Portland's Etchpop On Their Woodblock Printing Innovation and Startup Success

When your Kickstarter campaign raises more than double your original goal, you're probably onto something good. That's what happened with Portland-based startup Etchpop last year, and it's clear why they've been so successful: they have a completely simple, completely amazing idea.

With an official launch scheduled this month, Etchpop is a web-base service that allows you to design and order your own custom laser-etched woodblocks. Whip up whatever design you'd like, submit it to Etchpop and you'll receive a woodblock of that design to make handmade prints as you'd like.

How Etchpop works.Having taken out a small business loan to arm themselves with a Trotec laser (even before they launched their Kickstarter campaign), Etchpop's Marshall Tipton and Chester Lindgren have not been messing around. Already, they've put together a handy starter kit to get you printing, and Etchpop's new website--built by Subtext--promises to offer an easy and simple way to upload your designs and order woodblocks.

After encountering Etchpop's exciting and unique combation of cutting-edge technology and hands-on, DIY craftwork, we couldn't resist getting in touch to find out more. Check out our Q&A below.

3rd Ward's John Ruscher: How did you and Chester come up with the idea for Etchpop?

Etchpop's Marshall Tipton: For as long as we've known each other, we've always been dreaming up ideas for businesses or products that we could bring into world. Chester has always been a bit of the 'mad scientist' type, and myself a little more pragmatic so we compliment each other well. A little over a year ago Chester told me he had access to a laser cutting/engraving machine. The first thing that popped into my head was engraving an image into wood and printing it. I designed a birthday card for my dad and that was when we made our first laser engraved woodblock. The card was a hit. I actually used it for several of my friends and family members who had birthdays around that time. Everyone loved the card. A few weeks later Chester called me late at night, obviously in the midst of another mad scientist brainstorm, proposing the idea of a website where anyone can submit an image to be engraved into wood to make their own woodblock prints. After many months of deliberation and a few empty bottles of whiskey later, we decided to finally 'pull the trigger' on one of our crazy ideas. 

An Etchpop laser-etched woodblock.JR: Did either of you have a background in printmaking?

MT: We both had very little direct experience with printmaking, but we had experienced it vicariously—Chester through his ex-girlfriend who majored in printmaking at PNCA (Pacific Northwest College of Art) and I through my wife who is an artist and my brother who is a graphic designer. However, instead of sitting on the couch in a jealous delirium, we started to nerd out on all things letter-press related, and two years later we feel fantastic.

JR: What has the Etchpop timeline been like?

MT: It's all been alarmingly fast. We came up with the idea in early 2011 and spent a few months ruminating how we might actually get this thing off the ground. By the end of spring, we had decided to turn to Kickstarter and began working on the video in the summer. We posted the video in October, and it's been a blur ever since.

The Etchpop starter kit.JR: What made you decide to use Kickstarter?

MT: We've always been a fan of Kickstarter and we love the platform it provides to help creative entrepreneurs get on their financial feet. It's a great way of finding out if there is a market for a new idea without having to spend a lot of money upfront. We are always emailing each other links to different Kickstarter videos to check out. It's a great source of inspiration to see all the amazing ideas people are funding and watching them come to fruition with the help of the community.

JR: Can you tell us a little about this Trotec laser that you bought?

MT: Trotec lasers are basically the Mercedes Benz in this class of laser machines. They are designed and built in Austria and have Synrad laser tubes that are manufactured in Washington State (just north of us). There are definitely many cheaper options but we wanted a high quality machine that is capable of production day-in and day-out, and Trotec is definitely it. 

The founders of Etchpop.JR: How will the process of ordering a custom woodblock work?

MT: We will have some simple and playful tutorials to help people get their images ready for a woodblock application, but there will definitely be a lot of back and forth to make sure people's blocks turn out the way they should. As Etchpop grows we will be slowly building an image editor that will specifically meet the needs of our customer base, piece by piece as their needs become evident.

JR: Any tips or words of advice for would-be creative entrepreneurs?

