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CREAM Design & Print: Supporting Local Dreamers
What does Wu-tang have to do with the flourishing of local artists and entrepreneurs in Tucson? Let’s find out… CREAM Design & Print CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME As I sat with the CREAM team in their office, my eyes caught a glimpse of the company’s first design hanging on the wall. Laid over the background of green, dripping paint is an eye inside a pyramid reminiscent of the one on the back of our dollar bill. It’s surrounded by some symbols, the company’s namesake, and is signed in sharpie, RZA 2008 Wu Tang. The Wu Tang Clan song, Cash Rules Everything Around Me, speaks about a reality that founders of CREAM were well aware of when starting their business. If they wanted to be able to do their art full-time, it would have to be sustainable financially. Creative talent alone doesn’t pay the bills. This is how the wisdom of Wu-tang began to take shape into a business that prized artistry, professionalism and excellent customer-care. Design by CREAM. For CREAM, this commitment to excellence isn’t just about realizing their own goals but also contributing to the success of their neighbors. Co-owners, Pat Foley and Marissa Johnson, are motivated to help bridge the gap between the creative talent flooding our neighborhoods and the comparatively few opportunities for full-time work in these fields. As Marissa put it, there are a lot of people in Tucson pursuing their passions as “side-gigs.” The nature of what CREAM does with design and print allows them to advocate for local artists and entrepreneurs. It makes me think back to that enigmatic eye that is front and center in their first design. While the original “eye of providence” on the dollar bill represents the divine, this providential care is reflected in their work. Divine providence refers to a powerful, benevolent being working to create positive outcomes. Likewise, CREAM is committed to using the creative power of their business to providentially support other local dreamers. They act as an eye of providence for the flourishing of local business in Tucson. Design by Emily Orzel. Find her on Instagram at @emilyorzel and find more of her work at www.emilyorzel.com BRINGING IDEAS TO LIFE When a local artist or business brings their idea to CREAM, it becomes a living thing. Some clients come with a fine-tuned design and a specific print medium in mind. Other times, someone only has a general concept that they need the team to develop into a visual reality. In the latter case, the team goes to work designing something that can capture what the individual or business wants to communicate. We are a visual culture, and clothing and other print media are an important part of connecting people to local events and products. Marissa shared that each member of their team has a great creative eye, so the process is saturated with artistic perspectives that come together to create just the right images. And while they customize their designs to the customer’s brand, they have a unique style that is self-described as Americana, tongue-in-cheek, and reflective of the artistic yet gritty nature of Tucson. Prabjit Virdee of Mute Swan, musician in Tucson, Arizona. HELPING ARTISTS THRIVE While the team loves creating their own designs, they have a parallel passion for sharing other’s work. One of Pat and Marissa’s motivations for starting a print business was the accessibility factor. Print makes it possible for an artist’s design to be widely enjoyed. One of the great things about Tucson is all of the local art coloring our buildings. CREAM makes it so that we can likewise clothe our bodies with unique, homegrown designs. It is another way that we get to enjoy the images that represent the tapestry of our city. One of the most intimate ways CREAM connects us to our local talent is through their live printing events. Every Second Saturday at R-Bar CREAM collaborates with a different artist to print some of their designs right before our eyes. You always have the option to bring a favorite piece of clothing or choose from their selection on-site. They specifically seek out artists who don’t yet have their work on clothing, so local history is being made every month! Live printing extends beyond this monthly event. They have brought the experience to events like business anniversaries, store openings, and recently a family day at the Tucson Museum of Art. Live printing is a great way that CREAM gets to create tangible memories for these special events in our city. Best Buds Botanical, florist in Tucson, Arizona. SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS, SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES In addition to caring for our community, CREAM is acutely aware of how much the world’s resources have been stressed by industry and are committed to practices that curb their footprint. Their decision to offer “green” printing through a renewable resource (soy-based ink!) has been well-supported by many Tucsonans who are intentional with their consumer and entrepreneurial choices. CREAM employs a number of other practices with their cleaning products, recycling habits, and t-shirt options that bring their financially sustainable mindset to bear in an ecological way. CREAM’s future aspirations include developing these sustainable processes even more and continuing to cultivate connections across Tucson. These collaborations are one of the greatest joys of their work along with the team that they get to do it with. It is so evident that each member thrives in the part that they play at CREAM and that they compliment each other well. Until you have the chance to meet them in person (next Second Saturday, perhaps?) here is the team! Most CREAM team members have creative outlets in addition to their work at CREAM. We encourage you to check out their Instagram accounts and websites below! From left to right: Spencer Godfrey, Marissa Johnson, Rose Thor, Patrick Foley, Chris Hall (Not pictured: Noah, the shop hand and Lil Leche, the shop cat) WRITTEN BY TEENA DARE Teena lives in Tucson, Arizona and loves to capture the passions of others with words. Find more of Teena's work at www.shakingspirits.com.
