Our intern Joy went and checked out this street design fair in Hayes Valley in SF a week or so ago. DIY and stuff.
Written by: Joy

Sponsored by Capsule
Sunday May, 27th 11am-6pm
Hayes Valley

Last Sunday was the semi-annual Capsule Design Festival in Hayes Valley. Usually street fairs are boring and lame no matter what the event is with the same tired vendors trying to push the same old shit. Generic art, ethnocentric wares, crafty goods, “unique” handcrafted jewelry, meat on sticks... you get the picture. Most times the only way to cope is to make a beeline for the beer stands and guzzle as much overpriced cheap beer as you can whilst cultivating that perfect white trash sunburn. AND if your anything like me and let’s hope you’re not, the way it inevitably turns out is that during some moment of beer soaked euphoria, you are charmed by some treasurable find and return home with a souvenir that ends up being thrown into a box under the bed labeled “Duped Again.”

Well, this one was different. There was no food. No beer. No sun.

No fun you must say?! On the contrary, it was actually quite nice. It was far from your typical craft fair and to call it that would probably be an insult to all parties involved. Nope, it was a design festival with artist backgrounds ranging from fashion, textiles, and apparel, to jewelry, art, print, housewares and even make-up! All pretty cool! I attended curious to see what our local design community had to offer and discovered some talented folks in the mix.

Here is my day in photos...

Follow the designy looking people.

I went to the festival alone with the idea in mind that I’d run into people I would know. Lo and behold one of the very 1st tables I visited was ran by Dan and my friend Seanie. For a respectable city, SF never fails to disappoint in reminding you how small it really is.

His design company is called Spooky Vutron.

These gals screenprinted canvas messenger bags. I knew I shouldn’t have waited 5 days to post this. I done forgot their names. :P But I do have their website! Ladypom.com

This is Rebecca. I chatted her up because I really liked the stuff she had. Her boyfriend James designed the Tshirts and she created the bags and pencil cases. Some of the T-shirts were even hand stenciled.

Each individual pencil case has original artwork (Loretta Nguyen) drawn directly on the material making each piece unique. Super cute!

Cross your eyes and stare really hard.

Just kidding. That doesn’t do anything.
Squink Industries

Another run-in. Unless you are a certified hermit, you live here long enough and you run into everybody and their mother! This is Alex and Danielle. I used to work with Alex at the worst company ever to taint SF’s gracious soil. They ran their company like Hitler ran Germany. Except without the genocide. Or the moderate success of running a well oiled nazi regime. Or blind adoration from their minions. Or… Ok, point is they sucked. Many TV shows and movies have been inspired by crapholes like them.

Live painting by Pacific Art Collective.

And here is Alyssa and Rannie. They’re designers too! They do stuff for Readymade magazine.

AWWWW YEAAA, BUCKET O’BELTS!!!

This is Kate. She’s an artist/designer that ran a really sweet table with her own embroidered bags and cards. She says she checks fecal face everyday. Need I say more? She knows the dealio!

Like what you see?

Go here for more.

Stuff.

I passed by this table eyeing these sweet treats hoping they were “enhanced.” Sadly, they weren’t. Silly me. Where’d I think I was? San Francisco?

This is David. I really dug his artwork so I asked for his business card and his title said Bounty Hunter in big bold red letters. When I asked him if that was for real he said no.

This is Ashley. She created these cool earrings using her own original photography documented from her personal experiences.

Learn more about her earrings here.

I had no clue this cool boutique existed until that day, even though according to my friends it’s been there for a while.

…there goes my deluded sense of self.

This is Henry. He sells deconstructed Tshirts that he designed the screenprints for. He was very friendly and super cool and spent some time explaining to me how screenprinting wasn’t enough for him and how he wanted to lend his shirts some originality by deconstructing them.

Right about this time is when my camera battery died with still one more block to cover. I considered calling it a day but instead decided I might as well go through the trouble to make the quick jaunt home for a recharge and then come back. How’s that for dedication?

Welcome to Capsule Design Festival, Part II.

This lovely lady’s name is Hilary and she designs handmade dolls. They are definitely one of a kind.

My fourth failed attempt to get little guy Lily to look at the camera. Gosh darn sweet stupid! Who’s a good puppy??

Square six. The “Rock On” card tickles my funny bone.

buttons, buttons, BUTTONS!

Meet the talented Hannah. She is a graphic designer/illustrator whose worked with Ordinary Kids as well as other notable clients.

Love her stuff.

Whelp, this concludes my photo documentation. There were 140 designers set up and obviously I hardly covered a quarter of them but I hope that it’s enough to give you a little taste of what to expect for this event. Be sure to check it out when they set up their next one in the fall. Ok, bye bye.

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