MT: Do what you love! We've come up with several business ideas that would have made money, but we just weren't into them all that much and couldn't get behind them. As you will be spending countless hours thinking about it, working on it, designing things for it, returning countless emails about it, redesigning things for it, dealing with unforeseen issues, and redesigning your redesigns, we repeat: you gotta love what you do. These are not complaints by any means; it feels great to overwork ourselves. And even though we've cut all communication with everyone in our lives aside from each other, turning an idea into an actual product is insanely rewarding.

Etchpop woodblocks.The second most important thing when starting a labor of love is to find a good accountant. Almost all businesses are the same when it comes to accounting and these head-shrinkingly boring meetings provide an essential foundation to build upon—which is much easier than trying to remodel the foundation after you've already started building. Forgive the cheesy metaphor but it’s true. It will save you time and money in the future.

Finally, use as many resources you can find, especially when they are free. Go to sba.gov and find a small business development center in your area. There is a lot of free/cheap help out there for people who want to start a new business. Try and find someone in your area that has the same type of machinery you are planning to buy or use, as they may be willing to talk to you, give you tips or suggestions or give you insights on how to get a better price on the machinery. 

JR: Were there any aspects of starting Etchpop that were particularly difficult?

MT: One the most difficult parts has been realizing how much time everything actually takes to get done, if you want to have it done right, that is. We understand that our customers expect professionalism and coherency, so taking the extra thousand hours to perfect a process or idea is definitely worth the time. And although things are moving along somewhat smoothly, we still feel super lucky everyone has been so patient thus far.

JR: Anything else people should know?

MT: Etchpop.com is going live mid-April!

Prints made with an Etchpop woodblock.

-- John Ruscher

CALLING ALL RESTAURATEURS // We're Accepting Restaurant Proposals for 3rd Ward Philadelphia

Do you know someone who might want to open a restaurant in Philly? If so, send them our way this week.

3rd Ward's new location in the City of Brotherly Love's Northern Liberties/Old Kensington neighborhood, which is scheduled to open this summer, will feature a restaurant, and that fine establishment could be yours. Just imagine: your very own restaurant, with over 2,000 square feet of interior space, 1,000 more for potential outdoor seating, and shared event space. And you'll also have the rare opportunity to open, grow and thrive alongside 3rd Ward's vibrant creative community. Members work up quite an appetite while pursuing their many amazing endeavors, and its usually hard to pry them away from their projects and passions, so there'll surely be plenty of appetites to satiate.

We need letters of intent for all proposals by this Friday, January 6, and final proposals are due on February 3. We're excited to hear about your dream restaurant. Let's build this together.

And, for some additional inspiration, hit the jump to check out behind-the-scenes images of 3rd Ward Philadelphia as it begins to take shape.

The second floor after being sandblasted.

Evaluating the third floor ceiling medallion, a masterpiece and icon-in-the-making, for restoration

Newly excavated elevator pit for brand-new building elevator.

Wall demolition and putting up steel for the shop.

Welding steel beams on top of the shop to create new structural support for green roof.

Welding more steel beams for the shop.

-- John Ruscher

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Michael Gerber

Again, we turn to someone that counts "motivational speaker" as one of their vocations. Another one of Michael Gerber's vocations? Being a gazillion-copy-selling author of books on being a successful entrerpreneur.

So take note:

The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look, but many people see only problems everywhere they look. The entrepreneur in us is more concerned with discriminating between opportunities than he or she is with failing to see the opportunities.

FASHION SPOTLIGHT // Brooklyn's Outlier Synthesizes Comfort, Performance And Style

Outlier's OG Pants in action

Abe Burmeister spent a year looking for a good pair of pants for biking in the city. "I wanted a pair of pants that I could ride in, work in and go out in without having to worry whether it was going to rain," he says. "After a year of looking I gave up. They weren't on the market, and I figured if no one was making them then it was up to me to figure out how. I went to the garment district, started asking questions and eventually wound up with a pair of pants."

