What happens when literature meets art history meets design? I think, the wearables at Literary Book Gifts! Meet Melissa Chan, the creative mind behind Literary Book Gifts, and the story of how it came about. If you’re one who likes to play up your bookishness and “wear your books,” check out her shop and use the code included below!
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What is your passion and interest, and what occupies your mind each day?
My name is Melissa Chan and I am from Toronto, Ontario. As you can probably tell from the store, I love literature and design! Ever since I took an art history course, the world of fine art has always been fascinating as well, this influences a lot of my style decisions and design choices.
Each day I am thinking of new designs to do, but often I redesigning previous designs, just to get them perfect.
2. How did you start Literary Book Gifts? Where did the idea come from?
Although I started Literary Book Gifts this year, many of the designs had been swirling around my head for a little while before then. Finally I decided to try to put together a t-shirt design which, as it turns out, is not as easy as I thought. It took me a while to get a handle on the graphics editing software. And even after that it took me even longer make a design that looked any good. One of the first designs I made was for Moby Dick and I think I did it about 5 or 6 times before I was reasonably happy with it.
After a lot of deliberation, I picked out some high quality shirts (I always try to go for as much cotton as possible) and threw up a website. It was not a very exciting launch, but that is how Literary Book Gifts was started.
I love the feeling of nostalgia you get from seeing old illustrations and book covers so one day I decided I would make shirts that look like that.
3. From your designs and products, it looks like you love the classics. What makes them awesome to you?
I do love classics! I think greatest stories to this day are the classics. I’ve never encountered more intricate and epic stories than Les Miserables or War and Peace. And I think a lot of other people would agree that there is no comparison to their favorite Jane Austen or Charles Dickens story.
4. Fun reasons to “wear” books!
Wearing books makes for a great conversation starter! My personal favorite reason to wear books is because it is a helpful everyday reminder that our life is a story, just like the ones we read in these books.
Check out Melissa’s designs and shop at Literary Book Gifts! You can use the promo code JOSEPHINEELIA20 for 20% off anything in the store, no minimum, and can be used unlimited times.
**I don’t receive anything from this coverage, just spreading the word on something interesting!
