About

A native of Detroit, now a Seattle-based designer, 27 year old Jessica Park made her first bag out of sheer captivation by an "as-chance-would-have-it" material possessing quality appeal, history, and the look of something conventional dying to be transformed in a truly unconventional way. Soon after, AMPERSAND AS APOSTROPHE, a high-end line of over-the-shoulder bags that double as clutches, [and triple as anything else you may feel like], made from 100-year-old mail carrying duffels, was launched.

As a business major turned Interiors major turned multi-faceted artist, it was instinctual for Park to employ a feeling of paradoxical form and function. Although the wow-factor of these bags comes from their multiplicity and easiness, it can also be widely attributed to the duality of Park's rich aesthetic. Part rustic, part design-conscious glossy chic, takes you to both ends of the spectrum and back again. An innate respect for utility and the structural know-how to identify good design in life's most necessary, yet overlooked wonders is what we believe sets style apart from sophistication. Something as simple and efficient as an envelope suddenly has an entirely new purpose yet still retains it's basic form and still tells it's original story.

Ampersand As Apostrophe's preferred method of solving design challenges is to refine what's there instead of focusing on what's not. Making handbags with envelop-like features out of the mail bags that used to deliver them is the type of stuff that gets our rocks off.

Creative minimalism coupled with her uber-aproachable nature, timely sense of humor, and her space-casey savantiness is most definitely the last piece in the A3 puzzle. An upside-down, inside-out view of the world makes for some interesting discoveries indeed. This same unique outlook is what prompted, out of dislike for the typical and uninspiring gallery setting, her recent opening of retail pop-up installation space: COMING SOON concept gallery, located in the Fremont retail area of Seattle. A space dedicated to transformation and the concept of each new artist or designers' product or medium- that Park deems as "the new + the next" or as she so simply explains, "this is what's coming soon". Visit COMING SOON for the occasional pop-up experimental installation of the A3 handbags. Think: Mailbag Butchershop, just one of many ways she marries satire and experience, and what a happy marriage it is.