News

Things have been a little dormant over here on the surface but believe me, it's the calm before the storm. We decided it was time to refocus our energies and had a serious sit down for the 2015 year. What is feasible? What do we want to make? What's our most popular items? For the last question at least, it was a no brainer: our Shot Glass Cards have been a hands down best seller.

I think sometimes, as a maker, you get lost in the chase of a new great idea and than once you get it, the chase is over and it feels like work. When I made the original shot glass card a little over two years ago, the reception was out of control but after the initial wave, the drive to continue releasing an idea I had already "conquered" (for lack of a better term) felt tired. A true business person would probably exploit a successful idea. Hell, just a reasonable person would probably do that, but I decided to move on to other ideas like an idiot.

Well, now almost two years later, we decided to revisit our most famous release and bring it back with a collection of 12 fun new designs. These will be hitting the shop in the next few weeks. I don't want to release the whole shindig quite yet, but here is a teaser of my favorite one of the bunch.

Also (and I don't ask for this often) but we are going to be actively pursuing getting these in some shops. We ordered 14,000 of them, which is about 12,000 more than our standard run we are comfortable with so we will be actively trying to throw them at as many people as fast as possible. It was a pretty big leap of faith to make a commitment like this and this means we are going to have to become a little salesman-y for a paragraph. 

If you have a suggestion for a local store you think the Shot Glass Card line would be a great fit for, please do make an introduction or shoot me an email with any info at info@55his.com. In fact, if you have any tips of any kind or anyone who might be into this idea, please let me know. In that email, if you can include your own address, we will send out a free shot glass card for the lead and because you're an amazing person. 

And as always, if you want more updates from us including when the new shot glass cards are hitting the shop, sign up for the newsletter or head over to our Instagram page.

Happy Halloween! After the temporary hiatus and the cathartic Real Talk blog post, we are excited to be back in action making things and spreading general trivia knowledge to the masses. Although this poster has internally been a long time in the making, we are very excited to celebrate such a spooky season by festively introducing the next installment of the Alphabet Poster series: Mythical Creatures.

We teamed up with friend, illustrator and collaborator Scotty Reifsnyder for this bad boy and it is one of our favorite releases of all time. We have been a long time fan of Scotty's work and it was such a pleasure getting to be a part of and see such an amazing project come to life over the last few months. You can check out more from him on his Dribbble, Twitter, or Website. Amazing stuff over there.

The Mama's Sauce Mythical Team!

To help us bring in this momentous occasion, our friends over at our favorite ink slinging shop, Mama's Sauce, decided to channel their inner mysticalness and dress up as some of the lineup for Halloween!

Making of the Mythical Creatures

It wasn't all just fun and games for this here poster. Around 2 years ago, when Scotty and I started ideating around this idea, we had a ton of fun directions to go in. As you can see in the sketch below, early in the process of making this poster, we toyed around with the idea of putting these characters into picture frames. This idea was meant to be a little reminiscent of a Harry Potter picture frame wall that showcased snapshots of these elusive creatures nobody has ever seen in real life.

Sadly, we had to ditch the frame idea because it became pretty apparent that the design might become a little too busy for a poster with 26 illustrations and captions. We didn't want the monsters to get lost in the frames, so Scotty decided to tackle the creatures in a more straightforward fashion. 

Regardless, the illustrations came out amazing and every character has their own little personality and quirk. The Imp is one of my personal favorites. He is a mischievous little creature and Scotty has him stealing money from a poor New Jersey resident's wallet.

Writing fun facts for this poster proved to be quite an adventure. This is for multiple reasons but the biggest one is that the characters in this poster don't actually exist (or do they...), so finding legitimate facts about fictitious material is pretty touchy. We did our best to not step on our own toes, but this is all folklore so we like to think that popular opinion rules. 

For instance, fairies are magical, humanoid beings who are known for their mischievous and sometimes malicious nature. They will often use their words to confuse and mislead but they can be outwitted for it is said a fairy is incapable of telling a lie.

Or since it is Halloween, you should probably be on the lookout for the Headless Horseman. Of the many tales describing the headless horseman, none are quite as grim and disturbing as the Irish dullahan, or "dark man." Galloping through the night and wielding a whip made of a human spine, the dark man claims his victim's life by simply stopping to call out their name. I suppose you can't really defend against that. Bottom line, if you see a guy on a horse at any time, run.

Cha-Cha-Changes

The 55 Hi's shop is proud to announce a number of new changes! One of the first exciting moves we are making is we are now offering new sizes and color variations through our newest non-human team member: Shakakana (Shak for short).

Shak is an Epson 7890 Fine Art Giclée printer that will allow us to start offering posters in different sizes and colors to give everyone a little more variation in old and new releases from 55 Hi's.

We have received a lot of requests over the years for prints and designs that people love but haven't been the right color or size for their room. We have always wanted to accommodate these requests but the largest problem has always been cost and minimum quantities for screenprinting new designs.

