With colorful and graphic screen prints happy enough to make even the biggest sourpuss jump for joy, Dallas-based husband and wife design team Jeff Barfoot and Shay Ometz, aka Bee Things, talk to Zatista’s contributing writer Nancy Cost about the best and worst parts of working together, and who gets the final say.
Note: Jeff is answering the questions and Shay’s chiming in on occasion.
Painted Bunting by Bee Things on Zatista
How do you like being a husband and wife design team?
We love it. Bee Things is not our day job – I’m a principal at RBMM, the design arm of advertising agency The Richards Group, and Shay is a Senior Art Director for fashion brand Fossil. Bee Things is our escape, our project that doesn’t have a deadline.
What’s the best part?
Just getting a chance to spend more time together. Our work and family commitments take up just most of our time and energy, so having this gives us a chance to talk and laugh and be affectionate instead of sitting and watching t.v. or burying our heads in our respective books.
The hardest part?
Keeping up with it. We have pretty demanding jobs, and two very demanding young kids. The other hard thing is if one of us is out of commission (sick, traveling, etc.), the whole operation shuts down so the other can take care of the kids. It’s hard, but so wonderful too; I can’t quite describe it.
Who gets the final say?
“Me!” says Shay, with a mouth full of ice cream. We concept and sketch everything together. I’m more the illustrator, so I usually take our sketch and execute it on the computer, get it about 90% there. Shay always knows how to add that last wonderful ten percent, that spark that makes it come alive. Every time I’ve ever put my foot down and argued, she’s been right. I remember two prints where I argued strongly at the very end. On one, I won, and it’s our worst-selling print of all time. On the other, Shay won, and it’s one of our best-sellers. But don’t tell her I told you that.
Waiting for Love by Bee Things on Zatista
How long do you spend on a design before you start screening prints?
It depends. Sometimes they just come right out, and sometimes we have to drag them through the mud for a while before they behave themselves. Some prints we sketched, illustrated, and printed the same weekend. Other prints we have in the works for weeks, not quite right, before they finally talk to us. But when they’re done, we know instantly.
What is your studio like?
Our studio is an outbuilding in our back yard. It’s small, about 200 square feet, but wonderful and colorful and cozy. We print by hand, so the only electronics our there are a stereo (which pretty much plays either NPR or Red Sox baseball games via the iPhone), and an air conditioner. We also have a small fridge full of only two things: emulsion fluid for making screens, and cold beer.
How large can you make your prints?
Our largest size is 24” x 18”, but that’s really stretching our workspace to its limit. We’re at our best around 14” x 11” or 16” x 20”. Most of our prints are 10” x 14”, so people can buy off-the-shelf frames that are either 12” x 16” or 16” x 20” and have a nice, even border around them.
How did you first decide to make screen prints?
When Shay was pregnant with our first son, I filled a brown paper bag with snacks for her everyday. I would draw with crayons on the bag, always something different. Her friends and coworkers would see the bags and say, “You need to sell those!” But we didn’t give it much thought. At that same time, we bought a house with a little studio-shed-thing in the back yard. As we were talking about what to do with the rooms Shay said in an offhand way, “You should make the shed-thingy into a screen printing studio. I’ll bet you would like that.” And I said, “I wonder if you can screen print on lunch bags?” Neither of us had any experience screen printing, even in college. So, I bought a screen printing book and that was that – it all came together. I converted the little structure into a studio and we made our first print right away – with the wrong ink and everything – but we loved the medium.
Blue Jays by Bee Things on Zatista
How do you get inspired?
The best answer is: we’ve let our creativity become our lifestyle. Our dining room table has our computers and sketchbooks and jars of pencils and markers. We talk work all the time, whether we’re cooking dinner or out at the movies. That’s the blessing and curse of doing what you love for a living – we use everything around us all the time for inspiration, but we also never quite get a break from it (which usually don’t mind). We’re so lucky, and we talk about it every day, really. We love our “worklife.”
Who are some artists you admire?
The big ones are Charles and Ray Eames. To us, they really epitomize the wonderfully happy “worklife”. Others are Charles Schultz, American designer Paul Rand, German designer Otl Aicher, and Charley Harper. Shay’s are Paul Klee, Donna Wilson, her Mom, Caroline (a painter), and of course, Charley Harper.
What cities do you like to visit for their art & design culture?
Oh man do we love London. London’s jumble of cultures and people and food and shops is addicting. London has all kinds of little pockets of neighborhoods to discover, and a really interesting mix of brand new modern buildings next to others that are hundreds of years old. We also love New York. It always gets me is how wonderfully schizophrenic and dense the city is. A world-class museum is two doors down from a dry cleaner is across the street from a five-star restaurant is next to a thrift store. You can visit New York a hundred times, live there even, and never stop being surprised.
What do you think Bee Things will be creating or designing in 5 years?
We would love to design home products. We’re always getting ideas for knife racks, cutting boards, clocks, chairs, scarves, hats, mugs, etc. But the initial cost of producing and warehousing products is steep compared to creating a storing limited edition prints and paper goods. So, if there are any angel investors out there reading this, give us a call!
Blue Moth (on yellow) by Bee Things on Zatista
What is your advice to people who are not sure how to incorporate colorful artwork into their homes?
We loooooooove color! We have it all over our home. I think an easy guideline for someone who doesn’t have a lot of bright color in their home is to “double pop.” If you have a room that you are thinking of putting a bright yellow butterfly print in (wink wink!) it helps to have another object in the room, like a vase or single chair, of the same color. We also say that you can’t have too much bright and optimistic color.
What’s hanging on the walls at your house?
We have a our own prints and original artwork and prints by other folks we love and admire. To name a few of the larger pieces, we have a vintage Swiss rowing competition poster, a few original Charley Harper prints, two prints from my design mentor, Jack Summerford, Golden Gate National Park posters by Michael Schwab, posters from some of our favorite designers (Paul Rand, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser), and a 1972 Munich Olympics poster by designer Otl Aicher. We have a lot of smaller, beautiful pieces that Shay has collected over the years, way too many to list here. They’re all meaningful additions to our happy home!
