ulve love: the joy of kirsten ulve ~ Home Design Ideas and Alternative

this piece started out intending to delve deep into the world of contemporary stationery design, as i'm something of a letter freak (despite the fact that, as of late, my actual letter writing has been rather scant). when i was in school i horded stationery and all the trappings of correspondence, obsessed with page design and layout on such a small scale. nowadays i seem to have lost the time for letter writing and actual communication vis-a-vis the grand old united states postal service. but all that changed when i found kirsten ulve.

wandering aimlessly down fifth avenue (brooklyn that is, not manhattan) the other week i popped into scaredy kat, one of the greatest card stores in the world. looking for hip yet respectable thank you cards for the day job, i found a pack of snail mail stationery by kirsten ulve that was begging to be purchased. i snatched it up and promptly sent it off to all of my dearest girlfriends along with super cute buttons from smart women vote. while everyone loved the buttons, they were all dying to know about the stationery- and so was i.

after pouring over everything i could find about her on the internet, i discovered kirsten ulve couldn't be relegated to being one of many in a stationery article, but needed to have her own piece. (i also discovered she gets insanely excited about seeing animals on nyc streets, much like i do. therefore, she must be great)

a graduate of the university of iowa (bfa drawing + ba graphic design), ms. ulve works in character design, editorial illustration, fashion illustration, children's illustrations, illustration for animation, advertising, and corporate identity. whew. all of her illustrations are done by hand and later retouched by adobe illustrator. with a client roster that includes nickelodeon (nick at nite promos), entertainment weekly (celebrity caricatures), rolling stone and mattel, kirsten is a busy lady. her work has a sort of 50's aesthetic to it, but can range from retro to ultra-contemporary with an air of japanimation. but all labels aside, her work speaks for itself. you can see her full archive of illustrations on her website or listen to her speak with artbeatstreet.com here.

while her snail mail stationery continues to get me moving to and from the post office, her individual illustrations are strong enough to be works of art themselves. so go ahead, grab a pack of stationery and send someone a letter- everyone loves real mail and everyone should love kirsten ulve. oh, and if you're too greedy to send them out, do what i do- take each page and frame it, perfect for kids' rooms or fun bathroom art.

BOX FULL OF LETTERS [snail mail stationery*kirsten ulve] the letters that started it all...bonus points if you know what band this caption references!