About Us Broadside Print & Design LLC:
Our Mission:
With originality and sustaibability constantly in mind, Broadside Print & Design LLC aims to disseminate their absurdist artwork to a community of like-minded weirdos.
The three artists who founded Broadside Print & Design LLC had the privilege of obtaining BFA degrees and they utilize their academic experiences, along with a wide variety of media, to continually provide unique, well-crafted, hand-made products to their audience.
When they say “hand-made,” they mean it! Because they create their art items themselves, every product is either completely one-of-a-kind or part of a small batch.
The Broadside Babes always try to put the planet first through the utilization of thrifted materials, making sure that the companies they purchase from follow sustainability practices, and doing their best to reduce plastic waste.
Meet the Broadside Babes:
Juliet King is a co-founder of Broadside Print & Design. Shortly after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, she collaborated with two other art colleagues to form the business you see today. Eager to use her fresh Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) degree with an emphasis in graphic design, Juliet was ready to jump into a new and exciting project in the lull of the pandemic’s first quarantine. Juliet was fortunate enough to have utilized her Undergraduate Research Project grant to jump start the business by incorporating the dissemination of art and design on commercial items such as buttons with a button maker and shirts with basic serigraphy (silkscreen) materials.
Being biracial and bisexual, Juliet is often split between communities. Navigating the world as an ‘other,’ Juliet incorporates this feeling in her artwork. The Milky Martian is the longest running series in Broadside history, a series that highlights the feeling of being ‘lost’ while also remaining whimsical and accessible. Other parts of her identity can be found in the Anti-Racist Digital Print Series and the WLW Sticker Packs and complimentary tie dye crop tops.
Above all, Juliet likes to keep it light by incorporating humor throughout her portfolio, often using it to tackle subjects that may be hard to talk about otherwise. Her Swamp Ass Season design went viral on TikTok which really helped get Broadside where it is today. The design uses accessible imagery (buttocks) to promote body positivity in the sweaty gal community. One could use the word “gross” to describe Juliet, and she’s proud of it!
While Juliet’s degree emphasized in graphic design, she is skilled in a variety of other media including fiber arts, illustration, painting, and sculpture. She is always willing to try a new medium and widen her breadth of knowledge to make the coolest art possible. She picked up hand needle punching post-graduation and has been in love with it ever since! Of course, she still loves to utilize her graphic design knowledge through packaging, tags, logo commissions, and the web design of this very website!
Juliet is also in charge of packing and shipping orders. You can thank her for the freebies included in your order!
Dania Knotek is a co-founder of Broadside Print & Design LLC. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (BFA) in Printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. While attending she founded a professional mentorship group for the program and was introduced to Juliet and Alexa through it. In her personal, non-Broadside work her concepts center around family structures through the utilization of visual storytelling. Broadside has allowed her to create work that falls outside the rigorous structure of gallery-focused art. In other words, Broadside has helped her to take herself less seriously.
Dania has explored a variety of themes in her Broadside work—mainly death, politics, and absurdism. Not only was her Screaming Skull design Broadside’s first, but it was originally intended to be the logo for the business when Dania was pushing for the name “Decomposition Designs.” She believes that life is meaningless and death is the great equalizer—her work for Broadside has certainly reflected that..
Her most popular designs have been the previously mentioned Screaming Skull and the Salt-N-Pepa inspired Let’s Talk about Death—a shirt that encourages discussion on the topic.
Although Dania’s background is in printmaking and she heads the silk screening side of Broadside, she is skilled in drawing, painting, ceramics, and bookmaking. Her future goals include getting accepted into a graduate MFA program, expanding her portfolio, delving deeper into mediums, and focusing heavily on the conceptual to do so.
Dania takes the lead on getting us signed up for our in-person events. Want to come see us? Just check our event calendar!
Alexa Patterson was an original co-founder of Broadside Print & Design LLC. She no longer is a part of Broadside but she is still a beloved founding member! She is a Wisconsin-based artist with a design and fine art background. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she met Juliet and Dania! Alexa currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin, where she works in the monument industry designing gravestones and other stone works. Alexa's fine art background is a blend of the two and three dimensional–the physical and the digital–with focus in sculpture and film photography. Her most recent work has focused on serigraph prints on paper and fabric.
Alexa's fine art pursuits have often explored concepts related to her experience of life and the world around her. Her concepts have spanned mental health issues, eating disorders, and social commentary. During her time spent in undergrad, Alexa found a love of art through process–experimenting with different sculptural materials and mold-making techniques, and utilizing experimental darkroom techniques in her photography.
After graduation, with a lack of accessibility to studio spaces, Alexa’s focus shifted towards digital illustration combined with silk screening to again blend the digital and physical. Alexa's most recent work has focused more on light hearted illustrations inspired by her time spent outdoors. Her Grumpy Toad series is an ongoing seasonal series inspired by her love of grumpy animals wearing hats (Witch Toad, Merry Toadmas Print, Merry Toadmas Tea Towel) featuring prints on paper and tea towels. Alexa’s print, A Murder Most Fowl, was Broadside’s first run of signed and editioned serigraph prints on paper!
Besides visual art, Alexa also writes creatively–mainly short works of poetry. She solely created Broadside’s first zine: a collection of poetry entitled Still Here. In the future, Alexa hopes to write more poetry booklets and continue experimenting!
Check Out Her Work