Modern Monday :: Old Tom Foolery

We’re wrapping up this year’s Modern Monday {all about paper} series with the cutest duo in town, Lauren and Joel, engaged couple running Old Tom Foolery. I first came across this pair at the National Stationery Show and their witty sense of humor was one I could easily relate to. I never laughed so hard at a greeting card before. So let’s check out how this couple is able to evoke such feeling with so little words.

Tell us about yourself.
My fiancé, Joel, and I co-own Old Tom Foolery, a greeting card company that we started in 2007. We currently live in San Francisco, though we’re both originally from the Midwest.

How and why did you create your business?
We met in grad school for advertising and discovered we both had an odd fondness for greeting cards, especially letterpress printed ones. We were always looking for cool new cards to give each other when we started dating and began talking about starting a greeting card company someday. After grad school, we both worked full-time in advertising in Seattle and then San Francisco, but were really itching to work for ourselves. So in July of 2007 we officially launched Old Tom Foolery and started preparing to debut our first line of cards at the National Stationery show in New York in May of 2008. Although we still dabble in advertising, it’s great to be able to put the majority of our time towards our own business and focus on helping it grow.

Describe a typical work day for you.
We usually wake up around 9am and, after hitting the snooze bar a few times, start the morning routine of showering, then surfing the web with some breakfast and coffee before getting down to business. Being on the West Coast, it’s nice to often wake up to orders and good emails waiting for us from the early birds 3 hours ahead on the East Coast. For us, the work of the day varies quite a bit. Some days we have to focus on getting orders out, some days are spent creating new cards, and some days we have to focus on the not-so-fun aspects of running a business, like managing the accounting and other paperwork. But we try to find some time every day to get outside and enjoy our beautiful San Francisco neighborhood. Even if it’s just walking down to the bank or post office, it’s always nice to break up the day. And unless we’re cramming to get a big order out or prepping for a trade show, we try to cap the work day around 6pm or so, though it’s often hard to mentally turn it off, especially since we work from home. But even when we do work long hours, it’s rewarding because we know we’re working for ourselves and our own goals.

Why did you choose the form of paper to express yourself?
Not only were we big fans of independent greeting card companies, but a card company seemed like a business we could take on because the skill set involved is really similar to what we were already doing in our advertising jobs. Joel is a writer, and I’m an art director, so we’re essentially still filling those roles with Old Tom Foolery. For the most part, he writes the cards and I design them, though we are always giving feedback for each others’ roles. We also liked the idea that there isn’t a ton of capital needed to start a card company. We were able to use our own savings to purchase a letterpress, create our initial batch of cards, and launch the line.

Where do you draw inspiration from?
Joel and I both have our own cycle of blogs and websites that we check daily. That always helps to get the mental juices flowing and put you in a creative mindset. We also love going to bookstores and boutiques, which are abundant in San Francisco. It’s such a creative city, it’s hard not to find inspiration on a daily basis. We’re also suckers for anything that’s “old-timey” and love looking at old documents on sites like The Library of Congress (loc.gov) and flea markets/vintage shops.

What are your favorite hobbies?
The two of us are pretty different in terms of hobbies. I love taking photos, and recently started a dog photography blog called Other People’s Pooches (www.otherpeoplespooches.com). Joel likes to read and play hockey, which he grew up doing in Minnesota. He also does some voiceover work on the side. (Little known fact: He was the voice of the Oakland A’s TV and radio commercials this past season.)

Thank you so much for sharing you two! Enjoy the holidays!
website :: blog :: etsy