Lab Partners Are Latest Mohawk Champions of Craft

Mohawk is a leader in supporting, encouraging, educating and recognizing the creative community. For North America’s largest privately-owned manufacturer of fine papers and envelopes, the tradition continues in 2015 through — among many activities — a year long initiative in the pages of GDUSA entitled “Champions of Craft.” In each edition of the magazine, a storytelling insert explores the work of aspiring and seasoned designers. The initiative kicked off back in January when Mohawk served as exclusive sponsor of GDUSA’s 52nd Annual People To Watch editorial feature.

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The latest piece: a Champions of Craft insert in the July 2015 issue of GDUSA featuring the design and illustration studio Lab Partners. The principals are a husband and wife team  — Sarah Labieniec and Ryan Meis — based out of Northern California. The firm had a charming start: in 2007,  upon our arriving in San Francisco, they collaborated on a letterpress print to send out to our friends and families announcing their move west. The couple continues: “We had so much fun with it that soon after we decided to found Lab Partners, a studio where we could experiment together and explore what we love. Our office is located in the Union Square neighborhood where we’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing clients on a variety of projects. We believe the best work is a combination of imaginative storytelling, a strong sense of craft, and a good dose of color magic.”

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Labieniec hails from Connecticut, and has previously worked at the Tomorrow Partners design firm and letterpress stationer Hello!Lucky. Meis was born in Tokyo, grew up in various cities around the world. He has worked at Hatch design in San Francisco and then as an art director at ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Along with running Lab Partners, Ryan leads a new creative studio called Stout

Look for Champions of Craft in the new edition of GDUSA, arriving around the country this week. The latest insert is designed by San Francisco’s Hybrid Design the award-winning firm which also helped develop the resonant Mohawk Maker campaign. The insert is produced on Mohawk Options Smooth Digital with i-Tone 100% PC White 80 Lb. Cover, printed on an HP Indigo 5600 press. You can learn more about the paper grade, and other Mohawk offerings for designers, by reviewing the mill’s newly redesigned collection of swatchbooks.

We are honored that, throughout the year, Mohawk is using our pages as part of its celebration of the creative industry, its support the maker community and its introduction of the pleasures of print and paper to a whole new generation.