Etsy Paper: Tell us a little about yourself.
Monopache: Our names are Pilar and Noa; we live in Aranjuez, a Spanish city designated by UNESCO as "World Heritage Site". We love riding bikes and have two cats: Ifrit and Momo. They make us laugh everyday.
Etsy Paper: When did you open your shop on Etsy?
Monopache: We opened on April 16, 2013. We had already worked as a freelance team on designing creative wedding invitations, therefore we decided to create a whole line of downloadable products for sale.
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| Pirate Party Set |
Etsy Paper: Tell us about your shop.
Monopache: We mainly sell printable party sets for kids, including standard elements as party banners, invitations, posters, labels... But we love to add original and funny stuff, as costumes, boxes, games. All is designed ready to be printed and we make customizable items as far as possible.
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| Domino Set |
Etsy Paper: How did your shop get its name?
Monopache: Monopache is an invented word which is composed of two animals: monkey and raccoon. In Spanish, they are "mono + mapache". They are our totems, they represent us. And, logically, when a monkey and a raccoon come together, only nice and funny things can come out.
Etsy Paper: Name top (3-5) items that you cannot live without.
Monopache: Cutter, ruler, scoring and folding tool, pencil and paper. We try to create elements that don´t need any glue or adhesive tape.
Etsy Paper: Do you remember the first item you made, and if so, do you still have it?
Monopache: Maybe, it was a customized birthday gift that we made for a friend. It consisted of a big box and, inside, there were several character paper-toys, and all of them were caricatures of our friend in funny costumes and situations. They had interchangeable accessories and some quotes that he used to say. Whenever he wants, he has more printed copies to cut and assemble by himself inside the box.
It was the moment we realized that we could make amazing things together.
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| "First" Item |
Etsy Paper: What do you have on while you're creating, if anything, and is it tuned to something specific?
Monopache: It depends on how much concentration we need, we usually listen to indie music, sometimes 80's hits, a podcast, radio... Or we watch some chapters of a TV series (a one that we don't care if we miss a thing, but interesting enough).
Etsy Paper: What software do you use?
Monopache: We do a lot of drawings, paintings and sketches by hand. Then, we mainly use Photoshop and Illustrator. Sometimes a bit of Flash, sometimes a bit of InDesign layout too.
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| Crazy Science Cup Decor |
Monopache: We usually spend a lot of time in our planning process because matching elements and illustrations is important for us. We have to create something coherent and, at the same time, each piece must work by itself.
Despite of that, some part of the work changes during the creation process because new ideas arise, and there are always new challenges, new problems to be solved...
I love Monopache and I'm sure you do too.
What a creative couple!
Until next time,
Jenni
Etsy Paper
Team Captain