Monica Maslack
After graduating from Roanoke College in 1994 with a BA in Communication and Fine Arts and taking a year off to live and play in Vail, CO, I came home to Baltimore, Maryland to "get serious" about my career and further my education in Art and Design.I attended the University of Baltimore, studying publication/graphic design and received my Master of Arts in 1998.
While in grad school I began interning at Doner Direct, a large adverstising agency that used to be based in Baltimore. After a year interning, Doner hired me and I continued to work in the art production department as well as a junior graphic designer. In the fall of 1999 I went on to work for Natoli Design, a small, graphic design firm with a cool office space in Hampden. Here I worked on logos, print and marketing materials and website design for a variety of clients, some of whom included The Baltimore Sun, The University of Baltimore and Bon Appetit. While working at Natoli, I started designing and illustrating custom invitations and annoucements on the side. After receiving more and more of this work through word of mouth, I decided to venture out on my own and started my stationery business in 2001, Monica Maslack Stationers. As artist/illustrator/manufacturer I not only continued to do custom, event specific work and graphic & interior design services but also began to mass produce and license my illustrations. At the height of MMS, I had 45 sales reps selling around the country to multiple stationery store chains, individually owned stores and gift shops as well as department stores and on-line stationery websites. Such stores included Neiman Marcus, Horchow Online, FineStationery.com and Target, just to name a few. Sale of my products included a few celebs too such as Christy Turlington, Tony Hawke, a Presidential Hopeful at the time and Jennifer Lopez. The ride was fun, but 10 years and 2 kids later I shut down MMS, selling the last of my inventory to Tuesday Morning. It is then that I decided to delve into other endeavors to keep the artist in me happy; all in the name of Design of course!
Always having an interest, love and an eye for interior design, I decided to re-define my career a bit and jump head first into working on rehabs, renovations, additions and even new construction. I continue to work on these homes, re-designing everything in the interior from moving walls, reconfiguring and designing the new kitchen and baths along with picking out new, eye catching light fixtures, fresh paint colors, flooring, everything, from top to bottom. I also work side by side with an architect or draftsman to give the exterior of my rehabs a new look for added curb appeal and/or adding space with a 1 or 2 story extension. In addition, I also began designing (and/or cleaning up and revamping) the landscaping, creating the beds as well as choosing all the plants and flowers. This appealed to the gardener in me and my love of flowers. Considering myself as an artist/designer, this was yet another creative outlet.
Along the way, I began saving furniture that the previous owners left behind with the intention of possibly staging my own houses one day when I had enough inventory. In March of 2016 my Roanoke College girlfriend, Allison, approached me to help her with a potential staging job that she was offered through her business Clever Concierge (An organizing/downsizing/personal assistant business) and by the end of the conversation, we were starting our NEW business together! We tossed around several, possible names and finally settled on Poppy Production. First b/c of our love of flowers, plants, and gardening, and second because “Poppy” is the name of my adorable, beloved, yellow lab! As flower and dog lovers alike, it all just felt right! And the rest of the story you will see on the pages of this website. We hope you enjoy it!