my personal story with Todd Mack

3 wall in previous studio - made with lots of Foursided & flea market finds

Back in the early oughts, I discovered a small business in Andersonville filled with vintage goods, one of a kind art and and an endless supply of vintage letters and numerals; picture jars and jars of scrabble tiles, play school magnets, flashcards, house numbers, and even oversized gas sign numerals, etc. The shop was inspiring and magical and it was Foursided. At the time I was working at Paperboy, a stationery store in Lakeview and I was already letterpress printing and creating greeting cards I sold at craft shows. I dreamed of someday selling to beautifully curated shops like Foursided.

Stores started reaching out to me at the maker's shows, asking about wholesale, I started slowly taking the plunge into selling to storefronts. After a very successful wholesale meeting with another favorite gift shop in Chicago, I felt so confident, I walked into Foursided and asked to meet the buyer. Please note - I DO NOT suggest doing this. It’s uncomfortable for the buyer and almost 20 years later, there are much easier and efficient ways to reach buyers (faire, email, etc.). Anyway, Todd came up from the basement frame shop. He was no-nonsense and said, "I’ll take a quick look but honestly, I never pick up lines from people just walking in". I started shaking. I spread out my typewriter quote notes and newly printed letterpress cards for him to review. He immediately softened and said, “You have a real line here. These are great I haven’t seen anything like this. Your cards will fit in with my style.” And just like that, our relationship began. He placed an order right there. When I delivered the order, we spent time talking about art and inspiration and our favorite flea markets. We bonded over my collection of threes. Shortly after dropping off the order, I got a very encouraging email from him, telling me the cards were selling well and he shared his personal cell phone number with me if I ever wanted to run ideas by him. Such a generous offer. I was both a vendor and customer of Foursided and no matter what Todd was doing when I came to shop or deliver, he would stop and catch up with me. We would chat about our latest flea market finds, letterpress, his amazing artwork and creativity in general. On occasion I would get a text from him with a pic of my cards in cute shops from cities like Seattle, NYC, Portland, pretty much wherever he found them. Those texts made me feel proud, I think he was proud too, being one of my first wholesale accounts. Through the years, he spent less and less time in the store, and I moved further away, I saw him less. I remember one day I got a call from Todd expressing how much he loved my grocery store inspired cards and how amazing they looked on his card wall, I've never gotten such a sweet call from a store owner and haven't since. It made me want to keep creating in the hopes I'd impress him again.

All those moments he shared with me, climbing off a ladder to show me a 3 I needed for my collection, pics of my cards, a text message, a random admiring call, those are gifts Todd shared with me and I am forever grateful. He was a creative genius and I’m honored out of the hundreds and hundreds of vendors, we shared a genuine connection.

I’m sending so much love and comfort to Gino and to all the Foursided family. We're lucky to have had Todd in our lives. If you knew Todd or just feel so inclined, you can donate in Todd’s memory to The Chicago Diabetes Project.