Make Art For You

Only show stuff like this to your clients if they happen to be some of your best friends.

Often time as we're first setting out to become professional artists, we fantasize over realizing that dream. We imagine how amazing it would be to just get paid to create. However, when the reality of paid illustration jobs or concept art positions sets in, you need to remember to keep making art for yourself.

Now don't get us wrong, it's a great privilege and amazing to be able to draw/illustrate/print for a living. However, when you spend 8-10 hours a day drawing stuff for other people, or printing t-shirts that you didn't design, you also have to remember to keep creating for yourself, lest the art you do for a living becomes "another job."

If you don't have time to create for yourself (although we guess you probably do, but that's another story), then you need to make the work you're doing for someone else for yourself as well. If you get hired to do an illustration, you need to make sure that there is something about that illustration that you're doing for yourself. Yes, you have a brief that tells you what needs to be in the illustration, but make sure that you're finding ways to enjoy the revisions and feedback. If anything, sometimes we will do a quick draft of the illustration in a completely experimental style (that you never have to show to your client) as a way to quickly inject the fun into the assignment, even if you might not be 100% enthusiastic about the illustration.

An example of this is the above Save the Date. Monkey was honored to be asked by his good friends from Berkeley to design their Save the Dates and the invitations for their wedding. While Monkey likes to do more non-traditional wedding invitations, they were looking for something more parent-friendly. Monkey was happy to oblige, but the patience and attention to detail with the typography and designing is not Monkey's strong point, and thus for the Save the Dates he created this crazy, over-the-top monster bunny-as-a-weapon design to keep things fun. After that, he was able to really focus and design something that his friends could love and he could be proud of. As a side note, to show how awesome Monkey's friends are, they actually sent this digital save the date to their close friends!

The lesson to learn here is that with art, just as with every job, assignment, or task, is to figure out a way to do it for yourself. Find something fun and exciting and new to learn or try, and keep it fresh. It makes for much happier creating.

Submitting to Art Shows, Not Submitting to Fear

Monkey is especially proud of that headline. So on Sunday, Monkey + Seal prepped their artwork and submitted it to the Academy of Art's Spring Show under the Illustration and Animation schools. Monkey is actually going to finish submitting today (since the Fine Art department's submission process has a later due date), but we wanted to talk a bit about submitting to shows.

The thing that we never could understand is why more people don't submit to the Spring Show. It's free (so it doesn't cost much, just the cost of the mounting materials), so why not? We know that it is really competitive, but regardless of how low your chances are, your chances can't be lower than zero, which is what your chances are if you never turn anything in.

This year, Monkey + Seal have faced some rejection - we didn't get into Renegade Craft Fair, nor were any of our pieces juried into Spectrum 17. But we realize that rejection is part of being an artist (and of life in general). Unfortunately, most people in life don't get everything they try for, but if you never try for anything, you won't get anything at all.


You cannot submit to the fear of rejection. You have to go into each competition with your eye on the gold - aim for the sun and hit the highest peak sort of thinking, you know? Monkey, who has never been selected for the Spring Show always says "Let someone else tell you that you're not good enough." If you can't bring yourself to believe in your work, then why should anyone else? Like we have said in past blog posts - it is all about finding your audience. Sure, you shouldn't submit a painting of a dragon to a landscape competition (or a landscape to a dragon competition) but you have to just power through your fear of rejection and keep moving forward, keep submitting, and keep getting your work out there.

Additionally, Monkey + Seal prefer not to dwell on the negative - sure we didn't get into Renegade or Spectrum, but there's always next year, we already had one successful gallery show this year, and now we're doing a gallery show in collaboration with Hyphen magazine, we just released our first e-book, Monkey is pushing himself to create and post a piece of art every day, and Seal has a freelance project for an upcoming animation studio. We're also helping to organize the SF Zine Fest and have applied to the Alternative Press Expo.

All in all, it isn't about comparing the good to the bad and weighing out your year - it's about choosing to focus on the positives, the accomplishments and accolades, and learning from all the missteps and failings. Finding this balance is definitely not easy (as we both can attest to), but it is what we strive for, and what keeps us going at all hours of the night. No fear, dear artists, no fear!

7 Ways to Make Ordering Wedding Invitations Easier (and Cheaper)

The descriptive (yet lengthy) title of Monkey's first e-book is "7 Ways to Make Ordering Wedding Invitations Easier (and Cheaper)."

