I found House Boi through Design Sponge’s guide to San Diego. They have also been featured on HGTV’s What you Get For The Money, San Diego Home and Garden, ABC Channel 10’s A-list, and in numerous other publications. Their extensive media coverage can partly be attributed to Ari Clare’s former life in P.R. but mostly it comes from his great taste and their unique concept.

“Ari Clare and Alex Wheeler decided to create House Boi in summer of 2007 to fill a niche in the San Diego marketplace. A unique retail concept integrating contemporary furniture and home accents with hip men’s clothing and accessories; thus House Boi.”

In addition to fashion and Ink Dish’s tattoo inspired modern dinnerware they also have great events complete with DJ’s and cocktails.

Josh Spear has been called “the Pulse of cool” in the New York Times and was listed as one of the “messengers of cool” in Time Magazine. Whether he is the pulse or the messenger is debatable, but his ability to pick out cutting edge style is unquestioned.

We were thrilled to see that Josh Featured Ink Dish on his site the other day. The post brought about a comparison to Ed Hardy by one of Josh’s many readers. Ed Hardy in cooperation with designer Christian Audigier have created a very successful line of tattoo inspired clothing. More recently Ed Hardy released some hand made pottery.

The comparison between Ink Dish and Ed Hardy is made a lot, thus the conversation is re-posted below. The original can be found here: http://joshspear.com/item/ink-dish/

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Umbra: this looks very similar to the porcelain that Don Ed Hardy has been painting for years now.

http://tinyurl.com/atpkyn

though I’m sure this is much more affordable.

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Hi Umbra – You are correct. Ed Hardy’s pieces are priced as art, our pieces were developed to be used everyday and priced from $15 to $299 for a service for four.

To give you a little background: The concept of tattoo tableware came about while I was working on my thesis in business school in 2007 before I had heard of Ed Hardy. Together with our design director, Paul Timman developed eight potential patterns which we tested with a focus group of 200 people. The Irezumi pattern that tested best, and which we produced, was born before any of us were aware that Ed Hardy was working on pottery as well as clothing.

When I first saw the clothing, and then quickly saw it everywhere, I had mixed feelings. On one hand it validated a lot of my ideas that tattoo inspired products would have a large audience. On the other hand, as Ed Hardy continued to grow we knew that we could not get away from comparisons.

Someday Ed Hardy may also produce everyday dinnerware. We will not be able to compete with his marketing dollars so we are competing on design. We feel that the combination of our design director’s expertise in tableware and Paul Timman’s prowess as an artist  will allow us to stand apart in that department.

Thanks Umbra for your comments and thanks Josh for telling your readers about our line!

Take a web savvy guy name Fitz a girl with great taste in design named Su, put them together and you have the Fitz-Su Society. They also have a dog named Otto who was named “Store Dog of the Year” by LA Magazine but his agent hasn’t been able to get the store name changed to FitzSuOtto just yet.

“Fitzsu Society is located just outside West Hollywood at 7970 Melrose Ave. The original store opened on October 21st 2000. The opening of this store fulfilled a long time dream of Su and Fitz to provide modern accessories for the masses and giving brides and grooms an alternative to the usual wedding registry choices. The small boutique style store offers personalized service and design consultation for all its visitors.”

Stop on down, check out Ink Dish’s tattoo designs and bring a biscuit for Otto.

Fred Segal is synonymous with hip and trendy fashion and housewares. If you are ever in L.A. a trip to one of the department stores, covered in its signature ivy, is a must.

“Zero Minus Plus has been a part of the Fred Segal of Santa Monica retail shopping experience since its inception in 1985. Darrylynn Kaun, owner of Zero Minus Plus, has made it her mission to support individual artists, fair trade and eco products from the beginning. With her previous experience working for Angelo Donghia’s Los Angeles showroom and interior designer Judy Wilder, Darrylynn has been able to focus her trained eye on bringing the most unique and innovative products into her store.”

Ink Dish is thrilled to have been personally selected by Darrylynn for her customers.

Anyone can use a camera, but when you get into white balance, and tungsten lights it is time to call in someone who really knows what they are doing. Thanks to Roy Greason whose day job is doing breathtaking panoramic landscapes but was nice enough to help us out with some product shots.

One of my favorite of Roy’s photographs is the Albert Dock in Liverpool, UK below. You can see a lot more at www.photo-digital.co.uk

For years San Francisco has been the US city, that I most wanted to visit. Many friends from Boston compare the two cities. Since I have a love of Boston bred into me and have always loved the California coastline, a merging of the two seemed like a wonderful proposition.

The city didn’t disappoint. The weather was unseasonably warm and a seal came over to greet us as we stood on the shore looking at the Golden Gate bridge to the right and Alcatraz to the left.

San Francisco is great city for art and design and the retailers reflect that. Propeller offers “a delicious array of furniture and accessories built and offered by people with a stake in your happiness.” I am happy that Ink Dish now too has a stake in the happiness of the people that come down to Hayes and Octavia streets to visit Propeller.

My favorite item in the store was a old school telephone receiver from the days when phones were big and heavy. It comes with a cord that you can plug into your tiny cell phone. It was a trip to see Lorn walk into the shop talking on the retro receiver with the cord disappearing into his pocket. I am told there is a blue tooth version as well.

I had a great trip to San Francisco and look forward to coming back soon. Ink Dish’s tattoo tableware sets are now available in ten retailers across the country. If you know of a great shop near you, let me know.

If you know of a great shop with a great name then its extra points. In Propeller’s own words: “The propellers 19th century symmetry and fluid line make it perhaps the first timeless modern design. It is also a perfect example of form beautifully following function – it moves things forward… So, we in our humble way have set out to move design forward a bit…”

555 Hayes Street San Francisco, California