Typically when you screenprint something, you pick one size and one color to print because you need to reach a large quantity of any one design to make it worth your while for setup, ink mixing and screen preparation. This has always proved hard for us, because we wanted to offer more things more often, but every new design triples or quadruples our upfront cost if we try to offer more than one variation. That's why in the past, we have resolved to offering one size in one color for all our releases.

After some careful consideration, we decided the best course of action was to move forward offering both printing methods. The Giclée printer will give us the opportunity to offer new designs, more often and at a better price while still retaining a fine art museum quality print. Screenprinting will be a great avenue to continue utilizing specialty printing methods while still retaining our Limited Edition runs of special designs.

So, if you have some time, take a look around at all the new variations and fun color alternatives we now offer. There is so many more things in the pipeline now that we have Shak. We can't wait to share. 

These alphabet posters are just so incredibly fun to make, and each time we finish one, it’s our new favorite. This next one is no exception and we are so happy to introduce our new limited edition creation: The Ocean Alphabet. We teamed up with our friend and illustrator extraordinaire Dave Perillo to bring this poster to life.

This bad boy features killer whales, dolphins, and A NARWHAL as well as 23 other deep sea animals and underwater mysteries. Each letter of the alphabet is paired with an illustration and accompanied by a fun fact you can use to impress your friends. 

For instance, did you know when startled, flying fish are able to rapidly propel themselves out of the water and glide through the air with their wing-like pectoral fins. In the right conditions, they can soar along at 43mph, covering distances of over 1,300 feet!

Or that contrary to what their name suggests, killer whales are not actually whales at all. These marine behemoths are actually the largest members of the dolphin family and, much like other dolphins, are extremely social animals. They are sometimes called "the wolves of the sea," because of their pack-hunting behaviors.

Hammerheads have one of the most unique appearances of all sharks. Placement of the eyes on either end of their distinctive, hammer-shaped head allows them a full 360 degree view in the vertical plane, meaning they can see above and below them at all times. 

This poster is an 18x24, 4-color, Limited Edition screen print on thick Colorplan Turquoise paper that is hand numbered in an edition of 500. Every poster is printed by hand, in the USA, one color at a time & one sheet at a time.

Here at 55 Hi’s, we observe true Limited Edition. This means that once a poster sells out, no more are ever reprinted in any size, color, edition, application, or variation of any kind ever again. We believe this adds value and excitement to owning a piece of artwork and nobody wants what everyone has, right?

Akitas, Boxers, and Chihuahuas! We are so happy and proud to introduce our newest alphabet poster, Dogs! Illustrated in collaboration with Lydia Nichols, this jam packed poster features 26 furry little canines of all different breeds. Each letter of the alphabet is paired with a custom illustration and accompanied by a fun fact you can use to impress your friends.

For instance, did you know that a Boxer named Brandy holds the record for the world's longest dog tongue, which is an astonishing 17 inches long?! Or that contrary to their cute exterior, Dachshunds were originally bred as fierce small game hunters?

There's more! Zeus the Great Dane was noted in the 2013 Guinness Book of World Records as the world's tallest dog. He measured 44 inches tall at the shoulder, and when standing on his hind legs could stretch up to 7 feet 4 inches! 

Lydia was kind enough to do a likeness of our intern, Maddie, for the French Bulldog breed. When Lydia asked, "is there anything unique about Maddie I could have her doing in the illustration?", the first thing I thought was how much she farts. I'm pretty sure excessive farting is a normal trait of a French Bulldog and Maddie is no exception, she can drop some bombs. Here she is below showing her displeasure at her depiction.

As always, we like to include a little proces of our bigger releases and this one was equally fascinating to me. The transformation from sketch to final product is so interesting and Lydia makes it look easy. It's no easy task drawing up 26 unique dog breeds, using 4 colors, and still having a sense of color balance for the poster as a whole. Below are a few before and afters of the sketch to final. 

Each poster is an 18x24, 4-color, Limited Edition Screenprint on thick Stardream Lagoon paper. Hand numbered in an edition of 500. The dogs breeds in the poster are Akita, Boxer, Chihuaha, Dachshund, English Bulldog, French Bulldog, Great Dane, Harrier, Irish Setter, Jack Russell, King Shepherd, Labrador, Maltese, Newfoundland, Otterhound, Pug, Queensland Heeler, Retriever, Saint Bernard, Toy Poodle, Utonoga, Vizsla, Welsh Terrier, Xoloitzcuintle, Yorkshire Terrier, Zuchon.

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Besides that, we are happy to introduce our newest art poster, Wake Up! I don't know how you wake up, but just like a Foldgers commercial, after hitting the snooze button 18 times, I usually wake up, zombie walk to the kitchen, karate chop my coffee maker 'til it turns on, and then smell the coffee. After taking a nap in the shower and gaining some semblance of consciousness, only then do I even attempt to resurrect a drinkable cup of coffee.