After a friend connected him with Tyler Clemens, who had been working on similar ideas, Brooklyn's Outlier and the OG Pants were born. Three years later, Outlier's products have expanded from those first pants, which were designed to repel the weather and dirt of any bike commute and still look good in the office, to an entire line of functional, durable and fashionable clothing. Their latest collection is called In A Technical Nature and features everything from a Merino henley and wool peacoat to chinos, a scarf and button-down shirts.

Hit the jump for more on Outlier, including a photo gallery of their new collection.

Other than its expanded line of products, how has Outlier changed in three years? "Well, we're not working out of Tyler's living room anymore for one!" says Burmeister. "Insanely enough, we actually have employees and an office. And more importantly we know enough to make much better garments than we used to."

Just as they did with the OG Pants, Outlier has always aimed to create clothing that is truly innovative and unprecedented. "We like to make garments that do not exist yet on the market and fulfill a real need," Burmeister says. "We're always thinking about ways to make things better, making clothes that are more comfortable, more durable and better looking. Designing for us is an iterative process, we makes tests, experiment, produce samples, test them, tear them apart, build them back, test some more and repeat until we get to the point where we are happy. Sometimes it takes a day, sometimes it takes years, we just keep pushing until we find the solution."

For Outlier its also been about rejecting corner-cutting and disposable products:

"People need to start realizing that if they are buying the cheapest stuff, they are actually getting ripped off," Burmeister says. "The discount driven culture we live and shop in right now is toxic."

And it's not just about the quality of goods, but also the broader implications of our throw-away culture. "It's a downward cycle that leads to labor abuse, environmental damage and a world filled with shitty products," he says. "If we keep demanding disposable products we can't be surprised if suddenly our jobs are also disposable. The only way to break this cycle is to wake up and start looking for quality and buying meaningful goods that both work well and last a long time."

That driving philosophy has transformed Outlier from a single pair of pants into a full-fledged fashion brand. Burmeister acknowledges that starting up a clothing company isn't easy, but Outlier has proven that all of the hard work can pay off nicely. "It'll suck up all your free time and all your savings, but in the end it's amazing to make real products that people can relate to in the physical world," he says. "Plus, you get exactly the clothes you want."

Storm King Parka, Autumnweight 60/30 Chinos, North East Pivot Shirt and Merino Henley - photo by Emiliano Granado

Autumnweight 60/30 Chinos, Soft Core Wool Vest, Merino Henley and North East Pivot Shirt - photo by Emiliano Granado

Liberated Wool Peacoat and Autumnweight 60/30 Chinos - photo by Emiliano Granado

Liberated Wool Peacoat, Autumnweight 60/30 Chinos and North East Pivot Shirt - photo by Emiliano Granado

Merino Henley, North East Pivot Shirt and Autumnweight 60/30 Chinos - photo by Emiliano Granado

-- John Ruscher

YOUR DAILY INSIGHT // As Told By: Anonymous

No, we don't know who originally mouthed today's dead-on Daily Insight. What we do know is that for anyone out there brave enough to start their own business, this one's for you:

Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.

CHECK THIS OUT // Loose Leaf: Hybrid Publication and Personal Art Gallery

"Looking at a beautiful work of photography or art at 500 pixels width doesn't really satisfy someone like me," says Tom Crabtree, the founder and creative director of San Francisco design studio Manual. "I like to live with images, not just scroll past them."

That desire led to Loose Leaf, a project that's mighty difficult to describe in a single word. In the words of Crabtree: "It’s a hybrid of periodical, poster, collectible archive and personal art gallery."

Each edition of Loose Leaf features a series of large-format, unbound prints. Unlike your typical art periodical or exhibition catalog, it's meant to adorn your wall rather than join that stack of magazines in the corner of your room. It even comes with handy aluminum push pins and pre-punched holes for easy mounting, a clever and simple system inspired by Crabtree's own aspirations to collect and display work in his home and studio. "Posters, photography, screen prints, drawings... all of which cost a small fortune to frame," he says. "I thought it would be neat to design a publication that allows the user to instantly hang it on their wall in a way that is very intentional."

More on Loose Leaf, including a gallery photos, after the jump.