Monkey has been staying up until 3-4am every night for the past week making sure that this guide was ready to release on Sunday, and he managed to actually get it up for download by Saturday afternoon. Huzzah! Many thanks to everyone who gave/is giving feedback, and especially to Seal whose Narrative Theory/English degree helped out a ton!

Anyway, feel free to go to www.monkeyandseal.com/guides.html to download "7 Ways to Make Ordering Wedding Invitations Easier (and Cheaper)" today for free!

Now, since that project is done, Monkey is starting brainstorming his next guide(s), as well as working on some new projects for the Alternative Press Expo (which we just sent our registration in for!).

We both just finished submitting our work to the Academy of Art's Spring Show, so cross your fingers for us that we both get work in! Woo! More on submitting on Wednesday - so don't forget to stop by in a few days!

Getting stuff done

Sometimes, if you're like this little red-haired dude above, you feel trapped, stuck in a rut, creatively drained, tired, and a bit hopeless that you're ever going to finish/succeed/reach goal X/etc., etc.

We know that we can certainly relate. Monkey and Seal are both managers for two different retail stores, and after being on your feet for 6-9 hours per day dealing with sometimes irate (but usually awesome) customers, the last thing we feel like doing is working more when we get home. Besides running errands, cooking dinner, doing other household chores, and trying to spend time with one another, the Monkey + Seal team is usually pretty pooped out by the end of the day.

However, we find the motivation to continue working, to continue painting, to continue creating into the wee hours of the morning (usual bedtime is around 3am) because we have to hold ourselves accountable.

Whether it is to clients, customers, or ourselves, when something needs to get done, it is not a matter of "if," it's a matter of "how." Yes, we do admit that sometimes it might be worth it to get some rest and put a project off for a day, but we find that most of the time that leads you to a space where all you're doing is playing catch-up, and we end up sacrificing (or at least not starting) on projects that we would like to do since we're so backed up.

It all really comes down to integrity. In our retail jobs, we've seen a good number of people quit over email, or just stop showing up to work. Regardless of how much you hate your job or your boss or if you've just won the lottery, by bailing on your job, someone else has to pick up your shifts and your workload so things keep going smoothly. Nothing frustrates us more than flakes, so we strive to make sure that we follow through.

Our friends will attest - we admit, it is sometimes hard for us to commit to parties, or checking out friends' gallery shows, or just anything that pulls us out of our little urban cave. But if we say we're gonna be there, we show up, no matter how tired we are or how backlogged we are in our work (we might not stay for too long, but we'll be there).

Honestly, Monkey has a ton of work to do, and he's been going on about 4 hours of sleep a day for the past week, and to meet his deadline of launching the wedding guide by Sunday, there are a lot of fine-tuning that he still needs to do. But, he told the mailing list that it was going to be up for download, (and now you know about the release date) so now he's got to suck it up and follow through.

Planning something, having great ideas or tons of talent, all that is great, and makes lots of parts of life easier, but the thing that really gets stuff done is action. Following through is perhaps the hardest thing to do, but it's the most important. Whether it's about integrity or chasing a dream, following through is what turns the world 'round.

What do you do to motivate yourself to get business taken care of? How do you follow through?

Monkey's Mini Guide to Wedding Invitations

Hi everyone! Monkey here, with a quick little self-promotional piece today. I've been working on a little itty-bitty guide for all those recently engaged couples out there who are just starting on choosing their wedding invitations.

After selling wedding invitations for the past three/four years, I've noticed that since most couples are getting married for the first time, they do not have a whole lot of experience in choosing wedding invitations. Many times this leads to me (as the person helping the couple order the invitations) asking the same questions again and again, which lead to couples spending anywhere between 2-6 hours with me working on their invitations, sometimes spread out over multiple weeks. While I am more than happy to spend this time with people, I often hear about how many other aspects of the wedding they have to deal with, so I figure if I could help speed up the ordering process, they'd be less stressed, my job would be easier, and everyone wins!

Thus, I've decided to write a short little downloadable guide titled and checklist for people to read before they even step foot in a stationery store. This way, they can deal with some stumbling points early on, so they don't waste precious quarters feeding parking meters (at least, that's what a lot of my customers have to deal with).

Anyway, I'll be launching the guide this coming weekend, although I guess it's not really a true "product launch" because it'll be free, but just mark your calendars! Woo woo!

Junia y Andres

This weekend Monkey + Seal headed down to San Diego (Chula Vista, to be more appropriate) to attend the wedding of our friends Junia and Andres. Another super artistic couple (and creators of the currently-on-hiatus Popote card line), their wedding was so distinctly them, it was really amazing.
Between the centerpieces made out of books, hand-crocheted doilies, and hand-painted Munny dolls (seen above), to the giant balloons that were part of their invitations, to the unified signage on the snacks, the wedding was a DIY masterpiece.


