Who We Are

Blackhare is a creative partnership between Monica and Nick (who also happen to be married). Nick is a self taught illustrator, photographer, and screen printer, as well as a decorated Canadian glass artist (check him out in this House and Home feature). Monica is a research scientist with a background in education. Her work has helped her grow an entrepreneurial spirit and a skillset that has come in handy for wearing all the other hats for Blackhare.

Blackhare started out as a side-hustle in 2017. The idea was sparked by the encouragement of Nick's good friend Arounna (the amazing creator behind Bookhou), who always told him he should do something with his illustrations. At the time, Nick was working as a workshop tech and designer at a glass studio in Toronto's east end. But finding studio space and time to create his own glass work outside of his day job was a challenge.

And because it is literally impossible to build a glass shop with a 2000 degree furnace in the basement of a tiny house in East York, Toronto, Nick finally decided to take Arounna up on her advice and try his hand at screen printing. So he set up a small four screen press in the downstairs laundry room and pulled his first ever print - the geometric fox. And boom - Blackhare was born.

Movin' On Up!

For the first couple of years we sold our tees at arts markets in and around the city. They did really well, so we took the plunge into the world of e-commerce and set up a modest online shop. 

Then the pandemic happened. Nick couldn't work at the glass studio, housing prices in the city (and soon everywhere) were going crazy, and we'd just had our second (and last) child. We made the choice, like so many others, to leave the city and buy a home on the east coast. As part of this big life transition we also wanted to try our hand at making Blackhare a full time gig. 

So we made the move from our tiny home with its tiny basement to a beautiful house with an amazing little workshop out in Sackville, New Brunswick, where Nick grew up.

A definite studio upgrade!

Small-Scale and Artist-Run is Where it's At!

Fast forward a couple years, and we were busier than ever out in the Canadian maritimes in our lovely blue workshop, learning how to grow our business online and develop our own unique aesthetic (a work in constant progress!)

But - life can be so unpredictable! In a very quick turn of events, we moved our family and the business back to Toronto, Canada in the fall of 2023. 

We'll always miss our awesome little N.B. workshop, but we have discovered that we're city people at heart. 

Once back in TO, we worked out of the basement of our home for about 6 months until we knew we needed to take the huge leap and get a studio space of our own. 

For anyone who's ever taken a big step with their home business, you'll know - it's an amazing, terrifying, exciting point in your story. And we're so happy to say that it was the best move we could have ever made. 

We invested in some heavy duty studio equipment, bought some new shelves, stocked up on inventory, and we were up and away in our new boiler room studio in the heart of Leslieville, a sweet little neighbourhood in east Toronto. And by pure coincidence, just a street down from our old house and the basement laundry room where Blackhare all began!

Back to T.O.

Once back in TO, we worked out of the basement of our home for about 6 months until we knew we needed to take the huge leap and get a studio space of our own. 

For anyone who's ever taken a big step with their home business, you'll know - it's an amazing, terrifying, exciting point in your story. And we're so happy to say that it was the best move we could have ever made. 

We invested in some heavy duty studio equipment, bought some new shelves, stocked up on inventory, and we were up and away in our new boiler room studio in the heart of Leslieville, a sweet little neighbourhood in east Toronto. And by pure coincidence, just a street down from our old house and the basement laundry room where Blackhare all began!

The Evolution of Blackhare Print Studio

Living and Laundry Room Beginnings....

Doing markets and side-hustling in Leslieville, Toronto.

New Brunswick Workshop Upgrade!

Nick took on screen printing full time.

Back to Basements...

Back in east end Toronto working from (a bigger) basement!

First real life commercial studio (in the basement of the Wrigley Building...

Full circle moment - we're back in Leslieville in a commercial space of our own!

Moving on Up (again) to the Second Floor!

We hope we can make our new second floor studio our new forever home ❤️

Blackhare Fun Facts!

Yes, every tee is hand printed

Our own hands touch every single tee we send out! Each tee is hand printed and set in our own studio by our trusty four-screen press.

Blown glass

Nick's first love has always been glassblowing. One of these days we might get around to incorporating some glasswork into our product offerings, but for now, the closest we've come is with the design on our leaf series tees.

We write all of our thank you's ourselves!

And we sometimes get some much-needed help during the busy season:) #familybiz!

Photography

Photography plays a big role in our design work. We like to lift elements from our land or cityscapes to create photorealistic images.

Weird is wonderful

We stay pretty aesthetically safe when it comes to graphic tee designs, though Nick's illustrations often wander into the weirdly wonderful and sometimes sinister (see our insta for more of these ;)
Ignorance is bliss

Here we are at Blackhare's official debut in December 2016, at a Christmas market in downtown Hamilton, ON. We were also about 12 days away from having our first baby. 

We had NO idea what we were getting into with either of those things. Zero.

Birds are big

All six of our bird designs are part of our best-selling line. Watch out for more avian-inspired designs in the future!

Rebranding

We've been through one major re-brand of our logo. And why Blackhare? It's basically just a play off White Rabbit. Plus Nick did a cool illustration of a hare that kind of sealed the deal.

Cool Collabs

We've been delighted to provide some tees for special events or high profile shows that are looking for uniquely Canadian design work. Keep your eye out for Blackhare "easter eggs" on your next Netflix binge!