Like its composition, Loose Leaf's editions are shaped by broad ideas rather than strict themes. The first edition features an array of prints tied to the San Francisco Bay area, including contributions from artist and designer Jeff Canham, photographer Michelle McCarron, painter Jake Longstreth and author, editor and artist Dave Eggers.

Crabtree founded Manual after working at studios like Spin and MadeThough in London and Apple in the U.S., where he designed packaging for the iPhone. "Throughout the years I've worked with some great people; photographers, illustrators, industrial designers, architects—largely on client related projects," he says.

"Loose Leaf is a great opportunity to keep working and collaborating with other creative practitioners whose work I admire, but in a freer way. While there's an element of curation and art direction in the way Loose Leaf takes shape, it's really just a case of us asking people to inspire us with what they do. At the end of the day that's what Loose Leaf is about. Inspiration."

Crabtree says that Manual plans to publish the second edition of Loose Leaf early next year. Order the first edition now from the Loose Leaf website.

Jeff Canham

Dave Eggers

Jake Longstreth

-- John Ruscher

GOOD CAUSE // DeKalb Market Contest Winner BBox Radio Takes to Kickstarter

 

It all started with five friends and a dream of winning a contest. BBox Radio cofounder Katrina Cass says that when she and her friends heard about DeKalb Market's Not Just a Container contest, they wanted to do something that would really reflect the community. Their idea: A radio station simultaneously serves as a performance space where all content would be locally generated and influenced. Turns out it was a good choice--they won.

Courtesy of BBox Radio

Cass says since then, the station has received an incredible amount of support. They had a broadcast student visiting from California who called ahead to volunteer in addition to a slew of local volunteers. The founding members each put in 15-30 hours a week with the station, "but we all still have our day jobs," Cass says.

Their programming is, well, very Brooklyn: underground hip-hop, modern African music, documentaries, and talk from the farmers, chefs, and artists who populate DeKalb Market. They welcome input on what people want to hear. But more than all that right now, they welcome funds. Running a radio station, it turns out, requires a lot of equipment. Online streaming takes more funds.They need $15,000 by October 19 to stay on air, so if you think it's a possibility that you can maybe even help a little, head on over to Kickstarter now.

--Layla Schlack

WHEELS UP // Brooklyn Cruiser Brings a European Edge to the Borough & Beyond

 

It's no secret that we love design, entrepreneurship and--of course--bikes. So we were quite excited to catch wind of Brooklyn Cruiser, a new line of city bikes based right here in our borough.

Founded by Ryan and Thea Patrick, Brooklyn Cruiser was borne out of the couple's hunt for a ride that would provide the best possible two-wheeled commute, taking into account durability, comfort, accessibility and style. When that search didn't yield exactly what they'd been looking for, they decided to strike out on their own, putting together a design that adhered strictly to those core tenets:

"At each step of the design process, if a feature didn’t either make the bike easier to maintain or enhance its style, it was off the table for consideration," Ryan tells us. 

That vision has produced a slick and sturdy set of wheels, including a hardened steel double top tube frame that'll stand up to the tough streets, a 2-speed kickshift hub to keep things simple, along with leather grips and cream-colored tires to make the bike as easy on the eyes as it is to ride.

Ryan and Thea's extensive travels helped give shape to Brooklyn Cruiser's designs, which are modeled after traditional Dutch and European bikes. "We’ve travelled around the world and biked in most of the cities we’ve visited," Ryan says. "From a biking perspective, the infrastructure in Europe far surpasses anything we’ve seen elsewhere in the world—and that’s part of the reason biking is such an intricate part of the European culture. You’ll see mothers riding with their children, commuters heading to work or the market—they basically ride anywhere you’d take a subway or taxi here in New York." They've also pedaled in places like Cape Town and Buenos Aires, taking in those cities' expanding cycling infrastructures.

Ryan tells us that there are additional colors, sizes and stylish additions on the way next spring, and we can't wait to see more. While we've definitely love hard and fast biking, we're just as thrilled about being able to just cruise along and enjoy the ride.

If you're of a similar mind, you can test out a Brooklyn Cruiser at 718 Cyclery in Park Slope or at Smorgasburg on the Williamsburg Waterfront every Saturday.