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Presta: Roasting Beautiful Coffee
Coffee: a superfluous commodity made central by our common addiction. Even for the irreligious, the aroma of the percolating murky liquid awakens the soul before the caffeine has a chance to do its job. Our long to-do list is often made possible by the men and women who produce and purvey this magical beverage. PRESTA COFFEE ROASTERS Presta Coffee Roasters is one of those excellent producers that we can proudly say is owned and operated right here in Tucson, Arizona. I remember my first experience at Presta. The sincere conversations over the register as I ordered my cappuccino are hard to forget. As a newly minted Tucsonan, it gave me hope for the genuine hospitality in my new city. And then it got even better when I took my first sip. Presta served up more than friendly interactions, their coffee was wonderful. By now, I’ve tried most everything from their potent nitro cold brew to their delicious mochas to my at home pour-over with their freshly roasted beans. I’m always in awe of what they create. Presta is true to the slogan that is proudly stamped across their website: Roasting beautiful coffees in Tucson. There is so much to this statement that rings true. Coffee is a universal language with many dialects, each one telling the story of its unique place and time. Presta simultaneously displays the best of Tucson and of many coffee-growing communities around the world. They make the world a little smaller by allowing us to taste of the beauty cultivated by the hands of farmers we’ll never meet. They allow us to drink in the legacies of family farms that have done this good work for generations. DRINK LOCALLY, THINK GLOBALLY Enjoying Presta’s coffee gives us the chance to support our local and global neighbors simultaneously. A beautiful truth weaved into the fabric of life is that what tastes best to our palates is often good for the world. The Presta team carefully selects the coffee that they source and pays the farmers more for the superior product. In fact, the team just recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica to taste new coffees and spend time with the people that make it all possible. They also do regular “cuppings” locally as a part of their meticulous process of determining the right roast for each unique coffee. I was invited to join, and was amazed by the distinctive flavors as the coffees stood side by side. Through this process I learned that one reason Presta can produce such diverse products is precisely because we’re in Tucson. The more moisture present in an environment requires the coffee to be roasted longer to push out that humidity. Our dry, desert air allows them to play with lighter roasts that show off the complexities of the coffee bean. These flavor nuances tell us a story of origin: perhaps the rainy side of a sloping hill at a high elevation. All of these factors create distinctive, beautiful coffee. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION Each Presta location delivers this spectacular coffee in a different atmosphere. The coffee (and beer and wine!) bar at the Mercado flows seamlessly from indoors to outdoors and is surrounded on all sides by local businesses. A collision of people with different interests and intentions find their home in this space; a cornerstone for Tucson visitors and natives alike. The 1st Avenue location (just north of Grant Rd.) is tucked away in an award-winning space filled with friends that have become a part of the Presta family. Also on display is the hard work that goes into roasting beautiful coffee and some clues into how Presta got its name. Named after a type of bike-valve, Presta’s original inspiration came from owner, Curtis Zimmerman’s long history in the cycling world. Especially during his time in Europe, the cycling community started their day at coffee shops. This daily liturgy stuck with him. These cycling roots definitely still find expressions in the life of Presta. Last year Presta gave out 680 cups of coffee to riders at Clif Bar’s tour de Tucson. They plan to continue to imagine new ways to engage with this world just as they have brought their hospitality to other community events such as Cultivate Tucson and other pop-up markets with the iconic Presta van. MEANINGFUL WORK If you’re already a fan of Presta, get excited…very soon they will be moving all of their roasting operations to their new warehouse on 17th and Park. This is going to be yet another meeting place for countless collaborations and good times drinking coffee. The increased space for roasting will also help Presta keep up with their growth, with yet another shop opening in the coming months in the Iron Horse neighborhood and many new wholesale accounts at some of the best local restaurants in Phoenix. This growth continues to increase meaningful employment here in Tucson, which is something that excites Presta manager, Braden Hammond. For him, employing young men and women isn’t just about providing them with a paycheck but developing their talents and interests as an integral part of Presta Coffee. When they are able to express their unique gifts, they make the business better and have a more meaningful work life. For Braden, he hopes to help extend this mentality even beyond the team, and work towards a more connected coffee community across Tucson that can learn and enjoy each other’s craft. So this is Presta. There is much more to it of course, but I hope that this helps give you a fuller picture of this company that roasts beautiful coffee in Tucson. Next time you grab a cup or a bag of beans look out for their newest releases: The Los Congos from Nicaragua and the La Luna from Mexico. Also keep an eye out for the release of the Dos Cabezas Pinot Noir barrel-aged Guatemalan Esperanza that has already been aging for over three months! See you at Presta! WRITTEN BY TEENA DARE Teena lives in Tucson, Arizona and loves to capture the passions of others with words. Find more of Teena's work at www.shakingspirits.com.
