Photo by Michael Valčić

All of your stuff is so happy and clever! I’ve always been really drawn to it. When did you start making Objet d’Art?

I’ve always made art, since I was a child, but after college I liked the idea of these small, functional products that were affordable. I was really inspired by seeing an exhibition of Yoko Ono’s work, where she had all these small, miniature things that you could obtain at a reasonable price. And, I think the first object like this that I made was an artists’ book that I sold at Printed Matter, which used to be in Soho. It was a short story on folded-out rice paper, that went inside a match box. So once I started making these small, precious objects it just sort of kept rolling.

Can you talk about how your work has progressed? When did Optimism come along?

I started the Optimism project when I was in college. I had done a senior thesis, which was our gallery exhibition for the end of the year…

Did you study design?

Design and art and creative writing. You could mix it all up, where I went to school, at Clark University outside Boston. I had written a short poem about an event that happened between my father and I. When I was a little boy, we were outside the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan. And my father was really a character – came from a very working class background, and worked hard to become a young urban professional, and had a unique sense of humor. So it was just after they passed the recycling law in New York, and you would see these homeless people collecting cans. And my father, empathizing to some extent, walked over to a homeless guy and handed him his soda can and said, “Here you go sir, here’s your 5 cents.” And the homeless man said, “I’m no sir.” My father said, “I don’t have the patience to argue with you,” and walked away.

So, I’d found a quote that said, “An optimist is someone that tells you to cheer up when things are going his way.” I wrote a poem with that line as the intro, and for my senior thesis I designed a line of soda called Optimism. It had the poem listed as the ingredients, and it was displayed as a six-pack. I made these buttons to support the launch of the “product”, as if it was a real brand. I like things that blur the line between consumerism and art. The buttons took off like wildfire. I gave them away, and it was this huge thing on campus. The buttons came to exist entirely separately from the original project.

They took on a life of their own.

Exactly. I made 500, and then I stopped. I moved to New York, and then I started making them again after 9/11. I’d always been interested in public art and things that appear in unexpected places. Some wise people in the art world once asked me what crazy ideas I had, and I said, “Well, I have the idea that this logo I designed could go on the back of a Metrocard.” A woman said, “I love that idea, hold on!” And she opened her purse and went through her rolodex, and gave me the number of the head of the Arts for Transit program at the MTA.

That’s crazy! And so exciting.

Yeah, so I called her, and to my shock, this person took the call! She said, “Oh, that sounds interesting, send me something.” I put together a press kit, sent it, and it came to life. There was some red tape, but we got here.

When I first approached them I thought, “Wow, if they do 100,000 Metrocards that would be so cool.” Well, they’ve done 20 million cards.

Have you gotten feedback from people?

Sure, and it’s been incredibly gratifying. I get random emails – especially when the cards first came out, it was fairly often. I’ve received, directly, only the most positive support for the project.

Well I’d hope so! Does anyone think, “I hate optimism.”

You never know! I’m sure you guys read blogs where people talk about your work. I accept all those things, especially in the context of the MTA.

Everybody has something negative to say about the MTA.

Exactly. So I get it, and I like the irony and the push-and-pull of of having “optimism” being supported by the MTA. Because they need it more than anyone! And they knew that.

Photo by Carolyn Nardiello

Let’s talk a little bit about other projects you’ve done. I just saw the “Forget” spray on Supermarket, which I hadn’t seen before.

Spray To Forget is a functional, conceptual, aromatherapeutic product, designed to help edit one’s consciousness. It allows the user to purposefully forget undesired memories and replace them with desired memories. I got a wonderful reception to that, and had a lot of fun making it. It’s conceptual, but I researched different essential oils that would calm the nervous system and help people let go of tension. I studied people who believe quartz crystals hold metaphysical properties, and I steeped the water with crystals. So I think it has the potential to work as a true healing device, but it also can be decorative art, or kitschy… However people take it.

