I've been making my own business cards for my shop ever since I opened it, writing a personalized note to each customer thanking them for their purchase. I'm a hobby photographer anyway and with a little photoshop magic you can easily print words on the pictures. I get them printed at the same professional online photo lab where I have everything printed. They always have a matte finish and a vintage-esque white border. The first photograph I used was the one above (with Curious Knopf Vintage printed on it of course.) It is of a vintage cowgirl and was taken in the bathroom on the fabulous Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne, Wyoming.
I have relatives in Cheyenne so we stopped there for a night when we went to visit my grandma in Nebraska a little over a year ago. Cheyenne is a sort of rundown (so many empty store fronts, what a shame) but still charming old West town and the Plains is great if you're passing through (it was my second time staying there.) My second thank you/business card was also taken in the hallway of the Plains. The woman in the photograph is my sister. I ordered 30 copies, so I've been using it for a while, but I'm actually not all that crazy about the layout.
On a side note, I loved the problem-with-cowboys stories my 18 year old cousin who grew up in Cheyenne told us when we visited. Most Cheyenne teenagers grow up in suburban sprawl like the rest of the U.S., but there is a small percentage of real cowboys growing up on ranches. He said they tend to smell and spit tobacco during class which is annoying. There is also a very old law on the books that if they ride their horses to school, the school is required to give the horse shelter and brush it and feed it during lunch time, so some of them do this. What a hoot!
Anyway, my most current thank you/business card is the one pictured above. The photograph is the detail of a 1920s photograph of the German actress Lotte Lenya, most famous for her work in Kurt Weill pieces (she was also his lover for many years.) I wanted to maybe offer it as a print in my new photography shop Augenblick Photo, but it's a bit too out of focus for my taste (not that all photographs should be in focus, but if they aren't, there should be a reason...) It turned out fabulous, especially with the white border. I ordered 20 copies and the first one is going out in a package tomorrow, so if you order soon you'll have a lovely one all of your own. ;)
I love to sometimes waste a bit of time doing google image searches for vintage ads and photographs. When I find one I like, I often save it, planning to maybe use it for a blog entry somewhere down the road. Many of them I never use but also never erase because I like them so much.
This lovely mod lass was used to make the banner of my shop for a while, though I recently changed it again. Who knows? Maybe she'll make an appearance again sometime down the road when I change my banner yet again on a whim...
This photograph completely reminds me of my Arizona childhood. I would say the area is somewhere around Phoenix except that there is a Saguaro in the background whereas the desert there is basically just scrub brush. And tumble weeds, of course. They really do roll just like in the old Westerns.
This photograph is just one of many thousands which is actually in the public domain, i.e. everyone is welcome to do whatever they want with it. Not so with the other shots, though as a disclaimer, I do not own any of these images (now someone else can steal them to post of their blog! ;) )
Some of the old Life shots can be a little bit cheesey-ly over the top (or just seen too many times so they feel like a cliche) but I like this one a lot.
I've had these shots of Sophia Loren on my computer for a long time. She's so beautiful and sensual with a few drops of slutty brat mixed in. My alter ego, perhaps? Either way, simply divine.
While Sophia Loren I am not, this lady here just might be my vintage soul mate. Time to get out there and take some more photographs. :)
Sometimes I'm not sure being a hobby photographer is actually any good for the branding business side of running my vintage shop, Curious Knopf. Most of my favorite vintage clothing shops on etsy have a simple, neutral background, usually gray or maybe white. I guess the closest I got to this kind of a feel were the original photographs I took in my stairwell. I liked them because the light was so beautiful and the gray color on the wall so warm.
But views were generally pretty low, though I don't really know why. Perhaps because all the photos were close-ups, something that can not really be changed since I work primarily with a macro lens.
I recently took some photographs in a parking lot across the street from my apartment which has this funky green wall with peeling paint. Above the green is a tacky mural of what looks like the Golden Gate Bridge, though it is probably a bridge in Istanbul that looks similar (which would make sense since this is Kreuzberg, Turkey's third largest city...)
But people kept on walking by from the Gewerbehof in the back, and although they didn't say anything, I still found it distracting and therefore not much fun. Though I had the benefit of natural light, I don't think I'll be taking photographs there again.
