popote

save your lunch money and buy some art

2009-06-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

we're always trying to save pennies these days, but just recently started feeling like we want and need to buy more art to put on our walls. thankfully, in the most recent issue of readymade, we were introduced to 20X200, a jen bekman project. each week new pieces are released for purchase at super affordable prices. there's a lot to check out so go browse and buy something! we are!

Best Way to Start The Morning

2009-02-05T23:33:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since any of the Popote gang has posted and we apologize. The times have got the best of us, and we're all trying to play catch-up, finding work, trying to stay afloat...you know how it goes.

But it's time we get back in the game and punch through some walls! Ok, I purposely wrote that last line as a really cheesy segway into what the rest of this post will be about. I stumbled across a design site, designboom. If you're into any type of modern design, definitely bookmark it. It's addicting, and I'll most likely post about things that I see on the site later.

French designer, Cristobal Karich, designed one of the raddest looking mugs to date, the "Punch Coffee Mug". I've been trying to find out if it's available anywhere, but haven't had any luck. If you come across it, let me know! So, I saw this mug and instantly thought of the 1987 film, Three O'Clock High. If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean. And if you haven't seen it, thanks to youtube, I'll fast forward you to the best scene in the movie. See below.

(Four minutes into the clip, the infamous Buddy Revell brass knuckles make their appearance, and I guarantee you'll want to find the Punch Coffee Mug after this!)

-Junia

typography love

2008-12-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

im a bit of a font nerd. i really get a kick out of identifying the fonts in the end credits of movies. but moreover my love for helvetica, is the soft spot i have for hand drawn type. im working on a few christmas gift and when searching for some inspiration i came across beau ideal's etsy shop and found this beautiful calendar. gorgeous hand drawn type of cultural and iconic celebrities in their birthday month. all hand screen printed in brooklyn.

Christmas A Go Go!

2008-12-11T23:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas A Go Go! is up and running again.

They joyfully remind us of a few things:

1. Holiday music doesn't have to be Raffi or Mariah Carrie.

2. Contrary to popular belief, holiday music doesn't exist to make all of us non-mainstream people want to stay in the shadows during the month of December.

3. HOW FREAKING cool is the internet? That a group of bloggers can get together this time every year and put together this awesome blog where "You won't see any Wham, Band Aid, or Christmas Smashhits vol. 29... Think Christmas when the candy tasted a little sweeter, the Christmas tree was a bit greener, and the snow whiter."

Christmas A Go Go!

-Andres

Send a Popote Card this Holiday

2008-12-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

Just in time for the holidays, we've released our limited edition Christmas cards. We know there a lot of bad choices out there when you're shopping around for a well thought out designed Christmas card, so we went to work on these with you in mind!

Head on over to our shop!

Jason Munn @ The Curiosity Shoppe

2008-11-18T20:23:00.000-08:00

my personal graphic design hero, jason munn of the small stakes, is having an opening/reception for 20 new posters he's designed with InSound at one of my favorite san francisco stores, the curiosity shoppe!

check out more posters like the she and him poster above this friday, november 21st from 6 - 9 pm at 855 valencia.

- Annie

Dept. Of Eagles, School of Seven Bells, Kettel, Near The Parenthesis

2008-11-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

I consider my way home from work to be one of the most important daily routines in my life. Some people it's breakfast, some people it's laying in bed before miimiis. To me it's the hour or so it takes for me to get home after work. The time on the bus or in the car or walking, is so important because this is where I have time to live life in between. In between this and that is where I let all the stresses and worries flow out of me and I let myself be overcome by music or reading. Unfortunately this doesn't happen with everyone, so I feel fortunate that music has the ability to really purge tensions that have built up. Without this time to myself I'd probably suffer from anxiety and other crazynesses.
My point:
Here are 5 albums you should look into if your the same. These are my current Way Home albums.