Where is your work going now?

After doing 20 million Metrocards, I now wish to do precious, one-of-a-kind items. That’s what I’m working on now. They’ll probably involve type, and they’ll probably be personal, but that’s all I can say!

So you’ve gone through this really interesting journey of starting with very personal work, making it very public, and then going back to the very personal. What advice do you have for others who are just starting their creative journey?

I was very inspired by the artist that just passed on, Louise Bourgeois. She said, “I don’t make my art for other people. I make my art for myself.” In some ways, the Optimism project was art I made for other people.

It was very exhibitionist. Buttons are an advertisement, right?

Totally. But what I learned from the Louise Bourgeois quote is that art can be an incredibly personal, spiritual catharsis. So that’s what I’m going through right now.

That idea seems very much in line with the Spray to Forget.

Yes, and now I’m continuing in that direction. I’ve Sprayed to Forget whatever I needed to forget, and now I’m growing into a new space.

She’s managed to turn her cheeky sense of humor and fabulous fashion sense into a wildly successful business, at the crazy young age of 27. What more could we ask for? Check out more of her work at http://a-morir.com

Let’s start at the beginning – when did you start bedazzling and befabulousing sunglasses?

I will show you the first thing I bedazzled. It’s my Motorola flip phone from when I was sixteen. Which I like to keep around for when people say, “It’s not durable.” This is eleven years old.

Fast forward to a couple years ago – I’d just quit the marketing industry and gone through a life change. I was working at a boutique to kill time before starting grad school at NYU for a Masters in Costuming History. I wanted to either work at the Met or be an authenticity expert for films and TV.

One day I bedazzled a pair of eyewear for myself. I was like, “Oh, I’ve got these stones, I need new glasses, let me just… ” I wore them into the store i was working at, and literally they were like, “Um, why don’t you sell these?” I made four, and they sold out really quick. They were in the New York Post, and were on Mariah Carey. Rihanna and I met, and she bought four pieces, and she kind of helped champion it. When the biggest pop star in the world wears your most unique design… She wore the chain ones out, and it was very shortly thereafter that this blew up. It was really that quick.

In seven months I’d quit grad school, quit working at the store, and I’ve been doing this full time since July ‘09. It was just the thing, at the time, that made sense for me. And so I did it.

How great is it to be able to say, “I started a crazy eyewear company, that’s the thing that made the most sense!”

People that I haven’t seen in a while ask, “What do you do now?” and when I tell them they’re like, “Well of course!” I guess bedazzling is kind of my destiny.

That’s the title of the interview right there.

Yes!

How have you managed to get so much acclaim and your pieces on all these celebrities?

It’s funny, because I come from the marketing world, so you’d think I’d be really good at email blasts and reaching out to people. I do not do any of that. I’ve never sent out an email blast. This is probably the first season that I’ve actually emailed my line sheets to buyers. Last year I think I opened 17 accounts, and it was all because boutiques emailed me saying, “We love your stuff, do you wholesale?” Yes I do!

This all really just came to me, because I was doing something nobody else was doing. I’ve been really fortunate in that sense. And that’s how I always want it to be – I want the work to speak for itself. I think that’s why all the celebrity press happened quickly and has continued to happen, because the work does speak for itself.

What has been the hardest part of the business stuff to learn, once you started doing this full time?

Apparently I’ve got a really good sense for business, or so my accountant tells me. I feel like it’s a lot of common sense. But the legal formalities, like registering with the state, are tricky. Luckily there are books that are written about that.

Other than that, time management. Figuring out a good life balance has probably been the trickiest. For a long time I didn’t go to the gym, I didn’t go out, I didn’t see my friends. I was just here working. Which is part of what you have to do at the beginning. When you start a business, you spend basically every waking moment on it. Even if the business is doing well, and you’re not worried where the next bit of money is going to come from, it’s still the only thing that you do. “Why don’t you come to my party?” Bitch I have shit to do! I have emails to send out! The business completely envelopes your identity.

