A pile of torn paper and flyers in yellow, blue, and black colors scattered on a flat surface.

Designers at heart

We’re Mike & Nicole McQuade, co-founders of The McQuades, and have been practicing design for 20+ years. Our studio still does things by hand and you’ll find us daily with a pencil, exacto knife or random scraps of paper in hand.

Over the years, our work as designers has led us to collect a growing library of graphic and physical assets sourced from old books, printed ephemera, letterpress materials, paper, packaging, and other found objects. We’re drawn to things that show the marks of time and the imperfections of the human hand.

Close-up of a person's hand flipping through printed color swatch sheets or labels, with a black watch on their wrist, on a grid cutting mat.
A white tiled surface with black paint splatters, a black rectangular object, and a wooden brush with black bristles resting on the tiles.

Collectors of things

We’ve curated these into a collection of high-quality design assets for graphic designers, including paper textures, vintage textures, letterpress elements, distressed graphics, scanned ephemera, and other tactile resources designed to bring depth and authenticity to your work. These are the kinds of details that are difficult to recreate digitally—and can make a good design feel truly special.