I've also taken lots of photographs in several of the crumbling old graveyards in my neighborhood (though, come to think of it, the last photograph is actually the outer wall of an art deco public toilet on Chamisso Platz.)
Although I like these photographs they do take a bit more "Aufwand" since I have to carry the clothing to said graveyards and said art deco public toilets...
A large majority of my photographs (both modeled and on the dress form) I've been taking between the doors of one of our front rooms, the one that serves as a library/dining room/office, better known as "the Grafen Zimmer" after my husband's particular heritage.
Not a bad background really, but a bit tricky sometimes with the placement and most definitely with the lighting.
My newest love is the light green wall of our bedroom.
Lovely color and with the added benefit that I can use one of the walls near a window.
And then, there are also the handmade jewelry photographs, most of which are definitely in the spirit of Schaufenster.
Yes, I definitely spend a lot of time on my photographs (come to think of it, quite a few of my posts here on this blog have been about them), albeit in a rather impractical way. Then again, I'm a bit of a chaotic creature myself so I guess this fits. Perhaps chaos does ensue, but chaos indeed does also rule. What can you do in the end other than just be yourself? ;)
Since I am an avid photographer myself, taking photographs for both of my etsy shops is definitely a large part of the fun. I try to take nice shots that highlight whatever I am offering for sale but that also have some similarity in style to give my shop an overall "look". I take the gray close up shots of my vintage clothing in the second stairway of our apartment building (yes, I do think my neighbors think I'm a little strange ;) ) because the walls are a nice neutral gray and light comes softly through the windows. The shots from the front, side and back I have usually taken in front of one of the set of double doors in our apartment:
My intentions are probably pretty clear: I wanted a lighter background to offset the clothing. Two problems almost always occurred though. Problem a) light is seriously hard to come by in Berlin, especially since I opened my shop in the winter. Often the white ended up looking dingy or yellowed which meant extra time on photoshop to make the pictures presentable, something I'd rather not have to do. Problem b) the pattern on the door often made the photographs look crooked even if they actually weren't, another issue that meant photoshop. But then, a few days ago, Eureka! I thought, why not just open the doors. Here is an example of the results:
Having light from the back definitely helps with the darkness issue. I also like the warmth added by the floor and that you can see the lovely pink tulips my husband bought for me to cheer me up because I was super grouchy that this has been the coldest, grayest and wettest May in Berlin ever (I can't help it. I grew up in California and Arizona where "weather" comes in about three varieties and is generally dependable, i.e. warm, clear and gorgeous...) I also like that you can see the place where the clothes is from which would definitely always peak the interest of a curious soul such as myself. Anyway, I would love any thoughts or feedback, so please do fire away. :)
I've been making my own business cards for my shop ever since I opened it, writing a personalized note to each customer thanking them for their purchase. I'm a hobby photographer anyway and with a little photoshop magic you can easily print words on the pictures. I get them printed at the same professional online photo lab where I have everything printed. They always have a matte finish and a vintage-esque white border. The first photograph I used was the one above (with Curious Knopf Vintage printed on it of course.) It is of a vintage cowgirl and was taken in the bathroom on the fabulous Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne, Wyoming.
I have relatives in Cheyenne so we stopped there for a night when we went to visit my grandma in Nebraska a little over a year ago. Cheyenne is a sort of rundown (so many empty store fronts, what a shame) but still charming old West town and the Plains is great if you're passing through (it was my second time staying there.) My second thank you/business card was also taken in the hallway of the Plains. The woman in the photograph is my sister. I ordered 30 copies, so I've been using it for a while, but I'm actually not all that crazy about the layout.
On a side note, I loved the problem-with-cowboys stories my 18 year old cousin who grew up in Cheyenne told us when we visited. Most Cheyenne teenagers grow up in suburban sprawl like the rest of the U.S., but there is a small percentage of real cowboys growing up on ranches. He said they tend to smell and spit tobacco during class which is annoying. There is also a very old law on the books that if they ride their horses to school, the school is required to give the horse shelter and brush it and feed it during lunch time, so some of them do this. What a hoot! 
