you (and all at Hello!Lucky) for your hard work- they are simply gorgeous. I am tempted to roll around on the bed with them, they’re THAT sexy! Really though, thanks so much for the wonderful product, the amazing customer service and support, and the patience. I will definitely recommend Hello!Lucky to anybody and everybody, and will definitely be buying from you guys again. Lovely lovely lovely! Eeeeeeeeeeeee!”

“Our invitations arrived in the mail yesterday, and I just have to say how incredibly happy we are! They’re more amazing and gorgeous in person than I ever could have dreamed. Even your packaging is delightful! Thank you so much! I am telling everyone about Hello!Lucky!”

“Thank you so much! Once I realized our budget did not allow for letterpress invitations, I thought we would not be able to have classy and quality invitations. Boy, was I wrong! Thank goodness for Hello!Lucky.”