By Lucia Viti

Where paper and print are thriving

The scope of all things paper, yes paper, is thriving in Uptown. Warren Tales — an independent greeting card company chock-full of printed, hand-typed, and hand-sewn, all-occasion cards — is resurrecting the art of letter writing.

The brainchild of Lindsey Warriner, Warren Tales connects people through prose and poetry creatively displayed on hand-crafted designs. From “thank you” to “I miss you” to thoughts of “solace” and “encouragement” to “smile” and “congratulations,” Warren Tales cards serve as a catalyst for conversation.

“Warren Tales are created, cut, packaged and plucked by unique humans to ensure the finest quality for every letter-writing experience,” said Warriner, a 27-year-ol Hillcrest resident. “Some say print is a dying industry but look around you, everything is printed. The technical revolution has simply removed the fluff and left messages deemed important and beautiful. Printing is a tactile form of art that has become a specialty item, like Warren Tales. My greeting cards are artistic keepsakes that force us to articulate our feelings.”

Warriner’s paper trail began as a child rummaging through her father’s office trash for paper to cut shapes, draw cards and build cities.

“I’ve loved the feel of paper since I was old enough to hold scissors,” she said. “How fantastic as a 10-year-old to be able to acquire as much paper as I wanted to make things, scrap them and make new things.”

The paper sleuth continued to investigate all things paper before turning to greeting cards in college.

“My college roommate was obsessed with greeting cards while I originally found them weird and lame,” the Emerson College graduate said. “I became smitten when I realized that I could [find] better, so I scoured shelves for the well-designed, well-made, and well-phrased. I followed greeting card presses like someone follows a band, pining for a new release or limited print run.”

As a member of the Boston’s poetry community, Warriner wrote, designed, printed, bound and sold her collection of poems at the school’s poetry lounge. The small-scale project gave her the comfort, and ultimately the confidence, to work with design and print production.

“Translating the design into typesetting the artwork while having my hands on paper felt so good, it became an obsession,” she said. “It was great to have something handmade and sellable. Because handmade is art that can’t be sold at wholesale prices, I learned how to balance the difference between selling a single, one-off product and repeatables, which looped me back to greeting cards.”

Sporting a degree in poetry and publishing, Warriner pursued her paper passion in a children’s publishing house before returning back to Hillcrest to further explore her quest for all things greeting cards. Early labor intensive cutting, molding, manipulating, layering and sewing the worlds of crepe and paper into greeting cards — including hand-carved stamps — instigated requests for wedding invitations and birth announcements. The work poured in and Warriner knew that she had found her niche.

“Warren Tales was born from a wonderful, pocket-sized print project that just kept growing until finally, I was struck with the cockamamie idea of going into business,” she said.

Warriner described her impressive collection of all occasion cards of as the fung shui of greeting cards. “Cards don’t have to be elaborate,” she explained. “They have to be well-stated. The beauty is in the edit. Stripping away the redundancy and over decoration leaves you with a great snapshot of what you want to say.”

The now self-described jack-of-all-trades — writer, poet, designer, and print production manager — compared the craftsmanship of greeting cards to the craft of beer-making.

“People won’t spend money drinking lousy beer,” she said. “But they will spend money on unique and regional beers. The same can be said about greeting cards. Today, people drop 20 dollars to buy four greeting cards. That’s quite a bit of money. So designers are forced to make that money worthwhile. Quality control calls for exceptional designs and meaningful messages.”

Warren Tales’ accolades include a spot as a 2014 finalist for Martha Stewart’s American Made Award. Highlighting community artists who fashion their artistry into sellable goods, these awards “spotlight the next generation of great American makers, entrepreneurs, artisans, and small-business owners who create beautiful, inspiring, useful products; pioneer new industries; improve local communities; and change the way we eat, shop, work, and live.”

Stewart believes that America is in a culture shift for creative entrepreneurs to define a new American economy as shoppers choose Main Street over mini-malls to support local artisans.

“’What does made in America mean to you?’ was one of many of Stewart’s American Made application questions,” Warriner said. “For me, ‘American Made’ is a brilliantly broad term inspired by interacting with the infinite elements of this country. American Made celebrates a highly inclusive selection of goods, given each person’s unique exchange and circumstance. It also extends to supporting the use of materials made and sold within the U.S.”

Warriner explained that Made in America is significant because America is so big. “Made in San Diego is different than made in New York, which is different than made in Montana. Same country, different states, different worlds yet all under the same umbrella,” she said.

Warriner juggles Warren Tales between working full time at DeFrance Printing Press in National City.

“My day job is a paid apprenticeship while Warren Tales’ pays for itself,” she said. “Although I have my own equipment and paper supplies, I have cool plans to expand my business which includes having someone else produce small batches of printing. It’s only natural to delve into learning everything I can.”

Warren Tales can be purchased in North Park’s Simply Local, online, specialty boutiques nation and worldwide, including Itoya in Japan.

“Everyone who looks through the Warren Tales’ card instantly smile,” Simply Local owner Brian Beevers said. “Each card is extremely witty with such well-done and fitting graphics, sure to bring a smile to whoever you are giving it to!”

Warriner noted the genesis behind the company name and logo.

“Warren, which refers to my surname Warriner, is a rabbit burrow,” she explained. “The etymology translates as ‘the keeper of rabbits.’ Bunnies are even displayed on my family shield! Tales pays homage to my years working as a writer in the whimsical world of children’s publishing. The rabbit and literature combination naturally lent itself to a gentleman bunny and the final illustration sealed the deal.”

—Contact Lucia Viti at [email protected].