-- John Ruscher

INNOVATION IN CRAFT // Michael Fleming's Driftwood Creations

 Photo Credit: Trent Bell for The New York Times

You may recognize Michael Fleming's name from a much-circulated article that appeared in the Times' towards the end of August.  The piece focused mainly on how Michael and his wife Jennifer (who share a combined annual income of $17,000) decorated their gorgeous 1800's house in Phippsburg, Maine for under $4000. Spefically: By turning to the town dump for virtually everything; their ironing board, flour sifter and coffee grinder, mirrors, tables, chairs, tablecloths, lamps and books.

Photo Credit: Trent Bell for The New York Times

An inspiring and impressive feat, we agree. But we found ourselves almost equally struck by Michael's compelling carpentry and sculpture, constructed almost exclusively from driftwood.  

Of his chosen medium, Michael tells us, "Working with driftwood is an unhurried process.  I can look through thousands of pieces and select only a few. Some of the material will sit in my yard for a year or more until it has achieved the desired color I'm looking for.  It's very different than driving to your local lumber supply and picking out what you need.  I simply search along the coast of Maine to find what I need.  Once the wood has the right color, I dry it in my solar kiln and from there I can work the material."

Michael shied away from more conventional carpentry jobs to start his own business, Designs Adrift, because he was "unsatisfied with traditional furniture."

"I needed to make more unique and beautiful objects rather than machines and common mass produced designs," he says.  "I feel very connected to nature working with driftwood and giving the wood a new life and purpose.  I [love] to create unique, beautiful objects with low technology and impact."

Right up our alley.  

Hit the jump to see a few more of Fleming's gorgeous creations. And for those who feel inspired, you might say 3rd Ward's got a few woodworking classes of our own.

Club Chair -- Courtesy: Designs AdriftSpring Tide -- Courtesy: Designs AdriftArey; Custom Driftwood Mirror -- Courtesy: Designs AdriftLinekin -- Courtesy: Designs AdriftRogue -- Courtesy: Designs Adrift-- Margaux Weisman

ENTREPRENEUR SPOTLIGHT // Coco Love Homemade's Sweet Satisfaction

Being a buyer for the homes department at Urban Outfitters may sound like a dream job to some. But to Philly-based baker extraordinaire, Lindsey Love, running a whoopie pie baking business topped it. About a year ago, Love left her globe-trotting, coffee-mug buying career at Urban to found Coco Love Homemade, a web-based bakery, and she hasn't looked back since.

“I’ve always loved to bake,” she says. “It was always something I just did.” She never thought of it as a career path until, burnt out on Urban, a friend's casual suggestion. Next thing she knew, Love was using the kitchen at bar during its off-hours to whip up her sweet incarnations.

Miraculously, the stars aligned to make whoopie pies a hot treat: the state of Maine recently sparked a war with Pennsylvania Dutch Country by appointing the whoopie pie Maine’s state dessert. Pennsylvania moved to block the resolution, because--according to them--the Pennsylvania Amish invented the little cakes. Drama and great profit for bakers ensued.

Love says she the reason she chose whoopie pies was to offer up something a little more unique. “The market is just flooded with cupcakes, and whoopie pies are much better designed.” Love’s in particular; the perfect three-bite treat individually wrapped in cellophane, are a pleasure to behold. But with flavors like cinnamon coconut and chocolate chip, they’re even better to eat. (“I can’t bring myself to use shortening. My frosting is all butter,” she says. Cue the Homer Simpson-esque “Mmmmm butter” from our interviewer.)

The icing on the cake, so to speak, is that Love sources as many ingredients as possible from a farm co-op in nearby Lancaster County--her butter, eggs and flour are all local. She’s also gradually formulating her recipes to be healthy. Her chocolate chip cookies are made with flax-seed, and she’s working other healthy ingredients into her other recipes, but she won’t sacrifice taste.

If you’re in Philly, pick up her treats at Brew and Shot Tower. Not a Philly resident? She'll ship these heavenly concoctions straight to your doorstep.

-- Layla Schlack