PHILADELPHIA, PA, March 6, 2024 — The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is excited to announce the launch of its new store website and capsule collection of branded products. Designed by Brooklyn-based firm L+L, the work introduces a playful graphic system that emphasizes the artistic process and showcases the ways FWM embraces artist-designed, hand-made, and locally sourced products.
The new website introduces several innovative features that enhance the storytelling aspect of artists and their creative processes. In keeping with FWM’s mission and approach to working with artists of all disciplines, the site’s navigation includes ways to search by featured artists, artist editions, and other distinct offerings such as yardage and yardage-designed products.
The website also highlights exclusivity and interactivity, offering customers the opportunity to engage with the products in a dynamic way. By hovering over select product images, shoppers can view videos that showcase their making by FWM Studio staff. This feature takes visitors behind-the-scenes as unique pouches are being sewn to carry Rose B. Simpson’s limited edition Guidance Cards and as a two-person team screenprints designs by artists Henry Taylor, Jessica Campbell and Will Stokes, Jr. across the Studio’s 20-yard print tables. Clicking on an artist edition or an FWM exclusive product triggers a brief glowing effect, adding an element of excitement and discovery.
Paying homage to the act of making, FWM’s new collection of products advances this new graphic language to foster a sense of community. This ‘For the Love of the Workshop’ collection includes a set of 12 double-sided colored pencils, seven tool magnet designs, a pair of column magnets, a beanie, a mug, an embroidered baseball cap, and a 1000-piece puzzle.
• Loosely drawn illustrations in playful colors nod to essential tools of the trade: a silkscreen, a jar of ink, a roll of fabric, a pair of scissors, and the ultimate utilitarian material, blue tape. Each of these designs feature as individually sold tool magnets ($9.50 each); the scissors design is also featured on the embroidered cap ($35 each).
• Two products feature the paradoxical phrase “one-of-a-kind edition,” which has often been used by Studio staff to describe the outcomes of the artist multiple program—limited editions created in a distinctly FWM way. A mug with stacked phrasing is available in black or white ($24) while a black beanie ($38) features the phrase in an embroidered circular design.
• From its inception, artists of all disciplines have been invited to the FWM Studio to experiment with creating large-scale repeat patterns on fabric. The result of this playful open-ended process has often been the creation of hand-screenprinted yardage featuring an artist’s design. A 1000-piece puzzle features Hidden (1978–1979), a dense and dreamy jungle design by Will Stokes, Jr., who is among FWM’s earliest apprentices ($45).
• Vibrant drawings of Corinthian columns speak to the museum’s pop façade, designed by the celebrated Philadelphia-based architects and past Artists-in-Residence, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. The column design is featured on the colored pencil set case ($26) and serves as a picture-framing pair of magnets ($24). The facade as a whole was recently introduced as a miniature enamel pin ($10).
L+L’s approach to designing FWM’s new website and capsule collection derived inspiration from the notion of “contagious creativity” fostered by onsite experiences across its store, exhibitions, and studios. A palette of pink, gold, coral, blue, green, black and cream is inspired by decades of faded designs on print tables left by the many artists whose work has animated the FWM Studio. Its lead typeface, ITC Franklin Gothic Std Demi, was lifted from the same pop facade for the museum’s Arch Street location designed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.
FWM undertook this exploration of the rich connection and history between its Studio, Store, and audience through funding awarded in 2021 by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage as part of a Reimagining Recovery Grant. In addition to producing a new store website and capsule collection, FWM has formalized its program of artist multiples as Shopworks. During these collaborations, the institution fully supports the development and production of limited-edition artworks, which are made available for purchase to help raise essential funds for future projects. Over the years, artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Ann Hamilton, Jayson Musson, Sarah Sze, Richard Tuttle, and William Wegman have produced new works through the initiative. Shopworks continues to honor FWM’s history of working with artists as originally envisioned by its late founder Marion “Kippy” Boulton Stroud while building new audiences for today’s landscape.
Collectively, these projects are a testament to FWM’s commitment to promoting artistic expression and providing a platform for artists to showcase their work. Explore the exciting range of products and experience the playful world of material creativity at store.fabricworkshopandmuseum.org
About L+L
L+L is a creative studio and women-owned business. We work with innovators and problem solvers to design meaningful branding and digital systems. Our clients like to get their hands dirty in complex terrain—from disrupting healthcare, to building social equity, to improving the algorithms we rely on every day. Our aim for every project is a strong conceptual foundation and a uniquely functional design solution. Our specialization and passion is taking big ideas and translating them into a form that’s relatable and engaging.
Learn more at landl.us
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