Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx with Earmark Invitations

I’m still on vacation today—I will officially be back tomorrow. Before I left though,  I interviewed the husband and wife team Mike Berndt and Bridgette Salvon-Berndt of Earmark Invitations.

I love Earmark Invitations for their quirky, hysterical and oftentimes irreverent greetings. But they do also offer more traditional wedding invitations, journals and personalized stationary as well as other fun paper goods like: celebration banners, Dinner Party in a Box Kits and even evites! You can see more on their website or in the Etsy Shop.

1. What’s your story? What do create and sell and how did you get your start?

Earmark Invitations (Etsy Shop) is the husband-and-wife team of Mike Berndt and Bridgette Salvon-Berndt. We create all kinds of custom wedding invitations, greeting cards and stationery, journals, party banners, and many other gift items.

Earmark Invitations was started when Bridgette was designing the invitations for our wedding. She volunteered her design advice to another bride on a message forum and has been doing it ever since.

2. What’s the best part about working with family? And is there a downside?

The best part about working together is that we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and we’re good at working together as a team, so if one of us is having trouble, they can always be sure that the other one is there to back them up. Plus we have a great time working together, joking around and listening to music all day. The only downside is that it’s a lot tougher to fake sick.

3. What’s your creative process like?

We think of ideas for new products at all different times. Sometimes we’ll just be joking around, and we’ll look at each other and know we’ve just come up with a great idea.

Sometimes it starts with a sketch or a doodle. We both enjoy drawing and sketching quite a bit.

4. What are your creative inspiration?

We find inspiration everywhere, whether it might be in the lyrics to a favorite song, the colors of the houses in a neighborhood, or maybe a hilarious scene in a movie.

5. What blogs and mags do you read and what shops do you shop at?

Mike: I’m a technology addict, so I read a lot of stuff like Wired, IGN, and Ars Technica.

Bridgette: I’m am very much into home decor and travel. Just subscribed to a great travel magazine called AFAR, Nat. Geo. Travel, Budget Travel, Real Simple, Martha, Bust and any other magazine that strikes me! For blogs, I check out so many. I have a ton I love. Sometimes I just browse to get inspiration.

6. What have you recently been reading, watching and listening to?

Mike: Just finished reading Pygmy by Chuck Pahlaniuk. I’ve recently been listening to Deer Tick, Foreign Born, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Delta Spirit.

Bridgette: Recently finished Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. Been very much enjoying Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend, Delta Spirit, Kings of Leon and anything that gets me pumped when exercising!

7. What’s new? Any products or projects you’d like to share?

We’ve been working our butts off on a new web site that’s set to launch VERY soon. It’s going to be amazing, and we’re tremendously proud of it. We also have a bunch of new holiday products coming out this year.