Department Of Eagles isn't the answer to the next Grizzly Bear album, but it's damn close. In Ear Park is much more personal and accessible than Grizzly Bear but still feels hand-crafted and well thought out (Daniel Rossen, from GB, made his way back to the band after a few successful years away). The song structures are pretty similar to other bands that hint to a more innovative approach- think, Bowerbirds, Fleet Foxes, etc. I have a feeling that the album is just one or two songs too long, but with a few different vocal styles and music arrangements, the album definitely leaves a great mark in the genre this year.
School Of Seven Bells (named after a pickpocket training academy, dope) is twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, from On! Air! Library! (great!!) and Benjamin Curtis from Secret Machines. Right now I'm still debating whether or not to see them with M83 at The Fillmore later this month. I feel like the two bands make a pretty decent pair. Alpinisms starts off feeling very much like a warm-up for M83, but starts to get less dense and makes a break for a more Goldfrapp style of pop.
Kettel is on a super cool label called Sending Orbs, so first off, if you like this then go listen to the few others on the label. So far, Kettel's Myam James Part 1 is the most addicting for me out of the 5 listed here. It's mellow and minimal at parts, with super inventive and catchy beats in others. He manages to surprise you all the way through by adding in perfect little piano pieces within the layers, or for instance just after the 4min mark in this track, he throws just a little sax in then continues to change the structure of the song all the way to the end. Very Very good album.
Near The Parenthesis' L'Eixample is so far the best ambient/minimal atmosphere music I've heard this year. NtP is San Francisco-based musician Tim Arndt. When I'm on my way home, I imagine everyone else listening to headphones on the bus is listening to this album and then this beautiful fog starts to creep all around me and into my nose and ears and eyes and pretty soon I'm in another place where the music is radiating from within me and as I walk the fuzz and shifts and tones of the music leave an afterglow in the wake of my body. Uhh.. I'll just say it's in my top 10 this year.
Sighh. The Remote Viewer. This is the only song (of all 10 untitled tracks) I could get (through a friend no-less) off of the new album I Can't Believe It's Not Better. I don't want to have to cheat and just find this album online somewhere but seeing as there was only 350 albums made worldwide, and so far no one is offering this as an MP3 album, I might have to. If you like the song, you'll love his 3 previous albums. Enjoy the song though!

Department Of Eagles - Phantom Other

School Of Seven Bells - Half Asleep

Kettel - Twinkle Twinkle

Near The Parenthesis - The Second Nave

The Remote Viewer - Untitled 01

A New Monday, Popote music

2008-11-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

Excitement might be dying down a bit since last Tuesday, so here's some good music to get your spirits and excitement back up for the coming weeks as we watch how Mr. Obama preps for his new position. Junia and I decided to use a few songs that always stuck out to us as songs for change and songs for pushing through hard times.
Obama might have some toddler shoes to fill (I can imagine W's shoe size is pretty similar to his brain size), he still has some gigantic knots to untie and holes to climb out of (with all of us on his back).

Here's 4 songs that come from Popote's history as songs of hope.

Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up was MADE for Tuesday, November 4th. Even though we all knew we were in a bad state, that night was a monumental night in the history of our country. The song is from 1970's Curtis, his first album after leaving The Impressions. Try listening to this song without moving and feeling good. If you can, you have no soul.
New Order is probably my (Andres) favorite band of all time. Perfect Kiss is from 1985's Low Life WHICH IS BEING RE-RELEASED TOMORROW! Those of you into getting all the remastered albums (My fav's are The Cure and Joy Division ones released in the last few years), GET THIS 2-cd. But, you know, only if you believe in a land of love.
Tears For Fears never gets enough credit and appreciation from my generation :( If you can get past the over-played singles Sowing the Seeds of Love and Shout, they have some super cool songs that I know all you kids would TOTALLY love, like this one: Change. This is from their first (and best) album The Hurting (1983). I like the idea of applying the context of the lyrics to our current situation in the country.
Speaking of not enough love and appreciation, U2 is the same. I think it's because everyone only associates them with post- Achtung Baby (1991) releases. DON'T! They were HANDS-DOWN the best guitar-driven music in the 80's. Bands still try to have this sound but don't even come close. Stories For Boys is about having heroes. Our country finally saw one and I know millions of young kids are already being affected by this man.

The awesome portrait of Obama was an honorable mention in National Press Photographers Association best of 2007.

Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up

New Order - The Perfect Kiss

Tears For Fears - Change

U2 - Stories for Boys

Popote Twitter

2008-11-07T17:56:00.000-08:00

For those of you twittering! Or is it tweeting? Popote has recently jumped on the bullet train of death that is racing down the techno-evolving-tracks of the future...or something like that.

2008-11-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

i'm sitting at my desk at work constantly nytimes.com for election results (woo pennsylvania!). and after all is said and done i think one the coolest things that has come out of this election is the amazing art that is inspired by and supporting barack obama. this lovely limited edition print in particular is by chicago-based artist cody hudson. so go vote! theres still a few hours to go for us west coasters!

