What’s your shop all about?
We do custom paper, home accessories, and portraiture—all from scratch. I specialize in letterpress, printmaking, and graphic design, and my partner does Pop-style portraiture and silk screen. She uses the same people who did Andy Warhol’s. In the future we’ll do wallpaper and fabric, although all it takes is for someone to say they want it; we’ll do it.

What sets you apart from other designers?
There is a popular aesthetic now in the letterpress genre in particular that’s not us: retro, found, just very literal. It’s not experimental.

What is letterpress, exactly?
It’s like woodblock printing: A raised surface gets inked and pushed down, or debossed, into paper. This fall, we’re planning to teach a wallpaper workshop at Make Workshop.

What inspires you?
David Hicks influenced our monogram-pattern series— letters from four alphabets turned into patterns for stationery, decoupage, and journal covers. Joseph Holtzman, Paul Smith’s British quirk. And Ryan McGinness. He has an ornamental look that’s in the collective consciousness now.

Who have you worked with?
I designed the tins for MarieBelle chocolates. The other day I did a beer label for Ron Perlman. One of his party guests, Desiree Gruber, loved it and came to see us. Now I’m helping her design her identity on a new venture.

Related:

• Archive: “Ask Shop Clerk”
• Articles by Denise Penny
• Table of Contents: Sep 25, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!