in 2004 I had the pleasure of licensing French Bull to a Korean entrepreneur that shared my vision of putting a smile on our customer’s face through the use of pattern on product in our everyday. Since then, we continue to design and produce to that end.

French Bull Korea’s distribution model embraces our lifestyle sensibility of products that add a surge of pop to your day-to-day, and are made only available through shop-in-shop partnerships with select retailers.

This bullog post highlights some snapshots of the latest French Bull shop at the Ulsan branch of Lotte department store in South Korea.

Never having seen our brand-name signage carved out in 3d and placed so beautifully on a wall as in these photos, I’m inspired and overjoyed by our growing presence around the world to 

Live Vivid.

Ulsan Branch of Lotte French Bull store

Ring, Fantasia, Delight & Multidot gold rimmed espresso sets

Porcelain Zodiac Collection

Delight table top collection

Multiplaid, Splice, and Dial serving platters

French Bull Shop in Shop at Lotte Department store

I love this sign

Catching up with friends and family, listening to music, and eating are pretty much my favorite things in life – Here are some snaps from this past Memorial Day where I did all of the above and entertained the day away – Being outdoors was an added bonus!

Here’s a great slideshow of some of the grossest Halloween candy out there this season. Above you’ll see three of my favorites, I have to say that the bloody bandage has to be the absolute worst. Perhaps that one jumps out at me because there is nothing worse to me than seeing a used bandage stuck somewhere on the subway, a real life terror. Candy has really stepped up it’s gross-out game since I was a kid. Candy corn and wax lips have given way to gummy creations that have no boundaries. I’m not quite sure what the connection is with the body part sushi but Halloween doesn’t always have to make sense, it just needs to be creepy. Mission accomplished!

Joan in T 1976

My inspirations are many when I design for French Bull, but nothing turns me on more than a vibe I try to catch as often as possible. To me this vibe’s got a steady beat, a repetitive bass riff.  It looks like a shoe so feminine and chunky it becomes a glamorous warrior as it trudges through the mud. It smells like violet candy, and hard won sweat. It glimmers in lights turned down low, and emanates swirls of smoke that gently tug at me to stay under its spell. I first identified it in 75′ when I was old enough to understand it, and use it to create. I can recognize it in people, settings, objects, and music in an instant .  Flashes of the vibe flickered in my heart Friday night as I watched the Runaways movie. It was cinematically flat, but for those of you that find inspiration in this vibration, I’m telling you I felt the rush.

French Bull Valentines Day card range by American Greetings

We consider ourselves a very lucky brand to have a licensing agreement with American Greetings which was founded in 1906, and run by members of the family since its inception. AG has done a beautiful job making our patterns exude the love they were created with in a French Bull Valentine’s Day card collection now available at their Carlton card stores and Target. American Greeting’s attention to detail including color vibrancy, glitter, foil, ribbons, die cuts, tip ons is astounding, giving us all a big bang for the buck!

 Laura Harris, Linda Sweeney, Jackie Shapiro 

The spring 09 collection launch for French Bull at the NY international gift show is a wrap. See the cab load video on our facebook pg, see the photo of the build up, and photos of our final booth. 

Plates

Right side of the booth

Kiss, Multidot, Pink Paisley, Harlequin, Mosaic, and Delight aprons

Aprons

Killer kids stuff

Kids plate sets

Nicole-Jackie-Linda-Laura

Who plans months and sometimes years in advance to attend a trade show?  WE DO.

As manufacturers, we design, plan, travel, build, and paint, so that for five days we have the opportunity to see our customers, meet new ones, explore business opportunities, meet the press, and buy a lot of lousy expensive food. 

Power to the retailers that fly in, book hotels, and walk every aisle in pursuit of the new and unique that will set their store apart. On Sunday January 25th we’re doing it all over again through the 29th for the International New York Gift Show at Jacob Javits  in the Accent on Design section, booth # 3961.

Here are some pics of our last two booths  made mostly out of, NO JOKE,,,,,,  Foam core. To the king of foam core Mr. Tsah Sharon of Displayology – http://displayology.com, thank you. Any comments are welcome regarding the Trade Show process as it exists in this day and age. I am really interested in hearing how you perceive the state of the Trade Show and it’s evolution.

Phil Andre

Anthony Pappalardo

foam core kitchen

Linda Tepper Jackie Shapiro

foam core high chair

stacked foam core cubes

Starbucks Coffee, Ben & Jerry’s and other fine American companies are giving away free goods to people who voted today. Unfortunately for all these generous companies it violates election laws to bribe people to vote with coffee and sweets, you can read about it here. This means you can get free stuff even if you didn’t vote, I love America!

In addition to getting your free Tall Coffee at Starbucks you can check out these freebies :

Ben & Jerry’s

Krispy Kreme

Wilco and Fleet Foxes