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!

The 7th Annual Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago

Hero will be participating in the 7th Annual Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago will be September 12 + 13 from 11am – 7pm on Division St. between Damen Ave. and Paulina St. in Wicker Park! click here for directions

Over 300 artists are traveling from all over the country to participate and sell their handmade goods: from clothing and accessories, to stationery and concert posters, with everything from bath-products, ceramics and housewares in between! This FREE TO ATTEND DIY craft, art and design extravaganza occurs in one of Chicago’s liveliest neighborhoods, on its busiest block!

So make sure you come by the Hero booth and check out all of our goodies, including a bunch of new greeting card designs and brand new Hero pillows!!!

Read more about Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago here.

Flatstock follow-up and photos

The Hero booth at Flatstock 21 at Pitchfork Music Festival

Sorry for the late post, but things have been crazy since we've gotten back! We had a fabulous time in Chicago filled with a super rad road trip, great friends, huge root beers, great music, posters, vodka smoothies, expensive ok-ish bloody marys, zoo trips, and so much more. We always love to hang out with all of our amazingly talented friends from all over North America, live the carnie lifestyle for a few days and to meet a ton of people that geek out over design and printing the way we all do.

Thank you to everyone that came out, said 'hi', bought posters, bought us ice cream (I'm looking at you phoondaddy), Dan Crosshair and the API for putting together another successful Flatstock and an extra special thanks to Grizzly Bear and Blitzen Trapper for hiring us to do the exclusive posters for their shows at Pitchfork. We are of course fans of both bands so they were super fun gigs for us and it was a pleasure to hear both of them live again, too.

Here are just a few of the highlights from the trip - you can see all of our photos from the trip in our Flickr set.

Us and Strawberryluna with our HUGE root beers from a rad old timey drive in somewhere in Indiana

Us on our day off in Chicago


A visit to Delicious Design League's new HQ

Our booth neighbor (our forever neighbor) Strawberryluna

Flaming Lips at the end of Sunday night at Pitchfork

Friends. Lincoln Park Zoo

A stop off on our drive home to a Fireworks Warehouse in Indiana. My first time. I got Wonder Hands!!

Pitchfork Music Festival Exclusive Posters for Grizzly Bear and Blitzen Trapper

We were lucky enough to work with two great bands, Grizzly Bear and Blitzen Trapper, to create posters for their Pitchfork Music Festival 2009 performances.

These posters will be available exclusively from us at our booth at Flatstock 21 during Pitchfork, Saturday July 18 and Sunday July 19. Read more about these events here.

Get yours before they sell out!! If any copies remain after the festival they will be available in the Hero web store after Monday July 20 (but we make no promises).

Grizzly Bear

Blitzen Trapper

Hero at Pitchfork Music Festival & Flatstock 21

Hero will once again be in Chicago this upcoming weekend for Flatstock 21!!! Flatstock 21 is being held at Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park. Saturday & Sunday July 18th & 19th, noon to 10pm both days!!!

Poster artists from around the world will be pitching tents in Union Park for the world famous convention sponsored by the American Poster Institute, dedicated to the promotion of music poster art and design worldwide. Come grab posters and hear the stories behind them straight from the artist. Since beginning in 2003, Flatstock has presented 20 events in the U.S. and Europe and has become the epicenter of the current phenomenon in handmade poster art.

FLATSTOCK is free for everyone with a Pitchfork Music Festival pass so if you are gonna be there, make sure to pass through Flatstock. Show up early and be ready to be overwhelmed with amazing posters (you might want to bring some dough too since you won't want to leave empty handed.) FLATSTOCK is an all-ages event.

Be sure to stop by the Hero tent and say 'HI!' We have a bunch of new posters, including some brand new artprints, exclusive posters for two Pitchfork 2009 performers, and lots of other fun things!

This years Pitchfork Festival has an phenomenal lineup including: The Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, The National, Grizzly Bear, Blitzen Trapper, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Thermals and so much more. Go to pitchforkmusicfestival.com to check out what's happening this year.

A little bit more about what Flatstock is:

The FLATSTOCK poster show series is presented by the American Poster Institute (API). It is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today.

The API is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving poster artists and promoting the art form. Both the API and its FLATSTOCK series were organized in 2002 as a result of conversations between interested artists and supporters frequenting the popular web site GigPosters.com. The best concert posters have always captured both the essence of the music they promoted and the spirit of the time in which they were produced. This is as true today as it was in San Francisco during the Sixties.

The FLATSTOCK shows provide the general public with an ongoing series of opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who've created it -- they provide the API with a way to present the poster artists collectively while showcasing the breadth of individual styles they represent.

Flatstock 17 at Pitchfork Music Festival Chicago - Photos

A rainy start

The Hero Booth

The Hero booth at night

Mike Klay and Beth

The "kid" being forced (paid) to eat a huge piece of Mexican spicy pickled cauliflower

Us

Strawberryluna

Doublnaut

Mike Budai

So it was a rough start to the weekend on Saturday when we were setting up at Union Park in horrid down pouring rain for hours on end, with a HUGE pool of water in the back of our tent. But eventually it cleared up on Saturday stayed beautiful and we had a great weekend. Really humid and hot, but dry none the less.

It was our best Flatstock ye, we met a lot of great people, had a great road trip and hung with some of our favorite friends from all over the country.

Here are a few photos that we took and a few taken by Josh Rickun. Here is a link to the entire album that he took. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28853723@N03/

On Parade - Screenprinted Rock Poster Extravaganza

Check this rad exhibit that Hero is a part of at Clothes Optional 2918 N. Clark St Chicago. Opening November 9, 9pm to Midnight, running through January 9.

Featuring the work of:
Hero Design Studio
Spike Press
Dan Grzeca
Sonnenzimmer
The New Year
Burlesque of North America
Aesthetic Apparatus
The Small Stakes
Little Friends of Printmaking
Delicious Design League