-annie

School Age Notes + TreeTreeTree + Owls Say Congrats

2008-11-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

In between busy work schedules, we've managed to design and create three new irresistibly adorable Popote cards! Head on over to our etsy shop to check out the new vinyl greeting cards that have just been added! If you were one of the many awesome people that were able to make it to the Capsule Design Festival, you may have seen these cards at our booth (see pics below!). We got a lot of great feedback, and hope that you all adore them just as much as we do!

And just a reminder, for a few days we had sold out of Sweet Calavera cards, but we've since made more, so make sure to check those out as well!

After we've all voted today (which we hope you all do as well), Popote is getting together to talk about new designs for the upcoming holidays, so we'll make sure to keep you posted.

Happy Voting!

See more pictures of these cards

as seen in nylon magazine

2008-10-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

thanks to diane over at bunnyshop.org, popote has been featured in the november issue of nylon magazine! our 8-bit love card is gracing page 134 in a section devoted to the "country's finest". popote is featured with fellow esty-ers: yokoo, rovakada, tumbleweed bead co. and michelle antonisse. we are all so excited to be a part of the issue, and to be featured with some truly talented people. and the best part, we can now say as seen in nylon magazine! so go out an buy a copy, it's the one with paris hilton on the cover.

Popote for Pop

2008-10-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

Something I have been dying to do for Popote's blog is post about the music we're currently listening to. I'll be posting our current musical favorites frequently, so all of you who love music, be sure to comment and give us some other good bands to check out!
For the first post, I've decided to go with the "Pop" in Popote. These albums were on heavy rotation during the last week while we prepared for Capsule Design Fest. What better music is there than good jangle/twee/freakbeat/indie pop to get you through those late nights with your friends?

Math & Physics Club is a band you have a love affair with. They're from Seattle and just like the good ol'days they have a ton of EPs with only one LP to choose from (since their beginning in 2005). Math & Physics Club always feels slightly like an affair because all of their influences are so obvious, sometimes you wonder why you aren't just listening to Morrissey or Belle & Sebastian. Charles Bert's vocals sometimes sound identical to Stuart Murdoch's (B&S). But that's the point! I love Morrissey and Belle & Sebastian. People are always going to say "they're so-and-so wannabees!." Get over it! This is fresh and it's made for people who love to feel good listening to pop!

Same goes for This Is Ivy League. They've put out a self-titled album this year that is definitely in the running for one of my top 10s. With all the politics and economic craziness going on, these Brooklynders managed to put out an album that's like that spot of sunshine poking through the gloom. Fans of a Simon & Garfunkel-style pop will love this album.

And speaking of pop icons, here's a must-have for anyone into old 60's garage/mod-rock. Most people here in the States have never heard the name Joe Meek. Back in 60's England he was a producer/song-writer for TONS of indie rock bands. This year an amazing compilation was released called Joe Meek Freak Beat: You're Holding Me Down - 30 Freakbeat, Mod & R&B Nuggets. Here's one of my favorite tracks from the comp from The Blue Rondos.
Finally, we have Lykke Li. Some of you may have heard this song on a Victoria Secret commercial and probably didn't realize it's this wonderful song from Swedish singer Lykke Li. So far this year, Lykke Li is one of the best Swedish imports you can find. She has a great blend of pop, pop-electro, and indie-pop in her album that's been on rotation for weeks here at Popote. I look forward to posting more tracks!

Math & Physics Club - Baby I'm Yours

This Is Ivy League - Love is Impossible

The Blue Rondos - Little Baby

Lykke Li - Little Bit

Thanks guys!

2008-10-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday at Capsule went better than we hoped! Thanks to the awesome crowd at Capsule, those few sweatshop nights before Sunday were not in vain! The day went super smooth (except the caca weather) and in the end we were very excited at how well we felt we were received. Next time around we're definitely going to register early so we get a good spot (hopefully as close as we can to either La Boulange or Frjtz!) Here's some pics!

Set up! After stopping at Four Barrel Coffee to get one of the BEST cups of coffee I've had, we made out way over to our space and set up our ez-shade tent! (btw, thanks to Rene from Scribble n Scratch for letting us borrow the tent!)

That's Annie and Adrian, our Popote partners setting up.

This guy was probably our favorite customer of the day! Thanks for your buy!

As you can see, we had some NEW cards at the event! look for them soon on our shop!

Sweet Calavera was our best seller! We actually sold out! Sorry to those trying to find it on our shop, we will be making some more very soon!

