This week's Great Ten Dollar Poster...

We have a limited supply available at this special price so get yours fast. Offer valid from Monday December 28 at 12 pm EST until Monday January 4 at 11:59 am EST, or while supplies last. Each and every poster in the Great Ten Dollar Poster Sale is available online and at the Hero Boutique in Buffalo, NY.

This is the last Ten Dollar Poster in the series!! Thanks for the support and for making this a successful series!!

Back in stock at the Boutique.

Buds Blind Box Series III from Jamungo are available now at Hero and they are a killer series!

Featuring designs from MAD, Jesse Ledoux, Yuck, Jon Burgerman, FERG, Superdeux, Aesthetic Apparatus, VanBeater, Pedini, Kenn munk, saurkids, Jim Koch, Frank Kozik, oooOOOooo (Brian Morris) and Muttpop.

Jibibuts Wooden Blindbox by Noferin

Noferin continues to bring fine quality wooden figures to your door with their affordable blindbox series, the Jibibuts. Fun for adults and children alike!

One display case guarantees a complete set. There are 12 characters to collect plus two super secret rare Gold and Silver editions packed randomly. Sizes range from 2.5 - 3.5 inches. Made from sustainably harvested rubber wood.

Jibibuts sp., are long-lived forest dwellers native to the west coast of Carrara Island. Found mostly in moist temperate climates, they scurry about the forest floor consuming all manner of fallen leaf litter. Jibibuts sp., are important biological indicators of forest health. Specimens discovered by the Biological Institute of Carrara.

Every Time I Die - 2009 European Tour Poster

The newest Every Time I Die poster for their Fall/Winter 2009 European Tour is on sale now! Number three in the series of Jordan Buckley -vs- Hero collaborations. The 10" x 24" three color silkscreen is printed on Accent Opaque Smooth White 100# cover stock, the bottom copy is printed in a super shiny metallic silver ink.

Each print is signed and numbered edition of 150. The majority of the posters were sold on the tour, so we have a very limited amount available and they will go fast. Illustration by Jordan Buckley, design, layout and printing by Hero Design Studio.

Look for more Hero / Jordan collabs in the coming months.

Late Hours at the Boutique

We're open late till Christmas for all of your last minute gift buying needs!

Jamungo BUD Series 3 are Available Now at Hero.

Buds Blind Box Series III from Jamungo are available now at Hero and they are a killer series!

Featuring designs from MAD, Jesse Ledoux, Yuck, Jon Burgerman, FERG, Superdeux, Aesthetic Apparatus, VanBeater, Pedini, Kenn munk, saurkids, Jim Koch, Frank Kozik, oooOOOooo (Brian Morris) and Muttpop.

The Buffalo First Coupon Books are available now at Hero!

The Buffalo First Coupon Books are available now at Hero! The books are $15 and they make a great holiday gift. Hero along with dozens of other local businesses are featured in the book, with wonderful savings to make shopping local even easier!

The coupon books feature a free local guide, hundreds of local/green tips, and beautiful full-page photos of Buffalo's best.

This week's Great Ten Dollar Poster...

We have a limited supply available at this special price so get yours fast. Offer valid from Monday December 14 at 12 pm EST until Monday December 21 at 11:59 am EST, or while supplies last. Each and every poster in the Great Ten Dollar Poster Sale is available online and at the Hero Boutique in Buffalo, NY.

Win The Vannen Winter Exclusive Watch at Hero

Enter to win the Vannen Winter Exclusive Watch designed by internationally renowned artist Christopher Bettig. The watch incorporates traditional holiday colors in such an intricate and alluring way that the watch is completely wearable beyond the month of December. Chris also designed the "snow globe" packaging - a clear poly-bag filled with non-toxic artificial snow and decorated with snowflakes.

There are only 100 of these festive limited edition timepieces in existence and each one comes with a two-color silkscreen print designed, printed, signed and numbered by Chris.

Make any purchase of $20 or more at the Hero Boutique from Monday, December 14 to Monday, December 21 and you will be entered to win the Winter Exclusive Watch. One winner will be chosen at random on Monday, December 21 at 6pm and you will be contacted immediately to claim your prize, so you can wear it to all of your holiday festivities.

