The gifts and paper goods of Knock Knock tap into the vernacular with their dead-on vintage aesthetic and thoroughly modern wit. Each snarky piece is lovingly concepted and written by founder Jen Bilik, who oversees Knock Knock's design studio in Venice Beach. Bilik talks with Alissa Walker about answering her creative calling, reality TV and the beauty of overdue correspondence.

On September 28th, join Jen Bilik at MOCA where she'll speak about the challenges and rewards of Knock Knock's client-less design.

How would you describe the products Knock Knock makes?

Witty, whimsical gift and stationery products that are concept- and text-driven to blur the line between editorial publications and commercial products. Most are based in satirical or observational humor and play off contemporary American culture. The graphic design is bold and modern, but quotes nostalgic or vintage aesthetics.

You say your early creations were met with responses of "you should sell that!" What was the first thing you ended up selling?

Two items: The January Card and the How to Find True Love Poster were both included in our inaugural line of 13 products which debuted in October 2002--just in time, I then naively thought, for the holiday season; turns out Winter Holiday products come out no later than May.

Through my background in editing and producing coffee-table books during my twenties, I was immersed in graphic design, and learned Quark as well as how to procure/manage offset printing. I then began noodling on my own, and manufactured small runs of ink-on-paper items for my personal use as well as for friends--play programs, invitations, business cards.

The January Card was my own holiday card about 10 years ago. I still don't know how people manage to get perfect holiday cards out in November (freaks) or December (more understandable). I myself am chronically behind schedule, but with the best of intentions. So I wrote/designed the January Card to justify my own tardiness. For KK, we changed the fonts and colors slightly, but otherwise it's exactly the same as the original. It continues to be one of our best-selling holiday cards, printed and reprinted every holiday season. The retailers like it because it extends the card season by a month into the new year. Lots of KK has turned out to be about turning my many obsessions, neuroses, and shortcomings into gainful product; the Wall Street Journal did an interesting story on that. I think it works because other people feel just as schlubby as I do.

The How to Find True Love Poster originally evolved in a similar fashion, to be sent out on Valentine's Day because that year I had missed not only November and December holiday cards, but January as well. I had just ended a serious relationship of two years and was feeling befuddled by the whole process, so wrote the poster in that frame of mind. I love the visual display of scientific/quantitative information--hello, Edward Tufte--especially flow charts; much of our humor comes from putting non-scientific info into scientific formats. For the KK version, we went from 1- to 4-color, and changed fonts.

What inspires you?

I am a big reader of both fiction and nonfiction and derive much inspiration from ideas. I'm a pop-culture hound and spend more hours than normal watching reality TV. I love handmade objects and craft, and do lots of it on my own. Fine art is a big inspiration, and I have lots of favorite painters, printmakers, collage artists, etc. I love shopping and home decor and objets of all kinds. In a larger sense I am very inspired by Tibor Kalman and M&Co., as well as the Eamses, especially for the way they worked in many media.

What's the Knock Knock studio like?

On the creative side, we have a phenomenal art director Trish Abbot, who keeps everything moving and grooving. I used to do all the design and art direction myself, and gradually added designers; Trish is the first art director I hired, and she's much better at it than I ever was or could be. We have two young designers, Tara Rosenheck and Darcey Shanahan, and have just added a production artist/manager, Beth Atkins. Thus far I've written every single word KK has ever used for anything, from marketing copy to cards to products, but I'm excited to have just hired our first full-time writer to work with me, John Roberts. On the business side, we've got a director of sales, Randy Erlandson; a customer-service manager, Kelly Pinedo; a distribution manager, Gil Vizconde; an accounting manager, Christine Prost; and an all-around right hand who straddles creative and business, Buffy Beyer.

How do you manage the printing and production of your pieces? Do you oversee it all?

All of our products are manufactured in China, while the loose/bulk greeting cards (as opposed to boxed cards) and some marketing materials are printed here. It's just not cost effective to manufacture products for sale in the U.S.; it's sad, but even people who are indignant about it don't want to spend what it costs to buy U.S.-manufactured retail product. I used to oversee it all, and our first line of product was manufactured here, in pieces, which we ourselves assembled and fulfilled. Now we have a third-party fulfillment company--fulfillment is warehousing and pick/pack/ship, which means we upload our orders to them and they put them into boxes and ship them out.

Early on I had an extraordinary stroke of kismet/luck--Mark Kraus, a businessman who had grown and sold a large company, for which he had overseen all China manufacturing for almost 20 years, moved into the same office complex here in Venice, starting a new company of, among other things, manufacturing brokering. So we do everything through him and his company, Domani, and when I travel to China, I travel with him. The first line of China-manufacturing stuff was a bit of a nightmare, including 7 grueling around-the-clock press days in an un-air-conditioned Chinese factory. Now for the most part we receive proofs and first articles, send comments back, and go back and forth until it's right. I don't know how I would've/could've done it without Mark, and fortunately never had to figure that out; people who do it on their own often lose their shirt, mind, or both. Currently Trish, Mark, and I all oversee the printing and production together. We're moving into 3D, non-paper product right now, a whole new manufacturing world.

Have any clients approached you trying to get the Knock Knock look for their brands?

On a service basis, not really; we've had a few small nibbles, but our own products are our priority, and we mostly don't do design-for-hire. We do stuff for friends--I just did a cool wedding invite. I started KK, however, with the goal of having no clients, so I could fully execute designs to my standards, then let them live or die on the marketplace. We are frequently approached to design private-label product for big chains, wherein we would design with their approval, manufacture, and sell product at the end stage rather than just handing over designs. Few of those deals have ultimately come through, but we've learned more how to handle them and have a few biggies currently in the pipeline. We get a lot of interest from publishers to do books and other printed matter. The interest is definitely increasing.

I heard that you attended high school with ReadyMade magazine founder Shoshana Berger. Did you participate in any DIY clubs together? Maybe you faced her in a craft-off?

Shana's amazing. We haven't done craft together, but we've done our share of joint shopping! We met at Camp Kee Tov in the 6th grade. Mostly we have always discussed ideas and concepts and writing; we both come from more of a writing background than visual, which came later. Now we can talk about our experiences with the businesses; it's truly a pleasure to know someone who's gone through so many of the same things. We are in many ways kindred spirits with countless shared affinities.

What's next for Knock Knock?

More more more. Continue with the KK signature line, and add a mass-market line, Ding Dong. Develop the mass-market channel more thoroughly to balance the signature, boutique items. More private-label stuff. More 3D non-paper product. It's an amazing, challenging, exhilarating, exciting, hair-pulling experience. Only in the last six months have we really achieved well-oiled smoothness of operations; so much of product manufacturing and sales is in the post-creative logistics, about which I had no previous experience. Now that we have a solid platform, we look forward to growing in many directions.

Alissa Walker is editor-in-chief of the AIGA/LA website.