News

After the success of The Space Alphabet Poster release last month, we got right back into the swing of things for the second installment of our alphabet series and got to work on Dinosaurs! We went back to Brad Woodard of Brave the Woods AGAIN for help illustrating this beast, and as always, he absolutely knocked it out of the park. 

Each letter of the alphabet in this poster is paired with a custom illustration and interesting fun fact you can use to impress your friends. The dinosaur names feature a pronunciation guide so you don't sound silly doing it (cause some of these names can get pretty ridiculous). For instance, X is for Xenotarsosaurus [zee-noh-TAR-suh-SAWR-us] and it literally means "lizard with a strange ankle". He drew the short straw on the name front.

Want to know a few facts you will gain reading through this maze of knowledge? How about this: Kronosaurus was a 30 foot long carnivorous marine reptile and its muscular jaws were packed with 3-12 inch long razor sharp teeth.

Or did you know that contrary to how they have been displayed in popular culture (cough cough Jurassic Park cough cough), Velociraptors were actually quite small, standing roughly a foot and a half tall and weighing only about 33 pounds (like the size of a chicken on steroids). Its most famous feature was the relatively large sickle-shaped claw on each foot which it likely used to slash open its prey. 

Check out more pictures, dinos, or pick up a poster over in the shop or by clicking right here. And as always, if you have a theme or alphabet idea you wanna see made, let me know via Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram and we'll try to make it happen!

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!

We're very excited to release our newest coaster set titled The Cheers Coasters. The set of 6 celebratory drinking aids are made to wish happy tidings in 6 different languages. Each coaster is a one color metallic silver screenprint on duplexed extra thick black card stock. Each coaster is edge colored a bright teal. 

We also worked up a fun giftable packaging for the coasters. Custom Kraft envelopes with a metallic 55 Hi's envelope liner. 

Finally, the Pick Your Poison Coasters are in the shop!

The set is made up of 6 double sided coasters features popular drink mixes on one side, and the breakfast recipe to cure the hangover it causes the next morning. For instance, what would cure drinking too many Rusty Nails? A Tetanus Shot. 

These coasters have been a long time in the making. About 6 months ago a few buddies of mine and I started up a google doc spreadsheet and started riffing some funny drink names and what would cure/defeat them literally. We had quite a few funny ones as you can see below but we decided, for the first round, to narrow it down to six solid choices. 

I was really rooting for Screaming Orgasm/Nosy Landlord but illustrating a nosy landlord proved difficult and tedious so it was scrapped. A bunch of pictures can be viewed in the product listing and if you would like a social media friendly way to share, please feel free to use the below image or check out our tumblr feed for some already formatted imagery.

We've been hard at work these past few months getting ready for a whole bunch of seasonal holidays and exciting events coming up! The biggest event, The National Stationery Show on May 19-22 will be 55 Hi's first trade show, and also the first big push into making it a full-time operation. It is quite an investment but no-risk, no-reward, right?

I have been visiting the Stationery Show the past few years green with envy over the amazing products and design that are showcased there every year. The picture to the left is one of my favorite booth designs from last year by OneCanoeTwo. We will be holding it down at a 6x10 corner booth, #1262.

55 Hi's started in 2010 as a simple creative outlet for me. I would make prints and cards at night after my job that I thought were funny in the hopes that other people would think so too. Almost three years later, things have taken on a life of their own and the idea of this becoming a full time commitment for me suddenly doesn't seem like such a pipe dream.

I think many people assume 55 Hi's is an established business with employees and a warehouse of inventory. It's not. It's just me, Ross. I work out of a one bedroom apartment in Harlem & I still have a day job. I hand-pack and process every order at night and I'm thankful for every single one. If you have ordered something or supported 55 Hi's, or even just read this blog post and thought good thoughts, thank you. Every bit helps and I am so thankful. 

I use the term "We" when referencing 55 Hi's because since starting it I have had the opportunity to work with an amazing roster of talented people. Just in the coming weeks we're going to have cards and designs coming from Joel Felix, Brad Woodard, and Riley Cran. If you haven't heard of any of these folks do yourself a favor and check em out.

We just finished releasing a few collaborative card efforts including Sexy Dyslexia, hand-lettered by James Edmondson & No Pants Dance which was crafted with awesome by Chris DeLorenzo. They had an amazing reception for Valentine's Day and if you had a good experience giving one, please share over on the Facebook page! The shame with making cards is I can never give them to my girlfriend, she critiqued them already.

This year we are getting prepared for Mother's & Father's Day with a few new card/print designs to be released next month. We're gonna pair one of the card designs with a limited edition print so if your mom needs a new decoration for the homestead, we got you covered. Here's a sneak peek, which is basically just the design and not a sneak peek at all.

One of the most exciting new avenues for 55 Hi's is that this year we will be branching into a few new paper products and not just cards/prints. Coasters, notepads, & possibly a few others miscellaneous paper creations are headed this way in 2013. The closest item like this to seeing the store is a new set of 6 coasters called" Pick Your Poison". The concept being that one side of the coaster will be a common drink recipe themed as a "Poison" and then the flip side is the "Antidote" or breakfast recipe that will cure your hangover from drinking too much of that drink. Below is one of the pairs of the set.

I have also been steady at work designing up a whole new set of Birthday Cards. Birthday cards are something I found myself personally needing, so if I needed them and I own a card company, I knew it was an avenue I was lacking. If you follow us on Instagram, you're probably aware of some of the sketches we've been floating into the newsfeed but here's one I'm particularly excited about.

Last but not least, we are changing the print model here at 55 Hi's moving forward. In the past, when it comes to prints and posters, we have released a general mix of limited edition, second edition, color variation limited edition, and open ended print runs in the shop. I believe that this is confusing to everyone and doesn't instill trust or value in the art. Prints are valuable to me because they are limited edition. And when a print says it is limited edition, that means it's the only runs of that print ever in any color combination or size. Therefore, moving forward, any print that 55 Hi's puts out that is limited edition, and they will likely all be limited edition, will be the only color combo and size of that print ever. Once it is gone, no reprint in any variation of any kind will be made again. We are also going to sell our current inventory of un-numbered prints and then they too will be gone forever. So technically they are limited edition now, but just no numbers on them cause I have no idea how many I have made.

To start this new limited edition print model, Live Well was just released into the shop. It is an 18x18, 3-color screenprint in a limited edition run of 300. It has a pretty slick spot varnish on the words dropshadow that catches the light. Check out more pics and closeups here.

As always, if you have a question, or comment, or just wanna shoot the shit and see a picture of my puppy that we just got in December and pooped on my carpet this morning, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook, or Instagram, or Email, or Fax, or Carrier Pigeon.