Be sure to check out Series 1 of the limited edition Vannen watches at Hero now, before they are gone!

Vintage Reborn Necklaces. At Hero Now.

Made from vintage molds, these designs are anywhere from 40 - 150 years old. These beauties are available at Hero now and are the perfect gift for the vintage loving lady in your life, or they make for a wonderful guilt free reward to yourself for all your hard work this year. Oh and the best part? They start at just $20

Last Minute Panic Holiday Marketplace.

Still have some last minute gift buying to do? Looking for something unique and handmade? Don't panic....

Today and tomorrow you can do some shopping at the Last Minute Panic Holiday Marketplace.

At the main gallery, 1st floor of the Western New York Book Arts Center 468 Washington St at Mohawk in Downtown Buffalo

Friday Dec 11, 4-8pm & Saturday Dec 12 12-6pm

Free admission and open to the public

Artists, craftspeople, printers, & other handmade/self published/locally produced items. Perfect gifts for giving or hoarding.

Stop by the Hero booth, we'll have some brand new goodies that aren't even available in the Hero Boutique yet, and check out the full list of vendors here

The Hero 2010 Calendar Print is Available Now!

2010 Calendar Silkscreen Print
"Good Day Sunshine"

A stylish and fun way to keep track of what day it is in 2010! No matter what the weather is doing outside, it will always be sunny inside.

Buy this print and we guarantee 2010 will be the BEST and sunniest year yet!

The traditional Sunday - Saturday calendar at the bottom of the print is laid out so that it can easily be cut off, if you want to keep the print hanging without the calendar after 2010 is over.

This is a 16" x 20" three color silkscreen print, printed with non-toxic water based ink, and printed on Springhill Index in Ivory 140# index. Limited edition of just 75 prints, each print is numbered and signed.

This is a great holiday gift!!

This week's Great Ten Dollar Poster...

We have a very limited supply available at this special price so get yours fast. Offer valid from Monday December 7 at 12 pm EST until Monday December 14 at 11:59 am EST, or while supplies last. Each and every poster in the Great Ten Dollar Poster Sale is available online and at the Hero Boutique in Buffalo, NY.

Printed II - An Exhibition of Hand Printed Art

Hero is very proud to be a part of a great exhibit, Printed II, An Exhibition of Hand Printed Art, that opens Saturday night in LA at Crewest Gallery.

“Printed II” an exhibition curated by Two Rabbits Studios and featuring the best selection of hand printed art posters by some of today’s most innovative street artists, activists, and designers. As hand-printed art posters re-emerge in suburban and urban areas all over the world communicating political and social messages to everyday people, Crewest takes a moment to platform this growing genre and open its doors for the public to enjoy. Prints, prints and more prints are what you will see in December at Crewest!


Printed II has it's Opening Reception December 5th, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm featuring live printing by Two Rabbits Studios and a special installation by Paperworks Laboratories for all you serious art collectors and art fans. Opening Reception: Saturday, December 5th, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm featuring live printing by Two Rabbits and featured artist Ron Donovan of Firehouse & the Nor-Cal Posse plus a special installation by Paperworks Laboratories for all you serious art collectors and art fans. The show runs thru December 31st, 2009. Exhibiting Artists: Adam Hathorn, Ashira Siegel, Billy Bishop, Bill Green, Branded, Hit + Run, Cat Cult, Clint Wilson, Contra One, Dash 2000 Fidel, Delicious Design League, Deadmundo, Dethkills, DKNG, Enik, Euth One, Firehouse, Geraldine Lozano, Hero Design Studio, James Bentely, Ken Garduno, Lucky Bunny, Mas, Max Nuetra, Mad One, Man One, Michael Alvarez, Michael Hsiung, Miles Grobman, Neko Sluts Crew, Ron Donovan from Firehouse & The Nor-Cal Posse, Septerhed, Shark Toof, SPRFKR, The Bungaloo, Tom Haubrick, WERC, Will Manville, Vyal, Yo What Happened To Peace and more...

Crewest Gallery is located at 110 Winston St., Los Angeles, CA 90013, (213) 627-8272.

The Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale in Chicago

Hero will be setting up shop with over 150 of today’s finest indie-craft and contemporary design talents at the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale on December 5 + 6 from 11am – 7pm at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse in Chicago, IL!

Those looking to shop handmade and support small business this holiday season will surely find something for everyone – from jewelry and clothing, to ceramics and stationary, with everything from bath products, housewares, posters, comics and plush objects in between – at this large-scale, free-to-attend art, craft and design extravaganza!!


Come by the Hero booth, say hi, introduce yourself, and check out ALL the new goodies we have. New art prints, a calendar, pillows and more. Hope to see you there.


Check out all the amazing-ness that is Renegade, they really put on a FABULOUS event :
Special this year: Free Trolley Rides between the Fair and a handful of Wicker Park hot spots will help keep holiday shoppers out of the cold! Stops to catch the trolley along Division St. (between Ashland Ave. and Hoyne Ave.) include our very own Renegade Handmade, Nina, Greenheart Shop and Small Bar, who will be holding a weekend-long $3 draft drink special on PBR – sponsor of this special trolley service!

As always, the Fair is FREE TO ATTEND and other event features include free raffles of publications from Chronicle Books, items from Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching, papergoods from Pinball Publishing, and Faythe Levine’s Handmade Nation – both the book and the DVD documentary! Free copies of Readymade and TimeOut Chicago magazines can be found at the Renegade Craft Welcome Station and don’t forget to pop into the free-to-use photo booth provided by Magnolia Photo Booth Co. The Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) and other local DJs will be playing the jams all weekend long!

Food and beverages from Treat Restaurant and TipsyCake will be available for purchase! Alcoholic beverages will also be available for purchase, including beer, wine, bubbly and mulled-wine!

Vannen Watches Series 1 - Get to know the artists...

Buff Monster

Buff Monster lives in Hollywood and cites heavy metal music, ice cream and Japanese culture as major influences. The color pink, as a symbol of confidence, individuality and happiness, is present in everything he creates. Buff is known for putting up thousands of silkscreened posters across Los Angeles and also in faraway places. When his original and one-and-only wheat paste brush was no longer usable, seven years of frequent poster missions came to an end. Having given up a very productive street art career, he now works exclusively on fine art paintings, collectible toys and select design projects. His works have been exhibited in numerous galleries, usually accompanied by large installations to enhance the paintings. Aside from his Happy Creamy Vannen watch, he has many other projects in the works.

Vannen "Happy Creamy" by Buff Monster

Watch packaging for Buff Monster's "Happy Creamy"

"It's a fun and happy design. I keep exploring all these other crazy themes in my paintings, but this is a core Buff Monster design. A watch is a really functional item, so you have to take that into account when you're designing it. And the packaging is really simple, but I really like the cardboard bubble pack that it comes in."

The art of Buff Monster

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris Ryniak

Chris Ryniak was born in 1976 in a safely distanced suburb of Detroit. He spent his childhood basking in the warm glow of Saturday morning cartoons, monster movies and flipping over rocks in search of insects and reptiles. In his teenage years, Chris' attention would shift to the world of skateboarding and the artists associated with the skate community, which later led to interests in commercial illustration. A graduate and former instructor at the Ringling School of Art and Design, Chris is now a painter and sculptor of all manner of critters that grace canvases as well as toy and print platforms. Chris' work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the world and his paintings have also been published in numerous books and periodicals. Chris currently resides in a coastal Ohio Dutch Colonial with his wife, two children, cat and frog.

Vannen "The Order of Things" by Chris Ryniak

Chris Ryniak watch packaging for "The Order of Things"

"Chris Ryniak: The design is basically a carefully cropped version of my painting "The Order of Things." It was the first painting that I did that reflected my current visual direction, plus it was centered and had a face...like a watch. I had never given any thought to putting my art on anything that wasn't a large solid area (like a skateboard). I knew I wanted to use as much of one painting as possible, so I went through a lot of my paintings, trying to find the right one, and at the time, this one made the most sense to me to use on the watch."