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Finding Your Why
Sunsets over saguaros, seventy-something winters, unbeatable mole, and some phenomenal people—these are a few of my favorite things about Tucson. YOU HAVE YOUR OWN LIST, SURELY. But today we want to take a break from celebrating specific things we love about our city and consider a different kind of why. You may have heard the story of how Why I Love Where I Live started: Kristin, discontented and dreaming of other lands, committed herself to a discipline of gratitude. She didn’t start with a long list of likes, but a decision to develop a deeper affection for her city. It didn’t take long for her “why” list to grow into a family of four, a thriving community, and countless experiences that transformed a simple discipline into a dynamic love for the place her and her family call home. Whether Tucson is your hometown or you’re new to the Southwest- there is always more to explore- more reasons to love where you live. And we’re here to help you do just that! But it’s important to take time to consider your personal why. Those intrinsic motivations that drive you to love your neighborhood well. Our hope is that we partake in the goodness of Tucson, to breathe in its beauty. We want you to like Tucson, but we also want you to love it; love in the sacrificial, creative, life-giving sense of the word. And for that we need a good sense of our why. Does your why start with a commitment to love your neighbor as yourself? Is it a desire to create the community that you desperately crave? A nagging sense of injustice that drives you to strive for a better way? Is it your desire to carry on the legacy of your family or culture that is being threatened in our ever-changing world? Maybe it’s the pure giggle of your pre-schooler as you stroll down your street? Becoming more aware of our motivations will help sustain us through the highs and lows of intentionally sinking roots a bit deeper. This awareness can be the key to unlocking our imaginations. Imagination is not reserved for Disney movies or children’s make-believe, but is a compelling force that has power to create something new. It is seeing beyond the way things seem to be. A favorite quote by Mark Twain says, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” The best innovators, creators, and lovers all rely on this way of seeing. Contemplation is the first step to permitting our mind’s eye to explore the possibilities of what life could be. Lucky for us Tucson is a place that welcomes contemplation. Perhaps it’s the lack of intersecting freeways or the sprawl of the city limits, but there is a palpable calm in the air, a slower pace of life reflective of the steady, resilience of desert growth; starry skies summoning us to consider, mountain faces smiling at our pause, centuries of history inviting us into a story bigger than ourselves; a story as big as our endless blue skies. A symbiotic relationship exists between us and the places we inhabit. As the adaptable Churchill quote goes: we shape our spaces and those spaces, in turn, shape us. This is true in the more intimate spheres of our homes and offices and on a grander scale in the social and physical fabrics of our city. This happens whether we are aware of it or not. We’ll always be participating in this process. The goal is to become more engaged participants rather than passive ones. Imagine how asking intentional questions can transform our hobbies, families, work, civic engagement, and beyond. Join me in accepting the challenge to rethink our why and allow that to lead us into a deeper love for where we live. One way we hope to spur on this process is through this new blog. In addition to posts like these that get us thinking about our part in placemaking, we will also be regularly highlighting local businesses. We’re excited to have a space to look more intently at what is unique about organizations across Tucson that have taken up the call to care for their community. Written by Teena Dare Teena lives in Tucson, Arizona and loves to capture the passions of others with words.
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