Birmingham’s Yellowhammer Creative is closing its Pepper Place retail location at year’s end.

Founders Brandon Watkins and Brett Forsyth announced on Instagram Saturday that the two are “not getting any younger” and “will be returning to our roots and focus our efforts on design services and flatstock printing as we explore other opportunities.”

“While it might be the end of an era, it’s not the end of the bird,” the announcement stated. “Stay tuned for more info and keep your eyes peeled for one last chance to order any YHC Classics you might have missed, lost or outgrown.”

Yellowhammer Creative opened its storefront in the Pepper Place Studios Building in 2019. The company has been in business since 2008.

“With the simple dream of printing concert posters, and designing cool stuff, we started collaborating weekly and accidentally built a full-fledged company over the next couple of years operating out of my basement,” the announcement stated.

“A lot has changed over the last 15 years and YHC has tried its hand at numerous creative endeavours. Some worked and some didn’t, but the whole time we followed our heart and the road map in our brain to build what we think is a company worth being proud of. The result has been a somewhat chaotic and scrappy existence but we’ve enjoyed every second of it.”

The company ran into some controversy in 2015 when it attempted to trademark “It’s Nice to Have You in Birmingham,” a slogan first used in the 1950s to greet visitors to Birmingham and visible in murals around the city.

Three submissions opposing that trademark to the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board were dismissed a year later. The trademark was registered to Yellowhammer Creative in 2017, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.

Attempts to contact Yellowhammer Creative for comment were not immediately successful.