The art of Chris Ryniak

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brian Morris

Brian Morris lives on the southern side of Chicago, married, eats a lot of red meat, prefers pinot noir, favorite color is black, draws because he likes to, second favorite color is black, born in '76, works in advertising, '62 Cadillac in the garage, dead kitty's name tattooed on his wrist, doesn't believe in God, believes in people, heavy metal poser, country music, Sharpies, Faber-Castells, doesn't correct his drawings, tattoos, deep in love, early to rise, saver not a spender, knows you can't take it with you, raised in a small town, college degree, practice makes perfect, loves toys, collector of HotWheels, enjoys the darker side, steak, potatoes, breakfast with his wife at the Ramova Grill, not a big fan of TV, would go to bed at 9PM if he could, smokes too many cigarettes, doesn't smoke enough cigarettes, loves black cherry Kool-Aid, boobies, and he won't design you a tattoo.

Vannen "Time Waits For No Man" by Brian Morris

Watch Packaging for Brian Morris' "Time Waits For No Man"

"Brian Morris: Themes of life and death play a big role in the works that I create. This watch was an excellent opportunity to share my belief that "time waits for no man." I hope that each time the wearer checks the time they are reminded to make the most of every moment. Time will pass you by if you let it, but the end will not. [Watch design] has its challenges: The shape, materials and functionality were all things I'd not worked with before. The art was created in the same way I produce all of my drawings; it was the application that was real fun part."

The art of Brian Morris

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Damon Soule

As a child Damon became so engrossed with drawing that it became a distraction; at age 16 he dropped out of school opting for the immediacy of a GED. At 19 he moved to San Francisco and enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Program at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1996 Soule became the Art Director and Co-founder of FIT Skateboards and Civilian Clothing. After art directing the brands for a number of years, he sold his portion of the business to pursue art full-time. Soule's art has been featured in group exhibitions in San Francisco at 111 Minna Gallery, Punch Gallery, Southern Exposure Gallery, Culture Cache, New Langton Arts and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Recent shows also include "New Works by Oliver Vernon and Damon Soule" at BLVD Gallery and "Green Art Exhibition" at Robert Berman Gallery.

Vannen "Square Takes The Circle" by Damon Soule

Watch packaging for Damon Soule's "Square Takes The Circle"

The art of Damon Soule

Vannen Watches have arrived at Hero.

Created on the premise that this genre of wearable art would never get made otherwise, founder David Stowe and an amazing lineup of artists have come together to bring Vannen to life. The first collection of limited edition Vannen Watches features designs by Buff Monster, Brian Morris, Chris Ryniak, Damon Soule each watch design is a limited edition of just 500 watches.

Individually inspected, assembled and packaged by hand in the USA, every watch is treated like a true piece of art. Each selected artist is given a plastic watch as a canvas to showcase their original artwork and connect with the world. Constructing wearable art that is both functional and accessible - but still exclusive - Vannen has given the public a fun new way to show their taste in art and fashion and support a new movement in artistic achievement. And all artists design their own custom packaging.

Based loosely around the Swedish word vännen (meaning "friends") brings some of today's best lowbrow art to wrists. Longtime watch fan and founder David Stowe wanted to fill the void in a medium that doesn’t always pair fashion with function, while incorporating his idea that working with friends helps people discover artists thus creating new friends.



Stowe also hopes that Vannen Watches will transform the insular nature of collectors. “If someone buys an art toy, book or print, it sits on their shelf collecting dust only to be seen by people who come to their houses. With our watches, you can show the entire world your taste in art and fashion.”

The inaugural series invites you to experience a new world where art meets fashion. And at $65 per timepiece, anyone can afford to have art wrapped around his or her wrist. Created on the premise that this genre of wearable art would never get made otherwise, founder David Stowe and an amazing lineup of artists have come together to bring Vannen to life. The first collection features designs by Buff Monster, Brian Morris, Chris Ryniak and Damon Soule.

The heart of Vannen Watches is to expose extraordinary artwork to people that may never have the opportunity to discover it, much less incorporate it into their lives. Each collection of watches is produced with one goal in mind – to support the global art scene by bringing awareness to each artist and invite the world to experience something new. Vannen is not only collectible art; it transcends all ages, genders and nationalities.

The first series of watches are available now at Hero and we have a limited supply of each. Get to know the artists here.