We Need Your Help, Chicago!
by sarah
While Erin is hard at work, designing our next line of note cards (hello, Seattle!), I’m already planning out the future of this little letterpress tour we’re taking. Next stop: Chicago!
As I’m sure you can tell by now, I love Erin’s drawings, and I love finding amazing architecture to inspire her. When we approach a new city, the first thing we’re looking for is interesting, attractive locations – we obviously don’t want to print any eyesores on our cards! But we’re also looking for landmarks with some history behind them, places that are a quintessential part of that city, and that mean something to the people who live there. That was easy to do in Pittsburgh – I grew up here, I know the people and their stories, and I know which landmarks they love – and which ones are better left untouched.
That’s harder to do in a city you’ve never lived in, though, and that’s where all of you come in. We took suggestions from Chicago-loving friends, family, tweeps and facebookers, added in Erin’s wealth of knowledge on Chicago architecture, and ended up with about thirty fabulous Chicago landmarks. We’ve narrowed that down to a (not very) short list of about a dozen that we think would make great cards. Now, we need to know what real Chicagoans think.
Take a look at the spots listed below, and let us know what you think in the comments. Which ones do you love? Are there any that are decidedly NOT Chicago favorites? Is there a beloved building that we’ve totally missed? We want to hear from you!!!
Keep in mind, these are not the photos/angles/perspectives we’ll be using for the cards – just some preliminary research, courtesy of flickr and wikipedia!
The Chicago Short List
 Tiffany Dome at Marshall Fields (now Macy’s) |
 Chicago Theatre |
 Wrigley Building |
 Sears Tower |
 Corncob Buildings (Marina City, I believe?) |
 Old Water Tower |
 Millenium Park |
 more Millenium Park |
 Harold Washington Library |
 Museum of Science & Industry (Palace of Fine Arts) |
 Carson Pirie Scott Building |
 Lake Shore Drive Apartments |
Thoughts? Ideas? Loves? Hates? Leave a comment and let us know what you think. And when the cards are done, we’ll send some Chicago letterpress goodies to three randomly-picked commenters as a thank-you!
Love the dome at Marshall Fields, and that is one killer photo of the Sears tower. Can’t wait to see both the Seattle and Chicago cards.
Passing along feedback from our customers: “A drawing of the river with all the bridges open to let the sailboats through.” — Jennifer. The old water tower; view looking southeast on the Mich ave bridge onto Wacker; view from the Columbus Walkway looking east into the park, at the bean; clock on Marshall Fields; Merchandise Mart; Tribune Tower; Wrigley Building… so many!” — Kim
Thanks for the input, you two!
Chandra, I was thinking of doing the drawbridges open over the river, and then I totally forgot about it – thanks to Jennifer for the reminder! And I assume “the bean” that Kim is talking about is the Millenium Park bean? Keep the ideas coming – I love hearing what your customers want!
Yes, the Millenium Park Bean! I love the way you’re approaching this project and I’ve passed on your kind words to our customers!
I just uploaded a whole set of bridgehouses. I am newly obsessed. I definitely second (or I guess third!) the drawbridge idea. There’s one in the same set that I didn’t even realize was an open drawbridge until I was just organizing! You know where to find them 😉
Wow – I love the bridgehouse photos! They’re all so different – it makes me want to do a whole set of cards just based on them. Thanks for the ideas! =)