We will most definitely be using some of their wedding elements as inspiration for our own, many-years-down-the-line-eventual wedding. Also, we must comment that the food was simply amazing. They had a nopales salad that was extremely kick-ass, and the ginger lemonade spiked with bourbon that they had during cocktail hour was delicious. Also, whatever tequila we had for the toast was one of the smoothest drinks we've ever had. Monkey could have most definitely just nursed a bottle of that tequila all night.


Anyway, best wishes to Junia and Andres (who are now on their honeymoon) on their new adventures as a married couple. Yay!

PS - Now that the wedding is over, you can focus on Popote again!

Wedding Invites Day 3: Bella Figura and Cici New York

To end our week of wedding invitations, Monkey has decided to go with two of the leaders in the luxury wedding invitation design: Bella Figura and Cici New York.

Bella Figura is one of two (the other being Smock) wedding invitation companies that has stemmed from the ever famous (at least among letterpress printers) Boxcar Press. They are super eco-friendly, and are based in Syracuse, New York.

To be perfectly honest, I was a bit pissed off when I first went to their site, as they have the classic man and woman bathroom icons made into same-sex wedding invitations (I also had that idea for Little Yeti, and will just have to do it differently).

Their design sense is really strong, and they take some of the repeating themes seen in wedding invitations and spice it up a bit. Their use of color is also pretty boss, and overall, they're just a damn good shop.
Finally, I'll close off the week with custom design superstar, Cici New York. Let me say this right now- when it's time to print my own wedding invitations, I'm sure as hell designing them myself (with my lovely fiance'), as there is really no good excuse for a visual artist not to design their own invites. However, if there was a designer that I would trust to do a frickin' amazing job, it would be Cici (well, maybe Camille Rose Garcia, Tara McPherson, or Tomer Hanuka, but they don't usually do weddings like Cici does..). Anyway, I'll stop gushing and just say that if you have a large budget for wedding invitations, and want totally custom awesomeness (and don't want to go through Little Yeti), Cici is the way to go. I'll stop talking and just show you all the eye candy.


Thanks for stopping by during wedding invitation week! I hope you enjoyed taking a look at some of my personal inspiration for when I design wedding invitations, and be sure to check out all the different sites!

Wedding Invites Day 2: Ajalon Printing & Design + Paper Source

Hi all! So today, as part 2 of our wedding invitation week, Monkey + Seal will be doing a quick review (as requested) of Ajalon Printing & Design, a letterpress, offset, and digital printing and design studio located in Santa Rosa. Additionally, we will be taking a look at Paper Source, and the wedding invitation printing they have to offer.

After looking over the samples he was sent, Monkey was definitely impressed with the printing quality - sharp edges, good registration, nice color. Monkey was a big fan of the Sakura invitation, which at first glance looks like something digitally printed with a gradient, but upon closer inspection is actually a half-tone gradient letterpress printed. Nice!

Their website is also pretty smooth and easy to navigate around. Finding quotes was quick and easy - just how we like it. You can pick a card size, number of ink colors, quantity, and printing method and get a quick quote like that! Definitely cool.

Another big plus to Ajalon is that they have tons of paper options to choose from, including Monkey's favorite letterpress paper, the duplexed 600 gsm 100% cotton Crane Lettra paper. Ooooh, such sweet papery goodness! Granted, printing on the 600 gsm Lettra is more expensive, but woof, if you can afford it, it is definitely worth it!


Our other review for the day is Paper Source. Based out of Chicago, Paper Source is now 33-stores wide and growing. They offer letterpress, digital, and engraving printing services, as well as thermography through Crane & Co., William Arthur, and Vera Wang.So full disclosure on this one: Monkey's day job is for Paper Source (but he doesn't get any commission for invite orders). He won't say which one, but he does sell these wedding invitations day in and day out, so he's super familiar with them. That said, Paper Source's website for invitations is pretty comprehensive in terms of being able to completely order online (assuming you're going with one of the designs without too much customization).
Monkey really likes the fact that they started printing in Beet ink (with Black, shown below in the Victorian Garden design) and it looks pretty damn good with some of the darker colors like Black and Night.
Paper Source is one of the cheapest print shops Monkey has found if you are a customer interested in buying a design, so if you are on a budget, PS is pretty tough to beat. That said, there are other letterpress shops that are less expensive, but that also assumes that you are a designer with the ability to do things like color separate, etc., etc.

