We want to hear your stories

By Christy Johnson, founder & CEO of United Goods

I love that you love my State Icons. And I also love hearing the stories behind why you choose the illustrations you do. When I'm at art shows I get really excited when you share with me the reasons why you're choosing a certain landmark. It truly keeps me doing this. It's so, so fun to learn they ways in which you connect to specific places and/or the buildings, statues, signs, sculptures, etc., that I draw. Sometimes fans will send me an email to share why they chose a particular illustration. It's the best!

So I wanna know: Why did you choose the State Icon(s) you have in your home? Are the landmarks you display your favorites from around town? Do you show off memorials that celebrate the various places you've lived? Or maybe you like to reminisce about the cities, states, or countries to which you've traveled, and relive some of those experiences?

In addition to learning the reasons and memories behind the prints you select, learning the ways in which you show off your State Icons can tell me a lot about your stories, too.

When I set about creating my wee framed prints in the first place (back in the early 2000s!), it was my goal that State Icons be versatile. People have so many different styles when it comes to home decor that I wanted to give everyone options when it came time to display the pieces they bought. So from the start I secured high-quality sawtooth hangers to the back of the wood frames so they'd could easily be hung on the wall. They're so lightweight—they only weigh 4 ounces!—that a tiny nail is all that's needed to hang them to most vertical surfaces. And the hangers can also be looped over S-hooks, hung from those popular, removable plastic hangers, or other forms of wall-mounting hardware.

Conversely, if a wall display isn't your preferred way to present your State Icon collection, I made sure the handmade wooden frames my dad makes for my prints were thick enough so they would stand on their own on a flat surface. I really like creating vignettes in my home, so that's personally my favorite way to decorate rooms with my own collection of State Icons. I usually group a print with other items that I feel relate to that specific illustration. For example, on the bookshelf in my office, I rounded up an autographed, game-used baseball and bronze statuette (from an antique trophy), and placed those alongside my print of Target Field for a sporty trio.

How about you? Do you prefer to group all of the State Icon prints you've collected and hang them in a gallery wall-like array on your wall? Seeing them this way can be like reading a visual story of your life! If you display yours this way, does your wall include only State Icons, or have you also hung alongside them other items that remind you of a specific city, state, theme, etc.?

Or do you go the flat-surface route? Maybe you tuck one on a shelf here, and set another one on a window ledge there, and just sort of scatter them around your space?

I think both ways of showcasing them—or a combo—work very well.

Whatever the reason you chose the landmarks you did, please share your story or stories with me! Like I said above, hearing why you selected the State Icons you did is what keeps me adding landmarks to my collection and growing the offerings I have. Feel free to comment on this blog post, send me a DM on Instagram, or shoot me a message. 

Got State Icons? We wanna see pics!

Post your photo(s) on Instagram or Facebook, tag us @unitedgoodsusa, and share why you selected the landmarks you did.