For the last sixteen years, we've been Rust Belt Love. In so many iterations, starting first as just invitations, then including an Etsy shop, then including a brick and mortar shop, and finally adding in wholesale. Invitations, cards, prints, notepads, all of it drawn by hand and printed on letterpresses that were old before we were born. If you've been with us a long time, you probably found us in or around Buffalo, New York, or at a shop in your community, or through someone who received a card and turned it over to see where it came from.
We're still the same three people making the same things in the same studio. But as of August 10, our name is In Good Company. This is why.
The old name started as a local brand and grew into something else.
The original name came from where we lived and what we loved. Buffalo, and the Great Lakes region, and our love for the people who call the Rust Belt cities their home. Rust Belt Love said, plainly, we make things here, and we care about here. That felt true for a long time, because it was true (it still is!) Our biggest fans were the members of our community and our best form of advertising was word of mouth.
Then the business grew. Slowly at first, then not so slowly. Over the last six years, wholesale became the majority of what we do. Our cards ended up in shops in California, in Texas, in Canada and Abu Dhabi. The buyers weren't from Buffalo. Most of them had never been. To them, "Rust Belt" wasn't a term of endearment. It was, at best, a puzzle.
We started noticing it in small ways. It started to feel like a roadblock instead of the linchpin of our identity. Like we needed to explain the geography of our own name to people who wanted to buy from us anyway.
The name stopped fitting a while ago. We just needed to admit it.
There were a few years where we tried to make the old name stretch. But every time we sent our catalog to someone outside of WNY, or introduced ourselves at a trade show, or wrote a bio for marketing, we'd feel it. This name wasn't doing the work anymore.
The hardest part was that we still loved the old name. It wasn't broken. It was just too specific.
How we landed on In Good Company
Last October, I was in California for our Mastermind Retreat, and everyone was taking turns discussing something they were working on in their business. I had an entirely different idea what my hot seat would be, but that morning as I was getting ready I told Nick on the phone, I think I might talk about changing our name. By that afternoon we had the URL and the instagram handle reserved, and the trademark started.
The idea for In Good Company came to me as I realized it was a sentiment I felt, and repeated, often over the years when talking about our products. Whether it was a flat lay of an invitation, our name on a list of wedding vendors we loved, or our card on a shelf surrounded by cards from other designers who were now our friends – I found myself repeating we were "in good company" all the time. That my favorite place to see our products was surrounded by all the other talented people in my life.
And we liked the double meaning. "In good company" is not only what you say about someone who's found their people – but it's also what a card, or a note, or heirloom gift is doing when it arrives in someone's hands. Keeping them company, in the best sense.
We worked with Rachael from Studebaker Design Co to figure out what came next. After DIYing four (five?) different versions of Rust Belt Love, I knew I was too close to it to do a complete overhaul on my own. It was surreal and wonderful and exciting to work with an agency where branding was their whole thing. I felt so supported, and seen, through the whole process, and I really feel like the result is a reflection of that.
What's not changing
Almost everything. Alyson is still doing the drawing and designs by hand, NEVER with AI. Nick is still running the letterpresses, printing each color and each card one at a time on our same presses that are a hundred years old and still don't run themselves. Lexi, Nick's sister, is still managing the studio and packing every order that leaves it. The same three people, on everything.
The paper is still cotton. The envelopes still come from an independent supplier we've worked with for years. We still live in Buffalo. Our studio is still in Buffalo. We're not going anywhere.
The rebrand is a name and a look. The business underneath it is the same one it's been for sixteen years.
What is changing
The website, which is now shopingoodcompany.com. The packaging. The social handles. The name at the top (and bottom) of our emails.
Over the next several months, you'll see the old branding mixed in with the new. We're using up existing materials rather than throwing them out, so if a package shows up with a Rust Belt Love envelope or label, that's why.
If you're a wholesale buyer, everything at the order level stays the same. Your account, your terms, the products themselves. If you're a retail customer, your account carries over. If you're a longtime friend of the business, we hope you'll come with us.
Thank you for being here
Fifteen years is a long time to run a small business. We didn't get here alone. Every card that sold, every shop that stocked us, every person who sent something we made to someone they loved – that's how we ended up in a position to grow into a name like this one. We're grateful, in the plainest sense.
Rust Belt Love was where we put down roots. In Good Company is what grew from them.
— Alyson, Nick, and Lexi