I always have this thing, this thing that’s much bigger than I am. But I love it – this is the stuff I would be doing in my free time anyway. I wouldn’t do anything else – I would just roll around in glitter all day!

Do you see yourself moving into more costuming? Looking around the studio, you have the helmets, masks, bras… all kinds of stuff.

Yes and no. It’s very difficult when you start off as one person and you control everything. If you look at any major business, there’s way more than one person working there. Even the most incredible “one-person operations” have three personal assistants, and there are teams of people running the show. I want to get there, and once i do I can focus less on actual manual production, I’ll be able to expand into designing more. But I don’t want to overextend myself. I’d rather focus on being the best at custom independent eyewear. I want to be the best eyewear designer that you know of.

Do you do a lot of custom pieces? How much of your work are things people commission?

I’d say it’s like 25% commissioned work, 75% what I already designed. It’s interesting because the pieces that are commissioned sometimes later turn into my new lines. All of the weird show-piecey stuff, like the helmet or the mask, were commissioned. A lot of the Lady Gaga stuff was commissioned. Her team will say, “These are your inspirations. We need these accessories, in this color, using these elements. Can you do this by tomorrow?” And I’ll be like, “Yes I can,” and then I’ll start to cry, but I’ll get it done.

What’s your favorite pair of glasses right now? What are you most excited about?

I’m most excited about the d’arcy [pictured below]. I feel like once a season, so far, I’ve done something that really pushes the envelope. This is the fourth collection I’ve put out. The first season was the very first four styles that I did, which was like the “aha!” moment. The second season was when I did the chains, and I was really happy with that. The next batch was when I did the Barracuda [black glasses]. People are lucky if they get one noteworthy piece in a lifetime. I was recognized as a master in design at a Nike conference, and on the top of every weird end-of-year best accessories list, from InStyle to Rolling Stone. And I was kind of like, “Really?! Awesome!” So the d’arcy is the style I’m most excited about now, where it looks you have a nose-to-ear chain.

All of your designs are a jump past eyewear – it’s eyewear mixed with things you know from other places.

Exactly. That’s my weird subversive humor.

How do you find your design inspiration? What’s your process? Even though I know it’s hard to put into words, because it’s kind of a thing we just do…

Yeah, if you are an authentic creative you just sort of do it. It’s harder for me to cook a meal properly than it is to come up for an idea for eyewear. It’s a whole mix of things – it can be I found a really good frame and want to do something with it because I like the shape, or I found this great material and I want to incorporate it into something, or I think up something I don’t think has ever been done before and challenge myself to do it.

Design duo Andy Pressman and Renda Morton share a love for design, sure, but it was a common obsession with a certain Fleetwood Mac album that launched Rumors — the name of their web, print and interactive design studio — which they founded in 2008 with original partner Holly Gressley. Now, Renda and Andy bounce ideas off of one another in a charming “sparring sibling” style, with all the bickering and building taking place in their Brooklyn studio. Unfortunately, Fleetwood Mac was not blasting as part of the creative process, but there was a Frank Sinatra-esque melody in the air.

Whatever they are listening to, the Rumors studio should keep that Pandora station streamin’, because their genius collaborations have already nabbed them clients like New York Times Magazine and Bidoun Magazine of the Middle East. With new designer Zack Seuberling on board, the Rumors team shows no sign of slowing down. Check out more of their work at http://rumors-studio.com

How did the name “rumors” come about?

Andy: We went through so many names. Part of the trick about having a collaborative studio is you only have so many things you share. And we all like Fleetwood Mac. At the time we were heavily, heavily into it.

Renda: Yeah. Tusk is our favorite album, but Rumors was the best studio name.

How did you two hook up and begin working together?

Renda: Andy can tell the story about how I met him.