Capsule Design Festival

2008-10-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 19 is the Capsule Design Festival, and guess who will be there? Us! We're hoping for a sunny day and big crowds, so bring all your friends. There will be about 200 venders with lots of creative goods, so bring your pockets full, as it will be the perfect place to get some early x-mas shopping done. The festival will be held in Hayes Valley, so also come with an empty stomach because there are a ton of places to chow on some good food.
Make sure to stop by and check out all the new cards we've been working on! See you on Sunday!

Popote Design

2008-10-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

We're working on some new business cards and we thought we'd share a sample board for you.

Fake Streetsigns

2008-09-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

There's an awesome project that recently took place in Lyon, France with tons of creative artists called PANOS 2013 FAKE STREETSIGNS. A collaboration of artists from all over the world came together to place their artwork on fake road signs. What came of it was a "delightful sense of humor, lots of playful absurdity and a wonderful scale". Now if only we could see some of this happen in the city with artists like Barry McGee, Sam Flores, Andrew Schoultz, and more; I'm sure there would be a great response. In the meantime, these were some of our favorite fake streetsigns.

Here, Read This!

2008-09-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

We're totally stoked to hear that one of our favorite graphic novels, Scott Pilgrim, is going to be turned into a film! First thoughts were "Ah, man!" (in a bad way) because we read that they weren't going to animate the film, but then we looked at who was going to play Scott Pilgrim, and our reaction was "Hell yeah!". So who is going to play Scott, Michael Cera!

photo from: comicfoundry.com

On his website, Bryan Lee O'Malley, creator of Scott Pilgrim, has told everyone not to get too crazy yet because filming hasn't even begun. But to nerds like us, there is much to be excited about! For those of you that aren't familiar with this series of graphic novels, the story revolves around 23 year old Scott Pilgrim, his rock band, roommates, and his relationship with dream girl Ramona Flowers. The series is up to volume 4 now, so go grab your copies and catch up! They're fast reads because they're so entertaining and hilarious. Kinda makes you want to be an irresponsible young adult again. There's a great article/interview for more of the story behind Scott Pilgrim here.

Just Around the Corner

2008-09-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

photo from flickr:Don Cesar

We're about to start October in a week. That means it's time to start thinking of how creative and original you're going to make your costume this Halloween! We've been thinking about ours, but that shall remain a secret until we actually put something together to share. Right now we're all talk and ideas.

I used to be really pumped for Halloween. I'd shop the local Party City on the days closest to Halloween to get all the sales, but always wound up with the plain cat costume, or ugly witch. I think I started to give up on dressing up when I considered that dressing up like Winnie Cooper would pass for a costume.

Hmmm, kinda reminds me of Andres and I...

Since I've known Andres he's been obsessed with Bomberman and has tried numerous times to get the both of us to do a Bomberman pair. Maybe this will be that year (since he did get me into playing the xbox online version!)

Start thinking about those costumes, or else you'll end up the plain black cat with cardboard cut-out ears, or the ugly witch with the wig that's impossible to untangle!

-Junia

We all come from somewhere

2008-09-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

We went to high school with a group of guys that tattooed the city's logo on the inside of their arm. Just today I was reminded of them, and got to wondering, why the Chula Vista logo? Take a look:
It's not bad. Simple design. Clean. I get it. We all come from somewhere.

Then I just got curious as to the design a city takes to represent itself, and here are some of the more interesting logos I came across:

This logo belongs to the city of Seattle. Pretty badass, no? I'd rather have this one tattooed.
This one to Calexico, "Home of The Mariachi Festival Sin Fronteras", and where "California and Mexico Meet" (as stated on their dot gov page). I partially chose this one because I grew up taking a two hour long drive to El Centro every other weekend, just minutes away from Calexico.
This one to Wilsonville, Oregon, which according to Wikipedia was originally in black & white, but later Photoshopped to appear mint green. You'd think Wilsonville to be full of greenery and cute mom and pop shops just from their logo, and you're right! Based on the fotos I came across, I actually wouldn't mind taking a much needed stress-free vacation there.

