beethings

When Shay and Jeff were first married, they lived in a little duplex apartment. When they found out they were going to be having a baby, Jeff packed Shay a little kraft bag filled with snacks every day. And since they were both designers/illustrators, Jeff just couldn’t send her off with a blank lunch sack, oh no. So every day, he would make a little different something on the bag with crayons or markers or glued-on cut paper, a bird, a little animal, or a silly visual pun. People Shay worked with would see the bags, and many suggested (rather strongly, in some cases!) that Shay and Jeff should make and sell them. When the baby was close to coming, they decided to get a house. The one they found (and were lucky enough to get!) had a small back-house in the yard, not as nice/big as a guest house, but nicer than a shed. Jeff was wondering what to do with it, when Shay suggested they turn it into a screen printing studio. Neither of them had ever screen printed before, but, just like them, they just went for it. Jeff finished out the shed over the spring (he put in walls, a ceiling, and power), and researched screen printing. They started screen printing snack bags, birds at first, and started selling them on Etsy. Jeff thought that since they were going through all the trouble of making printing plates and printing on bags, they should print a few extra images on paper and see if they could sell the images as prints. As it turned out, the bags were a bit of a bust, but the prints sold like hot cakes! These days, Shay and Jeff illustrate and design for all kinds of folks, including AT&T, Crate and Barrell, Hallmark, The New York Times, Nickelodeon, and Papyrus Recycled Greetings, just to name a few. They have two kiddos and two mini-weenie dogs, none of which can help them screen print, but all four of which eat their food.