Andy: I was hiring for a job. I had a website I was making and I needed a developer, and somebody pointed me towards Renda Morton. So I sent Renda an email. After I hit send, I thought to myself, “You know what I should do? I should go on Myspace and see who this person is.”

Renda: And this was back when Myspace was the thing.

Andy: So I do, and I search her by email address. Then I accidentally ended up sending her an invitation saying, “Andy Pressman wants to be your friend on Myspace,” and inviting her to join Myspace. As if this were an important business gesture.

Renda: He wrote me an email saying, “I’m really sorry. Please ignore this. Please continue to think of me as a consummate professional.”

Andy: I was like, “I know how to spin this—by being up front. That’s what professionals do.” But it turns out she never got the Myspace email in the first place.

Renda: That’s how we met. That’s how I knew Andy was cool.

Nice damage control. Some of the best relationships are formed through Myspace.

Andy: Separate from that, we shared studio space in Dumbo as independent designers. We were collaborating on projects and it just made sense at a certain point to bring these things together.

Renda: We went and interviewed other studios or collectives to see how they ran their business to try to figure out what the best way was for us.

What is the hardest part about collaborating on a design?

Andy: We’re pretty good collaborators. Do we run into disagreements? Sure.

Renda: That’s what makes it good!

Andy: What makes it good is the fact that you’re not talking to yourself. The nature of collaboration requires, to a certain extent, disagreement or at least a separate perspective. Maybe the most difficult part is working with somebody day in and day out and knowing their quirks and knowing what they are going to say about something. It is not unlike sparring siblings. Being able to know this is a safe space, but still be able to say that something is stupid.

Renda: We always have to sit next to each other.

Andy: We always conceptualize together, even if we are working on separate projects.

How do your design aesthetics differ?

Renda: I don’t know

Andy: Neither of us have a particular style.

Renda: But I can tell if Andy made something.

Andy: And I can tell if you made something. A designer does certain things because they appeal to him or her and you see that in their work. But I think part of our process is about the ideas more than it is about the design. We both have different things we like to do. I’m not anywhere near as capable a programmer as Renda.

Renda: He’s better at writing emails. Writing really difficult emails and awkward emails, like the ones where we are saying we can’t do something or need more money.

Andy: I would say I’m more invested in print typography than Renda.

Your job requires you to work closely with your clients and understand what they want. So what makes a good client?

Andy: Sometimes we try to give them what they don’t know they want.

Renda: We want something that will make them happy, but also something that will make the people that have to use the thing that they make—whether it’s a book or a website or an exhibition—those people have to be happy too. Which, in turn, makes the client happy.

Andy: We have two clients essentially. We have the people that hired us and we have the audience. So in some cases we end up being advocates for the audience and what the user would want. But what makes a good client? We’ve been trying to put our finger on this lately.

Renda: We had one project in Greece where we had a client who told us to do whatever we want and would approve everything, and money wasn’t so much an object. That turned out to be one of the worst clients because he just didn’t care. He wasn’t invested in the project.

Andy: The best clients are smart and engaged. They take part in this dialogue of what the output is. It’s a fundamentally collaborative process. Like what I said before, we are not fundamentally surface designers or graphic designers. At the heart of it, we think about what it is that we’re doing or saying and how we say it. So the very logic of the thing that we work on is up for grabs and discussion. We want clients to take part in the generative process. They need to be open to ideas and open to rethinking preconceived notions.

I would have guessed a designer would hope for a client that gives them more creative freedom to do whatever you want!

Renda: If I did whatever I want I would just sit. That’s what I wanna do.

Fair enough. You guys mix a lot of print work with online design. Does this say something about the future of graphic design or where your studio is headed?

Andy: It definitely says something about the present. That’s something that distinguishes us as a studio—we do all of those things… We like working with clients that want something in terms of an exhibition space, the Web, and even a catalogue too.

Renda: And it changes all the time. The iPad came out six months ago and now everything’s different. Six months from now, things will feel different again.

Andy: How things are made really is changing much faster people see. We like taking part in that.