Treasure Island Music part 2

2008-09-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

So I know you guys are DYING to know how our saturday at Treasure Island Music Festival went! Maybe not, but we like to share our thoughts anyways. We wanted to get there early so we could enjoy the vendors and scenery of the festival before it got too crazy. Since festival food is crazy over-priced, we made a first stop here in the neighborhood at Andronico's. This super market is notorious for ridiculous prices. They try so hard to be upscale that it's actually more expensive than markets in the Marina or PacHeights. And we're in the Sunset mind you.
So we go in to grab a sandwich for our lunch later in the day, but we walked out empty handed since the cheepest sandwich was this:

THIS IS A 7 DOLLAR CHEESE AND BREAD SANDWICH! Cool right!? I mean, why buy a whole load of bread, a brick of cheese and maybe some lettuce or something when all I want is just one sandwich?
So after laughing out loud (or LOLing) in the Deli isle we took off and just stopped at Quiznos before we hopped on this awesome FREE limo bus:

First stop we made was with SF Zinefest's Francois Vigneault who was hanging out at their outdoor reading lounge. Oh yeah, thats Andrew Schoultz painting a mural behind Junia and Francois. RAD!

As we were browsing the many vendors we stopped into Oakland's Nopal and met Daniel Sanchez Glazer, the artist behind Nopal. When we were walking we caught the name and what looked to me like Billy Holiday on their banner and knew we had to check them out. They had a few items that definitely made Popote's wish list. One being a shirt with Nopal printed large on the front (which they don't have on the site!) and the other a print titled La Paloma

We made another stop at Vivi Dot's booth where Junia, who happened to need a hair clip that day, found a super cute one. Vivi Dot takes old fabric and paper patterns and uses them to make buttons and other various circular thingies with them.

A very cool part of the whole festival was it's green-ness. Behind the compost/recycle/landfill bins in this pic, you can see 2 large solar panels that powered the stage! It was funny because every now and then there would be some sound malfunctions, but everyone seemed ok with it. I think it added to the whole experience. Especially this being an indie-music-with-indie-music-fans festival, there was definitely a great feeling of understanding, acceptance, and calmness that flowed throughout the day.

I think the highlight of the day for Junia and I was (Nortec's) Bostitch + Fussible's set. Even though it was only 30 mins, by the end, the whole crowd was chanting "OTRO!" and "CULERO!" Of course we were chanting up front next to a guy wearing a Mexican flag! The set, although awesome, definitely felt too short. I loved that everyone was going nuts over this accordian player!

Here are some more photos of the day. All in all it was a good day. We didn't stay for Justice. TV on the Radio just wasn't doing it for us since we weren't up close, and I didn't feel like pretending CSS was any good. So we decided to book it and relax in that awesome limo bus again! Can't wait for next year!!

Junia's getting hit on by that awesome accordion player!! He's like "OYE MIJA!".. JK!

Foals was great! they almost convinced us to leave and see them again at the Mezzanine after the festival!

The crowd during Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp trying to pretend she wasn't cold as hell up on stage in that cool streamer nightie.

This Ferris wheel had a long line alllllll day. We didn't get a chance to experience the great view of the bay and downtown SF from up top. Next year!

Treasure Island Music

2008-09-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

Junia and I are about to head over to the Treasure Island Music Festival today to see some of our current musical favorites perform! The sad thing is, is that those musical favs have the shortest performance times in the whole 2-day festival! LAME!! Personally, I'm excited to see Bostich + Fussible and Foals, both of which only have 30-min sets! It's an outrage. All in all, I'm hoping to walk away from today feeling satisfied from the whole experience. Here's the list:

Lovely Dancers

2008-09-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots of Squid Dance, the new Popote card up at our shop!

Junia and I have been wanting to come up with another squid design ever since we completed our very first card, Squidigree. We wanted to come up with a design that could be used for any occasion. We had "wedding card" in mind but also had "happy birthday". As you can see (from these lovely photos we took in our back-slash-front yard) we decided to use the mint on copper color combo as a happy birthday card while the other more neutral color combo, was going to be left as a blank card.

Vamanos Popote!

Kalandraka-libros para sonar

2008-09-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

I worked as a third grade after school teacher in the Mission for a good chunk of time. The program I worked for received tons of children's books donated from different presses. I'd skim the bookshelves and judge every book by its spine.

To the point, I fell in love with Kalandraka Press. Based out of Portugal, this children's press publishes the most interesting, one of a kind illustrations and short stories. In fact, this collection, Kalandraka + Mexico is running the theme, Libros para sonar- books to dream to. Each book in Kalandraka's collection is filled with rich folklore in addition to its amazingly odd artwork. These are definitely books that you should collect for your children, or just have for a fun read (if you can read Spanish!). You can also check out their blog here to get more info on the artists that put together these wonderful books!

Clamshell iBook

2008-09-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

I know I know I know, those pictures we have on our Etsy shop are a bit cheesy. You might be surprised to know that we don't actually know those people we have in these product photos.

