Grain and Gram… The New Gentleman’s Journal

A new gentleman’s journal has sprung up online, looking rather Monocle-esque. It goes by the name of Grain & Gram and is updated infrequently but with some particular in-depth features with some gorgeous photography and video.

If I am honest, it is a little too much to read for my preference, I prefer to sit with my coffee and watch the equivalent of video but the images are really worth visiting for as I got a great sense of what they were reporting on from purely from this. And for the readers amongst us, there is plenty of text to satisfy.

Their recent feature on Nick Sambrato is fantastic, you can read a little here…

“A man without words is a man without thought.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden.

Nick Sambrato loves what he does and he loves doing it well. It takes only minutes in talking with Nick to find out that he takes what he does seriously, but not in a pretentious way. By showing and striving for quality in what you do, you can show that you are striving for quality in who you are. Late nights, dirty jeans, rough hands, tired eyes, all these things are badges of honor when you’re doing something you love. His work ethic and entrepreneurial drive are what brought him to the world of print, but not the sole reasons for keeping him there.

We love the idea of the craft and the type of man who takes pride in his work — sees what he builds as an extension of himself.

That’s one thing I think of; those guys. My dad was a construction worker. It was his identity. He took pride in it. He built things, and he never got away from it. I’ve found, that has taken root in me.

My father talked about my grandfather who loaded trucks and laid bricks, that was what they did and what defined them. So the idea of working with your hands — my hands — came as second nature to me.

I hope that people will never lose the wonder that comes with gadgetry contraptions.

What lead you from digital printing to screen printing and letterpress?

Eventually, I bought a friend’s (Austin) screen printing company. Screen printing blew my mind to pieces — printing gig posters with screens and squeegees in real ink (that ran). I learned how to screen print in two weeks, and that was it, I was a screen printer. That’s what made me fall in love with printing, because that was really printing.

Austin, who is now our head designer, he is the guy responsible for the Mama’s Sauce brand. It’s weird, people ask me to go do talks on design and branding, but Austin is the actual designer. My role is more of a creative director, but I am honestly honored that Austin values my input as much as he does. The man is incredibly talented.

Where did the name “Mama’s Sauce” come from?

I was working with Austin and Joey — (we were three Italian dudes) when we got the screen printing shop. We couldn’t operate in the little 10×10 office that we were in anymore, so we rented a vacant house next door to mine. We screen printed in the living room, mixed ink in the kitchen, and had two bedrooms. One was storage, one was office space.

One night, there was culmination of events, and I asked Austin to do a mark for the company. At the time, I was mixing ink for a t-shirt in the kitchen, it was red ink in a blue bowl, and I had put too much additive in, I didn’t know what I was doing, and it made the ink chunky. With the stove behind it and the microwave and the refrigerator and it being in a bowl, it was almost like I could see spaghetti in there. I thought it was such a great parallel, being Italian guys.

Mama’s Sauce Print Shop 1620 A Alden Rd Orlando, FL 32803
www.mamas-sauce.com

The project is the creation of:
JonPaul Douglass jonpauldouglass.com
Aaron Martin superwindy.com
Danny Jones yasly.com