Hello from Brooklyn! I’m Courtney from Swiss Cottage Designs and I’m stoked to be guest blogging this week on our most favorite paper blog, Oh So Beautiful Paper! I’ve been a huge fan of Nole’s blog since the early days so it’s really fun to be able to contribute back to such an inspiring blog. Thanks for having us!

I thought it would be fun to start our week of guest blogging with a peek into our life here in Brooklyn. I founded Swiss Cottage Designs in 2009 after working in the design industry for 4 years. While those years were filled with amazing professional experiences, I always knew I wanted to work for myself. Thus, SCD was born! We specialize in illustration, invitations and custom branding. In the last 5 years we’ve had the pleasure of working with brands such as Warby Parker, Crown Publishing, and Paperless Post as well as many, many wonderful couples and planners. I feel so lucky to be in such an amazing and inspiring industry!

We’re located in Carroll Gardens, a Brooklyn neighborhood of tree lined streets, historic brownstones and about a million places to grab tasty treats (it’s kind of a problem, really.) We have a home studio which means the neighborhood becomes sort of like a co-worker. Lucky for us, he’s not that annoying guy who breathes too heavy in the next cube over.

Photo courtesy bigriffith

 Photo courtesy of Shiny Bright

A day typical day (if there is such a thing) around the studio consists of lots and lots of emails, drawing, scanning, painting, designing, packaging, eagerly awaiting shipments from the printer, opening said shipments with bated breath, more emails, drawing, packaging and of course illicit amounts of coffee and tea. Running a business is the most incredible experience yet can be just as equally frustrating! There are days when the printer jams all your envelopes, a FedEx package goes missing and a press run comes back wrong and you just want to phone it in. Then you have days that are better than anything you could have imagined. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Our clients are constantly inspiring us! Because all of our projects are custom, we’re constantly exploring different methods of art and design. We love that no two jobs are alike. Here are a few recent projects we’ve worked on:

We can’t wait to share more with you! Stay tuned to Oh So Beautiful Paper this week and in the mean time, say hi to us on Twitter and Instagram. Looking forward to meeting you all!

Photo Credits: Swiss Cottage Designs, except where noted