Hello!Lucky
Jet-setting sisters create groovy greetings
By Liz Schroeter
Published: February 13th, 2007 | 10:21am
When it comes to Valentines, there’s nothing wrong with the classics-- hearts, flowers, I love you's, squirrels. OK, maybe there’s nothing classic about a Valentine squirrel, but there is something awfully cute about a timeless pun like “Nuts for you!”
If you adore retro-inspired imagery and simple, classy decoration (not to mention snappy one-liners), you should sample the letterpress-printed wares from Hello!Lucky. Not only do the designs of their greeting cards, stationery. and invitations exude vintage charm, they are handmade on an antique Vandercook Press. Which I’m told is very, very heavy and was a pain to ship via eBay where it was found.
Hello!Lucky was started in San Francisco by sisters Sabrina and Eunice Moyle in 2004. The sisters grew up close playmates as their family traveled the world. “Our dad was a Foreign Service Officer,” says Sabrina, “and our mom was a fashionista-cum-housewife from Taiwan, who he met at a party thrown by some mutual friends. She stunned him by appearing in the doorway in a teal pantsuit — wow-wee! As a diplomatic family, we moved every two to three years. We lived in Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Libya (we were there in 1979, and summarily evacuated, when protesters set fire to the American Embassy!), Burma, and the United States” She notes, “Growing up overseas had a huge influence on our aesthetic, having been exposed to so many visual and cultural references.”
One might wonder how two sisters work together. “We work together amazingly well!” says Sabrina. “Luckily, we have different areas of expertise and responsibility so we don't tend to have turf wars or butt heads much.” She admits they sometimes get on one another’s nerves, but adds, “The beauty of being sisters is that one of us can have a bad/bitch/crabby day and the other one won’t take it personally!”
The two decided to start printing their own cards after Eunice took a letterpress class and got hooked on the medium. “We're both very tactile, hands-on, crafty people. Printing cards ourselves meant that we got to learn the craft and have the gratifying experience of mastering scary-looking old machinery.” Doing it all themselves also gives Hello!Lucky complete control over the production process so they can offer a lot of custom design and can get the most out of the tactile qualities of letterpress.
The Moyle sisters are inspired by many things, including French and Japanese design, Taiwanese and Japanese pop culture, and vintage Americana. “It’s amazing how much you can romanticize/glamorize the States when you don't live here,” she says. To keep up their creativity, Sabrina and Eunice travel as much as possible, taking tons of photos and notes in the streets of their international destinations.
The sisters also host excellent theme parties where they get to try out new creative ideas, and have lots of fun! “We recently hosted a Birthday Bingo Bonanza complete with home-made bingo boards-cum-placemats, “gummable” foods, buttons featuring unsolicited little-old-lady advice (“Are you wearing clean underwear?”), and fabulous prizes for the lucky winners (big underwear, plastic rain bonnets, garden gnomes),” says Sabrina. Upcoming plans include an Alice in Wonderland Party and a Hair Band Karaoke Party!
For the more sophisticated party-goers, Hello!Lucky is also hosting an 18th Century French/English naturalist-themed bridal soiree in collaboration with event design and catering company, Fork and Spoon Productions.
With Valentines Day just around the corner, I asked Sabrina to dish on the best valentine she ever got.
“Huh, this is a tough one. One of the reasons we've busted out with such an extensive Valentine card range is due to the underwhelming nature of the cards we've been given over the years!” She did add that a memorable, recent Valentine was spent at a romantic old lodge in Big Sur. That is until things got cut-short by a wicked case of strep throat that sent her and her boyfriend right back to San Francisco to nurse their illness in bed. “We got married in Big Sur a year later, so I guess it had a romantic, happy ending.”
Pick up some of Hello!Lucky’s newest valentines, like one of a proud lion roaring a spray of little hot pink hearts, in one of over 300 stores worldwide. You can also visit them online at <a href="http://www.hellolucky.com" target="_blank">hellolucky.com.
Issue #29
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