Hey there, I'm Mac.
Welcome in or welcome back. I want to reintroduce you to Cypress.
If you’re new here, it’s good to meet you. But if you’ve heard about Cypress before, consider this a re-restart. Things are a little clearer these days: I’ve realized that I’m happiest when I get to create art, tell stories, build something new, and just generally own my own time. It’s about time Cypress becomes something real.
But let’s start with a little bit of an introduction.
I’m Mac Cormier. I’m a designer and a printmaker. I’m a proud Cajun originally from Louisiana, now living in San Francisco, CA. Product Design and building Design teams at tech companies is how I spend my days—but even that started because I love creating and building things from scratch. You know, working with my hands. I’d really rather be carving linoleum blocks and pulling prints of topographic maps, mountain landscapes, and ocean waves. And so at night you’re more likely to find me in my studio making art or obsessing about what Cypress Design Co., the printmaking shop I run on the side, could become.
My hope is that this restart leads to me owning my own time again.
Road trips and National Parks
Most of my childhood summers were spent the back of a truck loaded to the brim with travel gear. My family would hop in a vehicle and zig zag all over the United States any chance we’d get. And with my mom being a kindergarten teacher and my dad working month on, month off schedules in the Gulf’s oil field, we always had weeks’ worth of free time to make it from Louisiana to California and back.
Somewhere out there you start to appreciate the idea of taking it slow, enjoying the journey, and letting your next stop find you.
I fell in love with road tripping pretty early on. Boy Scouts taught me how to hike and camp in just about any condition—my family taught me that there’s always something interesting to see between here and there (no matter where there is). Driving out west? Why not stop in the Grand Canyon for a few days. Need a bathroom break out in the middle of the Arizona desert? Why not stop at a meteor crater. And if you’re willing to pitch a tent or sleep in the back of a pickup, there’s no stopping what you can see from the road. Somewhere out there you start to appreciate the idea of taking it slow, enjoying the journey, and letting your next stop find you.
National Parks are a gift to those of us looking for a good drive. They’re the reason I tell friends that have traveled the world but have never seen a sunrise over the Sonoran Desert that they’re doing it wrong. They’re the best way to get from one ocean to the next with a tent and a few Clif Bars. And in my opinion, they’re the U.S. government’s best idea.
My mood changes completely the second I’m in nature. It’s calming and refreshing. And I always walk away feeling excited and ready to create something new. Clean air, the sound of wind through the trees, seeing how natural features create patterns and scenes that I could never dream up… it’s freeing. At this point my fiancée, Meghan, knows that any camping trip is followed by several hours of rambling about a new print idea or dream of quitting my day job.
I travel with a National Geographic National Parks guide and adventure series US atlas at all times, just in case I need some more inspiration 😉.
The next step with Cypress
Cypress Design Co. is an online print shop that I run out of my home. It’s an excuse to stay up late and work with my hands. It’s my way of making something because I love it, not because it will pay the bills or increase shareholder value. And it brings me joy to gift prints to friends or to finish commissions for clients’ weddings or anniversaries.
Cypress has been passively running in the background of my life since 2019. It comes in waves; these spurts of hyper focus hit when I need an escape from my day job or when I come home from a road trip with overflowing amounts of inspiration.
But I’m ready for Cypress to be real. If you’re reading this because you’ve been a part of this journey from day one, thank you. You probably know that eventually want to open a studio, a sort of third space, filled with art and couches and coffee and wine and friends. I talk about retiring from designing in tech in the next 10 years and dedicating my life to running a small business (I mean, my career has been centered around supporting small businesses for so long… how could I not be inspired).
So here’s the plan:
A new Cypress brand is on the way
New logo, new website, new merch… the works. I was happy to start with something fun and grassroots a few years ago, but I’ve had a dream of a simple Cypress logo on the front window of a store and on the t-shirts that I wear every day for years now. I want to share that one with you all.
It’s time for Round 3 on this blog
I’ve started without a plan twice now. I just wanted to share stories and prints with anyone who wanted to listen. And I still want to do that. But this time, I want to bring in the stories of how I get inspired, the trips I take, how my design job influences my printmaking, etc. I hope you stick with Cypress from now until you receive the newsletter that announces ‘We’re finally opening our studio space” and then come visit me in person.
Cypress Magazine will launch soon
This one has been a goal for a while. Meghan and I go on these trips, take photos, keep travel journals… and haven’t shared any of it with you. We’re going to start with a small, fully independent first edition of Cypress Magazine to share with family and friends. And from there, I hope to include photos and adventures from all of my friends of travel and want to share their stories. Look out for the announcement post if you want a copy!
Thanks for making it this far. There’s a lot of work to be done and I hope you stick around long enough to see where this all goes.
See you again soon 🏔️