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bridget watson payne

@watsonpayne

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With our 7th birthday coming up, we’re looking back at 7 of our favorite moments from the past year! 💛 And what a year it’s been!

✨Another memorable Stationery Store Day! One of our favorite days of the year! A celebration of all things paper, with a line around the block and SO much love from this community. @stationerystoreday

✨Two stamp rallies! Not one but two! We helped bring our community together for the SF AAPI-Owned Business Stamp Rally @thekirashop @onwaverly and the Stationery Store Day Stamp Rally.

✨Our mini print world got a whole lot bigger! We created our 4th PS-exclusive @inciardi mini print (with a 5th on the way 👀), hosted a one-time Mystery Pack Lottery back in February, and hosted our very first Inciardi Collectors Meet-Up.

✨Pet portraits! We welcomed artist @andrecaceresg back for a 2nd pet portrait event, featuring some very cute four-legged friends!!

✨We made a GIANT pencil! Completely by hand and with some upcycled materials, for Stationery Store Day. A true labor of love!

✨Our shop got its very own portrait! The talented, local artist @watsonpayne illustrated our storefront. You might also recognize it from our birthday party graphic this year. We have the original framed at the store!

✨We hit 10K followers! A milestone that still feels a little surreal. We’re so grateful for every person who follows along, visits the shop, and supports what we do.

Seven years in and there’s still so much we’re excited to do. A HUGE thank you to everyone who has shopped with us, attended our events, shared our posts, or simply cheered us on along the way. This community is what makes PS so special and we couldn’t do it without you.

RSVP to our Birthday Bash 11/7 6:30-8:30 - link in bio!

Here’s to another year of PS! 💛

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A little stationery refresh ✨ We’ve got lots of new paper goods in the shop, including new stickers + cards from @christina.blob, new styles of @watsonpayne SF postcards (all exclusive to PS!), and *because you loved them so much* a restock of @wontonchild Pokémon stickers + postcards.

Come take a peek at what’s new! 💛

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Making Work Last: The cover we chose to hide

There was one portrait we knew we wanted to use for the cover. RADICAL LOVE by Toni Greaves follows a very young woman through the process of becoming a fully cloistered nun.

VIKA drew on Catholic images of saints held within oval frames and lockets, turning a landscape photograph into a portrait oval for the cover.

But it was of a woman who had just given her life to being unseen. She had only recently got married to God and would spend the rest of her life within the convent. Putting her face prominently on the cover of a book seemed at odds with the life she had chosen for herself.

Moving her image to the back didn’t feel right either.

The book was to be clothbound, which meant it also needed some kind of printed insert. VIKA changed the usual orientation of a bellyband, making it vertical and placing it across the portrait on the back, completely covering her image.

Documentary photography puts people's lives in front of strangers. How the work is portrayed matters.

📘 Radical Love
📘 Photography by Toni Greaves.
📘 Published by @chroniclebooks
📘 Editor @watsonpayne
📘 Design by @vikabooks

Making Work Last — Post 3/9
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#BookDesign #Photobook #EditorialDesign #DocumentaryPhotography #BookMaking #RadicalLove #VIKABooks Detail of a blue clothbound book with gold foil spine text reading “Radical Love Toni Greaves,” and an oval inset photograph on the front cover.

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Ohh Susan O’Malley, you will always inspire me! So moved to read through this book, which just came out TODAY through @chroniclebooks ! Go buy it and be graced by Susan’s profound and love-filled approach to art and life.

Her work is a huge inspiration for @peptockids , which I co-created with @asherah.weiss. Peptoc has a few paragraphs at the end of the book, highlighting how Susan’s legacy is continuing through the next generations!

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Happy book birthday 📚🎉🥳 to this incredible book, It Will Be More Beautiful Than You Could Ever Imagine, which is a celebration of Bay Area artist Susan O’Malley’s work and legacy. Last fall, I was so very lucky to get to design this incredibly special book. Thank you to @christinaamini @leahmartharosenberg and all the other amazing contributors who has made this book so meaninngful. The stories you all share highlight how truly special Susan was to the world and helps her work, her joy and spirit live on. I hope you all love this book as much as I do 🩷 So happy this book is officially out in the world for you all to discover 💛🩷💜💙

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A few more @iconconference 13 doodles, from the Kaleidoscope talks by
@aah_yevgeniyaaa @watsonpayne @magicmakerdreamweaver @brianrlutz
#icon13

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Back from ICON13 feeling inspired, energized... and reminded why community matters so much.

As a first-time attendee, I came home with a notebook full of ideas, but it was the people and conversations that stayed with me most.

From teaching a workshop about the ins & outs of having an agent, to joining Jennifer Potter for Art & Business: Let Curiosity Be Your Guide, thoughtfully moderated by Tantau Studio artist Maura Cluthe, to exploring the Roadshow, cheering on artists from the Tantau Studio community, reconnecting with familiar faces, and meeting new ones, the entire experience felt generous, welcoming, and full of possibility.

It was especially meaningful to see Lili Todd sharing her new zines and Lexi K. Nilson’s artwork featured at the MICA booth, alongside so much incredible work from across the illustration community.

I left feeling inspired not only by the art, but by the people behind it.

Thank you to everyone who shared a conversation, a laugh, or a little inspiration along the way. My creative cup is full. 💛

Until next time, ICON.

