Today, we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Wengerd.
Hi Matthew, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I studied music throughout school, working through a BS in music ed and an MM in jazz studies (bass). Honestly, I wasn’t a great musician. I managed to hustle my way into admission and a graduate assistantship at USF (Frost was at the top of my list but wasn’t offering what I needed for it to be a viable option).
My assistantship, helping manage the Center for Jazz Composition, came with many new challenges, including designing full-page ads for placement in Jazz Times and Downbeat magazine. I had never done design work before and inherited files created in Apple Pages. My dad had studied graphic design at Kent State University not long after the protests. He had given it up to become a pastor, so it became a full circle moment as I reminisced about leafing through his undergraduate portfolio as a kid.
This was around the age of “Amish or Hipster,” a website that had visitors guessing whether the person in suspenders and a straw hat, furiously typing on a manual typewriter in the NYC subway, was a Luddite or a twenty-something with a flair for the arcane. What I came to believe was that this penchant for slow technology was a generation’s cry for intentional living – a desire to re-engage with the rituals of life that we had lost, the ones that required us to slow down and meditate as we honed our razors, refilled our pens, spun our yarn…
As wrestling with what it meant to slow down and live intentionally, I also realized that my passion wasn’t music (or jazz) specifically but a desire to create. Combining my newly birthed love of design and my desire to connect to myself and others through ritual led me to one of the two rituals we still commonly experience – weddings (the other being the ritual of remembering those who have passed).
So, I started a little wedding invitation design studio and quickly learned that my love of the more whimsical, avant-garde was begging for art-forward, brave, and daring couples willing to invest in their guests’ experiences. That’s when I started looking to NYC, LA, and Miami as both sources of inspiration and clients who understood the nature of what I was trying to create.
I’ve since built a career of surprising and delighting people with what I affectionately call “Holy Shit Stationery,” made for brave and daring nonconformists.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
While none of this journey has felt smooth or easy, it’s all come honestly and in its proper time.
I first learned that the work I do falls squarely into the “luxury” space as I tried to deliver on my dreams with the budget clients I first attracted. I grew up squarely lower-middle class in Ohio and believed that the least expensive viable option was always the best.
That meant I was immediately undercharging and looking for budget options for materials. It was only when I embraced that my visions required a commitment of trust and financial investment beyond what I had ever experienced that I started to create work that not only was I excited about, but my clients (and their guests) were also excited about.
I’ve also had to learn the differences between working with couples and the brands that I love to work with in delivering these holy shit experiences. The timelines and emotions are a world apart and require quite different approaches.
Most importantly, I was diagnosed with ADHD last year at 41, and it’s turning my life upside down. I see now how my struggles to maintain the workload and deliver on my promises have required an incredible level of compensation for the way my brain processes and stores things.
I’m unlearning the shame of needing help and asking for it – growing from solopreneur to a small team of people who help support what I believe I do best – dream on behalf of visionary couples and brands to create moments of surprise and delight for their people.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I make holy shit stationery for brave and daring nonconformists so they can be known and remembered by their people.
I’m driven by an obsession to make an impact in the lives of my clients’ people – the friends and family they want to celebrate their love with. The clients whose lives they want to transform. The benefactors whose contributions will help change the world.
I have two metrics by which I judge my work – did I make at least one person exclaim “holy shit!” when they receive it? And did I create something so personal that you’d know who it was made for, even if their name wasn’t on it? Everything else comes second.
I’ve spent a decade discovering what it takes to get my best work and choose to work with clients who don’t know what their stationery will look like but do know what the world should look like with their stationery in it. My relationships with my clients are vulnerable, and the conversations are deep. What gets you out of bed every morning? What keeps you up at night? What do your private spaces and moments of zen look and feel like?
I’m on the eternal hunt for new materials and techniques to bring impact and meaning to my work, and I always start with the assumption that anything is possible, given the right budget and mindset. I recently shipped invitations for a couple getting married on the shores of Como Lake in Italy and had an unboxing go viral. I was wrestling with self-doubt and understanding the ways my recently diagnosed ADHD affected my work.
The comments read like my manifesto – “Holy shit!” “Wedding of the century” “I am OBSESSED. I can’t wait to see how the wedding turns out!” “I’m on my hands and knees begging for couples that do this just so I can take photos of it LOL. Have the most fun at the wedding!” (about the couple:) “(They) win the best invite ever.” “Coachella needs to hire (them) to do their ticket boxes!” “And just like that wedding invitation bar is raised for everyone.”
What do you like and dislike about the city?
As someone who grew up in Ohio, the water the people, and the energy are so invigorating. There’s inspiration in every form – foods I’d never encountered and music that compels you to move. I love people-watching and hanging out at hotel bars to hear how other people experience the city.
I love the way everything is constantly in motion – every time I visit a neighborhood, it’s different. But, in that difference comes the challenges of balancing authenticity and commerce. I wonder where the vibrant artistic voices go when corporations drown them out with commodified art.
Pricing:
- I take on a maximum of ten projects a year with a minimum investment of $25,000
Contact Info:
- Website: http://afinepress.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/afinepress
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/afinepress
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@afinepress
Image Credits
Shauna + Jordon
Anna Ruossos
Christina McNeal
Matthew Wengerd
Jenny Quicksall
