SF’s best newsstands for design aficionados

by Daniela Province on March 13, 2019, no comments

Given that magazines and newspapers have moved their content online, one might wonder: What’s the purpose of a newsstand? Today’s version has evolved into a hub of artisanal chocolates, fashion and interior design books, letterpress cards, fancy cigars, fine stationery — and a slew of glossy indie mags you’re not likely to find online. And while there are fewer newsstands (the closing of Good News in Noe Valley in 2017, for example), newbies like Heath Newsstand and old standbys like Fog City News continue to attract print lovers. And really, where else can you find Hole + Corner propped up next to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine?

Heath Newsstand

Proving there’s no end to the ingenuity stemming from the edge-of-the-Mission compound housing the Heath Ceramics Showroom and Tartine Manufactory, this breezy space is deep in design, food and culture with titles like Apartamento, the Holborn, Nourished Journal and Slope & Swell. With city travel guides, to-go coffee and juice, Stabilo pens, Heath totes and Le Fleuriste flowers on offer, it’s a mercantile for today’s urbanite. Heath Ceramics owner Catherine Bailey says, “We want to appeal to a wide range of the Heath community and beyond. We want to be able to offer the beautiful quarterlies like Kinfolk, Cereal and Gather right alongside some of the classic magazines that we grew up with, or our parents grew up with like Sunset, Mad magazine and Popular Mechanics.”

Cat Seto sketchbook: She’ll always have Paris

by Daniela Province on June 12, 2017, no comments

For Cat Seto, Paris has proven to be somewhat of a lucky charm. The San Francisco illustrator, author, shop owner and founder/creative director of the stationery collection and shop Ferme à Papier took her first trip to the City of Light a little over four years ago. That trip and subsequent ones resulted in a dramatic shift in both her aesthetic and her business. Her new book, “Impressions of Paris: An Artist’s Sketchbook,” (Harper Design, 176 pages) came about after her agent encouraged her to think up her dream project. The result is a visual tour of Paris through its food, light and architecture illustrated by Seto and divided by color, pattern, perspective and rhythm. She spoke to The Chronicle after a recent launch event at Books Inc. on Chestnut Street. Read more.

Lilah b. beauty brand launched with mantra of less is more

by Daniela Province on November 16, 2016, no comments

For most entrepreneurs, a move to the Bay Area is par for the course. For Cheryl Yannotti Foland, founder of 18-month-old Sausalito beauty brand lilah b., San Francisco was the last place she saw herself. The seasoned beauty and media industry consultant moved from Manhattan to the Bay Area in 2006 to run West Coast operations for Arcade Beauty. She figured she’d be here two years at the most.

“I was this crazy, high-strung. oldest child, overachiever type A, fast-talker New Yorker,” Foland says. “I’d sneak into the gym and run on the treadmill like a gerbil for 30 minutes at 5 a.m. so I could work my butt off all day. And I don’t think I ever realized how unhealthy that was because that was the world I lived in.” Foland steadily grew the Arcade business, working with brands like Bare Escentuals, Urban Decay and Benefit Cosmetics that were all on the cusp of expansion. She soon adopted the California lifestyle by dressing more casually and seeking outdoor activities at every chance. And she also met and married Steve Foland, an investment banker with Stifel whose weekend house in Napa gave her more opportunities to de-stress and connect with nature.

When Arcade was sold in 2014, she was 44 and facing a crossroads. “I recognized it wasn’t just this new lifestyle that I took on, but it was the people. It was the culture out here that I fell in love with. It really forced me to slow down and focus on what was important.”