- Margo

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Part 2 of my notes from @iconconference ! This is the note-taking system I’ve used at every ICON conference I’ve gone to, and I always capture every MainStage speaker. No skipping! First is a quick sketch portrait using water soluble pencil and a brush pen. The pencil allows me to get a broad range of tone quickly, and while I often start the conference with ink portraits I always return to my water pencil because water media is my comfort zone. While I’m drawing I scribble down as many gems as I can from each talk (LA Johnson’s talk was so rich that I had to start writing over her name). This all consumes a chunk of my sketchbook, and these notes are treasures to me. I love looking through them years down the road - it brings me right back.

I can’t state enough how special this conference is, and I feel so lucky to be in this industry, surrounded by so many inspiring artists. We illustrators are often fairly solitary, our studios like little islands. It can be isolating. Whenever I go to ICON and hang with my peers I always return home lit up, recommitted to my work, and affirmed in my craft.

At this point I’ve been going for 10 years (though I missed two of them because of babies). I’ve made new friendships and nurtured old ones. This year @sayerhs and @automaticbizooty and I decided to recreate a photo from our first ICON (we missed you, @mcrowton , but we held up your picture on a phone! 😂). One photo to collapse the space of a decade, tying this present conference to our past selves back in Austin. I hope we all go to many more.

Thank you for an incredible conference, ICON! This event is a gift to our industry. I’ll be buoyed by this for two years, but I’m also already looking forward to the next one. ❤️

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Icon 13 is a wrap and it was, truly, an amazing time. I attended to give portfolio reviews in my capacity as a book designer, but I found my illustrator core being activated by the experience, research, creativity, and inspiration shared by the brilliant people all around, both on stage and off.

@iconconference , thank you for having me!

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Y’all I’m incredibly excited to finally (and officially!!) share that @tarcher_books (an imprint of @penguinrandomhouse) has acquired The Art of Finishing Things: Actually Useful Productivity Tools for Artists, Misfits, and Eccentrics — a book I’m currently writing with my friend and longtime collaborator @watsonpayne. The book was acquired at auction with the help of our tremendous agents Adriana (@stimolaliterarystudio) and Stefanie (@fullcirclelit) and we could not be happier. This ADHD-friendly guide will be filled with actionable tactics, tools, and strategies, featuring colorful visuals and infographics to help readers start, get organized, stay on track, and finish what they started. The Art of Finishing Things will be released in 2028. Pictured here are official announcements from both Publishers Weekly and Publishers Marketplace. This is a dream project (and acquisition) for both me and Bridget and we are so excited to put this book into the world for neurodiverse & creative folks everywhere (our people). 💕

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Emerged from Soroptimist’s “Celebration of Women” event to this is incredible news. We’re number 1 baby!!!! My primary goal was to create a gorgeous, inspiring, impactful product that honors the women, stories and wisdom this book contains. Yes, I want to sell books, and I want people to love it, and I’ve also done a lot of self-work through the writing journey to ensure I am grounded in the energy of love and validating myself first and foremost (vs. external validation as the primary motive). So, this really is just the best best news for launch week. Thank you to everyone who has purchased my book and thank you to my incredible team at @thecollectivebookstudio 🙏🙏🙏🙏 Let’s go!!! 🌊🌊🚀🚀🔮🔮❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 #amazonbestseller #amazonbestsellingauthor #shapethewest #shapingthewest

@thecollectivebookstudio
@carinasammartino
@simonandschuster

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Today is the day! “Women Shaping the West: Stories from Wyoming” is officially out in the world! An offering, from my heart to yours. When we see a powerful reflection of ourselves in the world, it creates ripple effects, illuminating the way to step into our own greatness. It’s one of the many reasons why I documented and shared these stories. ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

This book is the culmination of a body of work I’ve devoted the last decade to producing. There are so many people to thank — the acknowledgment section of my book is four pages long!! — sharing a handful below who were vital to the book publishing process. Success is a collective effort, and there are many more in the wings who have helped me cross the finish line.

THANK YOU first and foremost to my incredible team at the Collective Book Studio @thecollectivebookstudio I’m so thrilled with the outcome and process of working together. All the love to:
Publisher/CEO Angela Engel @angela_engel
Assoc. Publisher/COO Elisabeth Saake @saakeelisabeth
My editor Bridget Watson Payne @watsonpayne
Design Director Rachel Lopez Metzger @viktor_and_co
Editorial Director Amy Treadwell
Marketing Manager Kaitlynn Lutes
Publishing Assistant Alexana Dubois

To Liliana Guia @lilimakesbooks for designing an absolutely gorgeous book;

To Jennifer Helton and Kylie Louise McCormick @kyliethehistorian for your historical advisory so I could tell Wyoming’s suffrage story and 20 stories of groundbreaking women throughout Wyoming’s history;

To my writing partner Brianne Corcoran @iam.brianne who helped me bring the words to life in lightning time;

To my book coaches Fran Hauser @fran_hauser and Bethany Saltman @bethany_saltman for creating the Bookbound community @bookbound_podcast which gave me the clarity, confidence and guide to pursue publishing this book;

To my beta readers @mandy_fabel @saraebeck @linton.carol @lintonproperties and Sarah Jo Sinclair you are angels thank you for making the book stronger with your edits & reflections 🫶

Continued in comments…

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