I'm currently using a percolator, but I'm thinking of asking Santa to help make the switch to a Keurig this Christmas. I'm not a coffee snob, whatever is less hassle and less coffee grounds everywhere. I can make quite a mess while trying to fill the percolator with my eyes closed in the morning.

Each poster is a 2-color screenprint measuring 18x24" on Natural White paper. Hand numbered in a Limited Edition of 500.

We are also hard to work on a bunch of new goodies coming out in the following months. If you follow us on Instagram, we're breaking out the brushes and custom type for a bunch of new releases with a whole grab bag of awesome new folks. One we're tackling is a collection of new bookmark designs... 

Getting the chance to work with other designers through 55 Hi's is one of the most rewarding parts of running this business. For instance, the closest to release is our new Dogs poster we just finished up with Lydia Nichols. Should be out sometime early next week and here's a small teaser. This poster is so fun and interesting to read. Dog breeds are tricky and Lydia did an absolutely amazing job capturing the personality of each dog.

Further down the horizon, is a series of notepad designs we started up with typographer extraordinaire, Dave Foster. If you are unaware of Dave Foster, watch this video of his explaining a little background of his typographic career. Really enlightening stuff to see just how much goes into the study of typography.

We are still the midst of designing, but here's a little look at a few of the early options for the "Today" notepad design. Really excited to get into another product avenue and can't wait to see where they all end up in the coming weeks.

Last but not least, we're having a clearance on coasters. 55 Hi's is getting out of the coaster business, and we're running a 60% Off sale until they're sold out, never to be printed again! Well, actually I can't say that, but for right now, coasters are a difficult sell for us, and not something I had 100% of my heart into growing as a product avenue. So, for the time being, we're gonna switch gears, try out a few other products, and as always, concentrate on posters and cards that rock your socks off. 

Super excited to present our latest creation, The Space Alphabet Poster! Venture out into the galaxy with this jam-packed poster of 26 space wonders, each illustrated and accompanied by fun facts and trivia.

This poster measures in at 18x24" and is a 4-color, Limited Edition Screenprint on thick Midnight Blue paper. Each one is hand numbered in an edition of 500.

A few weeks ago, we polled everybody on our Facebook page what themes would be the best for a series of alphabet posters we were thinking of producing and Space came out as a frontrunner by far. That was all we needed and this project was underway.

We went back to Brad Woodard of Brave the Woods for help illustrating this beast. This is his second time working with us (the first time being for our super popular New Arrival Cards for Boys and Girls) and we are excited to start a running series of these alphabet posters with him. Dinosaurs, bugs, video games, cities! The possibilities are endless and we can't wait to tackle them all. Have a suggestion? Tell us about it on Facebook or Twitter.

A friend of 55 Hi's, and resident Space aficionado, Jordan Wittlich provided all the intergalactic fun facts. Want to know what wonders await you? Did you know The International Space Station travels at a speed of roughly 5 miles a second. Or that Mars is the second smallest planet but contains the tallest mountain in our Solar System, Olympus Mons! This whole poster was fun to put together and I hope you dig it!

If you are in the New York area this weekend, stop by and say hi on Saturday, July 27 from 1pm – 6pm in Dumbo to check out the Pop-Up Shop sponsored by Swissmiss & Etsy.  We will be set up down there hanging out and throwing cards at people. There will also be a Smilebooth, DJs and snacks. If you need more info, check out the Facebook Event Page. Should be a good time and it's never to early to get prepared for Christmas, right? 

A couple fun new posters just hit the shop also! Keep on Keepin' On and What's Cooking?  

What's Cooking is a kitchen themed print inspired by retro cookware. It is hand numbered and embossed in a limited edition run of 500. 

We also partnered with Help Ink to do a tandem release of our Keep on Keepin On design. We have partnered with Help Ink before to do a fun kids print that I believe is almost sold out! You can check that one out here and if you pick one up you're also helping a good cause!

One week until The National Stationery show and it's all finally coming together after months of planning. We contacted our friends over at Tinkering Monkey to help us out with some signage for our booth and they came through big time. We're going to be holding it down in booth #1868.

Since all of our prints are moving towards a strictly limited edition nature, we will only be bringing the coasters and cards to this event in hopes that we can bring some of our goods to stores near you this year. The site will soon have a section listing stores that carry our products in an effort to build a little community up in here. It's always better with friends and if you happen to have a store that you think might be a good fit for us, please let us know and we'll badger them constantly until they are forced to carry our stuff and we will tell them it's all your fault.

Want a sneak peak of the booth? We have a 10x10 inline booth this year and being obsessive compulsive like I am, I did a digital mockup and some real size measuring in illustrator so setup goes a little faster. Here's what we're aiming for. The mockup is a little deceiving though cause the walls are ten feet tall. 

Amongst all this madness, we also just released an Anchorman inspired greeting card and a new print from guest designer Luke Ritchie.