But here's the real deal! We covered an Apple iBook with our Clamshell decal. The process was quite easy and only took a few mins. I love vinyl because you can chop it up and piece it back together with out really noticing. It bends and won't lift unless you really pick at it. A few days after we put the decal on, we happened to be at a local coffee shop here in our neighborhood and definitely got some looks! We've got more home decal designs coming soon!

And remember, if you buy one of our decals, we always send you a tester so you can test it out on your surface and make sure everything will be OK.

Happy Birthday Mariachi!

2008-09-08T18:11:00.001-07:00

Hola friends. We just put up our new birthday card on the etsy shop.

Click here to see more of the card pics. Here's the etsy description:

"Bring the banda to the next birthday party with this chiquito Mariachi! This birthday card is a modern throw-back to birthday traditions and no matter who you are or what culture you love, this card will put a smile on that birthday friend's face!"

Junia and I were inspired by our last trip to Chula Vista to visit our families. My dad's uncle was having a surprise 90th birthday party in Imperial Beach and we got to have some fun with a mariachi band that performed. I grew up going to weddings and quinceneras in Tijuana and SD and no matter how much I pretended to hate Mariachi music when I was a kid, there's was no denying the pure fun and tradition that the band brings to family events. Here's some pics we took at the party with our trusty Diana cam!

The Popote Blog

2008-09-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

While both Junia and I have our own blogs out in space, we needed to create this new blog for Popote. However, there's already too much going on in our lives so to consolidate a little bit, I'll be stopping Soundslikeyouandme and will be regularly posting here (at least trying to). So I look forward to sharing current news about Popote as well as the things that are inspiring us.

Experimenting

2008-09-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

One great comment we got when we were first selling our vinyl cards and decals was to make decals for bikes. Up here in SF there's a lot of cyclers (me being one).

So this is a page from my moleskine of some quick ideas.

This is a scan and mirror of one of two designs.

This is the second design with the vectorized first pattern.

This is after it is plotted and picked.

I have a stainless steel water bottle that I decided to decorate since it sits around my job. I thought it would be a good test to see how well the vinyl will hold up after these aspects: The bottle sweats a little from cold water, traveling with the bottle in my back pack, constantly picking up the bottle and setting it down.

So far, it's been holding super well. I've had a friend install the vinyl to her bike and I'll check back with her in a few weeks to see how it's going. We will definitely be coming up with more bike decals if these tests work out well. Good thing about these bike decals is that they won't mess with your paint job and should come off smoothly. The vinyl is water resistant so having it on a bike left outside in the SF rain or fog shouldn't harm it. They should last up to a year and more on your bike, easy.

We'll keep you posted!

Viva Popote!

2008-08-27T00:29:00.000-07:00

Well, this is exciting! We finally decided to bring Popote into the blogging world, in hopes that it helps us generate more cards n' things to sell. We each have our own blog that we struggle to update, so we'll see how this goes. First off, Hello amigos!

Here's a brief summary of where Popote has taken us, and what we hope it becomes:

Our first release out into the world came at SF Zine Fest where we had a table set up with our cards and a few home decals.

It was an exciting time for us, considering we stayed up until four in the morning making sure everything was put together, and in its nice little cello sleeve. There weren't too many crafts at this event, but it seemed like a good thing; it let us branch out to a different audience and get feedback. We had a few buys, and lots of questions being asked about how we make our cards. Do you want to know how Popote makes their cards, and why they are so unique?

1. We sketch out the designs, scan them and then turn each line into a vector line
2. The color of vinyl that we're going to use on the card for the design gets chosen
3. The vectorized design gets put through a vinyl cutting machine (like a printer

except it has a small blade instead of ink thats cuts the design onto the roll

of vinyl that we've feed the machine)

4. Once it's done cutting, we have a whole sheet of vinyl that needs to be picked by hand

using an x-acto knife

5. The designs are picked out, topped with a sheet of contact paper, then carefully placed

on the card stock

6. The back of the card is then stamped using our hand carved Popote stamp, and ready

to share with you

Following the event, we quickly put all our cards and decals on an ESTY shop for anyone

to buy, which you can shop at here. We've since been working on new designs and going about

making Popote a real business. The paperwork end of it seems somewhat stressful, but it's

proving to be exciting at the same time. We've always been really creative people that have

loved spending the time to make things and give them away, so it was only a matter of time

that we got our act together to form Popote!