Passports & Visas – the Double Bravo Story
At the age when most girls her age were busy collecting Charlie's Angels stickers and Brownie Badges, Barbara Buenz was busy building a collection of stamped passport pages and bound stacks of airmail correspondence. Born in Santiago to a Chilean mother and Dutch father, her childhood was spent in a whirlwind of continents and cities including Mexico City, Chicago, Toronto, London and Bogotá. There was nothing stationary about her stationery.After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, she decided to use her steamer trunks for furniture, said "I Do" to her true love and settled down, (a peculiar yet interesting idea) in New York City. From the SoHo bullpen of Razorfish - a leading global interactive agency - to a sun-lit office at HBO.com as Art Director, with some time clocked on Giorgio Armani's NY design team, Barbara Buenz's experience is an enriching mix of "hands on" and "exec," "uptown" and "downtown."
In 2009 having for years designed and overseen the production of party and wedding invitations, business and personal cards, Barbara felt a shift in the tectonic plates of her passion and knew it was time to introduce Double Bravo Designs to the rest of the world. Her EUREKA! moment came with the birth of her first child – accompanied by an amazing urge to celebrate and commemorate new life with all its priceless exclamation points. Barbara became convinced that purposefully capturing the details of great joy was good for the soul and believed others would welcome the opportunity to do the same.
Barbara can be spotted throughout Brooklyn and beyond with her two young stars in tow, a cup of tea nearby and sketchbook and pen in hand. When time allows her hands will be soiled from the ink that's rubbed off from New York Times crossword puzzle. True to her love of correspondence and friends near and far she can always be relied on for stamps of all denominations and, of course, airmail stickers.
2011 marked Double Bravo Designs debut at the National Stationery Show in New York City.