Paper Source prints on a 20% cotton, 30% PCW, 300 gsm paper that is pretty nice and environmentally friendly, but also doesn't feel quite as nice as Crane Lettra or Rives BFK.

If you want envelope printing, depending on what paper stock you choose, can go from affordable to completely ridiculous, so that's one major issue PS has going against it. Other than that, Monkey will admit that Paper Source has a good balance of value, design, and quality.

So there you have it, round 2 of Wedding Invitation Week here at Monkey + Seal. See ya on Friday!

Wedding Invites Day 1: Elum and Dutch Door Press

Today is the first post in a series of three about wedding invitation design! Woo! Our first design studio Monkey would like to bring to your attention is the fabulous Elum Designs located in San Diego, and the second studio is Dutch Door Press, located right here in weather-unpredictable San Francisco. First up is Elum!


When Monkey first saw the letterpress designs for wedding invitations by Elum, he was immediately smitten, and wanted a copy of all of the designs. His favorites are the Poster suite, and Butterfly Drift, which are shown immediately below.



Really, the Butterfly Drift invitation is even more ridiculously stunning, but I will say that it is a bit annoying to have to download all the pdfs to see the entire suites, but if you have the time and patience, it's worth it. Really though, seeing them online is nothing to getting to see the actual cards in person, so if your friendly neighborhood wedding invitation retailers sells Elum, check them out! They're not completely over-the-top expensive, but a 2-color card and unprinted envelope will easily run you $700+ for a quantity of 100, so they're not cheap either.

Dutch Door Press, run by the fabulous Mara and Anna, is a cute little letterpress shop in the Haight specializes in (you guessed it) whimsical designs with a very Dutch feel.

While, like with Elum, you're also going to pay for their premium designs, they are extremely friendly to work with and are great printers. They have a good selection of designs, and if you aren't into some of the color choices (some are just not my bag), if you go to their wedding gallery and select a design you like, there are multiple color ways you can see, and a handy-dandy pricing calculator that works wonders. Very nice, ladies!
On top of all the designs available to choose from, I'm personally a big fan of some of the custom work that they've come up with. Anna is a talented illustrator, and the custom section has some other great modern designs!

Whew, so that wraps up Day 1 of the wedding invite series. We hope you'll join us again on Wednesday for part 2!

Weddings here we come!

The obligatory photo stolen from the internet that happens to be from a really rad cake shop

Yay, so Monkey + Seal have a two spring weddings they've been invited to, and Monkey is even getting to design one set! Yay!

If you didn't know, while not pursing a career as a fine artist and illustrator, Monkey works in the wedding invitation industry selling wedding invitations. He's worked with a lot of different design studios (directly and indirectly), and has seen a lot of different invitations in his day, which makes him a tough critic and a bit of a paper snob at times.
Additionally, Monkey runs Little Yeti, a custom design studio (although he's working to turn it into a wedding invitation consulting gig in the near future).
As we're really in the midst of wedding season, Monkey convinced Seal to let him do a whole slew of wedding invitation company reviews next week, so if you're looking for more info, make sure you check out the blog all next week! Woo woo!

PS - If you're ever interested in getting wedding invitations printed that have monsters, zombies, or robots, Little Yeti wants to design your invites! Please! Let him!

Free workshops and fee workshops

So Monkey + Seal both enjoy teaching arts and crafts to people. So much, in fact, that we are both teaching some workshops in the near future..for free!

The Freebies:
Seal's Gouache Demo - August 22 + 23
As I'm sure you saw, Seal is planning to have a big-ol' long gouache painting demonstration at the SF Zine Fest (Aug 22+23, SF Country Fair Building). She will be sitting at our table with in-process works, so you can see the various stages of her work, as well as finished pieces and you can watch her paint! Lots of insight on how to paint with gouache (unlike how they teach you at Academy of Art) and trick and tips with working with the medium.

Monkey's Bookbinding Workshop - August 22 + 23
Monkey is co-instructing the Book Binding Basics and Beyond Workshop at the SF Zine Fest. He's not 100% sure what day or time it'll be, but we'll let you know ASAP! He is teaching alongside the amazing printer/writer/book artist Aaron Cohick of New Lights Press and they'll be doing some single-sheet books, some pamphlet stiches, and stab binding.


Anyhoo, Monkey and Seal also will teach small workshops for you and your friends at the venue of your choice. Please check out the workshops page here!