So you guys are always adapting. How do you plan to grow in your studio in the coming years?

Andy: I don’t feel like we need to make an effort to stay on top of things because that’s just what we are curious about by our nature. We just follow those pursuits and it’s been taking us to interesting places. I’m content that we grow as readers as these objects grow as reading devices. As a studio, we do not want to grow to be a business where we have to manage multiple designers at once.

Renda: No. We live in this neighborhood and it’s nice walk to work everyday and not have to go to Manhattan.

Andy: Our ideal growth comes from clients and projects and not the size of our business. We are always looking for more clients that interest us.

What projects are you working on right now?

Renda: We are working on an exhibition for the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal. We are really excited about it.

Andy: We are excited because they are smart people and very engaged and really excited about the ideas. Because they are excited about the ideas, we can throw out things that are like….

Renda: What if the museum were re-curated this way?

Andy: Or what if the space wasn’t the way you traditionally conceive of an exhibition space?

Renda: And we get to go to Montreal, which is fun.

When is the exhibiton?

Renda: November 11. We also just finished a thing for the American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter—the Center for Architecture. This week is Architecture Week, so for the whole month of October, they bought all the ads at the West 4th Street Subway Station and they are showing all their members’ projects—architects that are based in New York and what things they are working on.

The opening ceremony of “Made in New York” will be held Friday, Oct. 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the West 4th St. Subway station. Stop by for a glass of wine (staying within the parameters of Subway boozing, of course) and some thoughtful analysis of New York architecture. If we’re lucky, the night will also include some clever dialogue on spinning classic rock into a savvy business influence—an art form that both Andy and Renda have clearly mastered.

We believe it’s the role of creatives to start the uncomfortable conversations that cause people to grow.

“A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.” – Timothy Ferriss

Inspired by the quote above, we challenged a group of designers to create something which provokes an uncomfortable yet important conversation. Participating designers were given complete freedom with the type of object they created, the materials they used, and the topic of the conversation they set out to provoke.

As a result, we have ended up with a wonderfully broad body of work – housewares and furniture, jewelry and fashion, graphics and video. Still, everything exhibited here has one thing in common: the desire to make you uncomfortable. It’s your turn to judge how well they succeed.

- Design Glut, Curators

During the holiday season, I received some lovely holiday cards from Parliament of Owls. I was taken aback by how delightful they were designed. The cards were letterpressed on a heavy card stock which made them even more special. Parliament of Owls is a New York based design collective that offer a range of services from branding and packaging design to custom lettering, illustration and poster design. Ariana Dilibero, Meg Paradise and Lauren Sheldon are the elite members of Parliament. I met these lovely ladies on a cold Winter’s evening over some pizza, wine and great conversation.

Design Glut: I wanted to start off with the Mailers you gals sent out for the holidays. What’s the thought behind that?
Lauren Sheldon: We had our business cards ready, but didn’t want to be like those guys passing out flyers on the street, we wanted to reach out to people we admire and introduce ourselves in a way that was more original and hopefully get a few jobs along the way.
Meg Paradise: We wanted to start out with a family of pieces, where we could each do our own thing and have it live under the same umbrella.
Ariana Dilibero: And honestly, we’re total suckers for letterpress.

What is Parliament of Owls?
AD: Parliament is… our powers combined. We each have a very different style, but the same approach to design. We all love making things.
LS: Yeah. I think it’s about good design for good people. Hopefully, that same feeling comes through in the work.
MP: I love working with these guys and it made sense to start doing that on a regular basis.

What do you think makes you (Parliament of Owls) special? How are you different?
AD: Honestly, we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel in terms of starting a business. We’re just trying to do what we love.
MP: We all have a serious love of pork products, particularly dumplings.
AD: Yeah. That was part of the joke with the holiday cards. Meg was a vegetarian until she moved to New York and we introduced her to Italian sandwiches.

What is your design background?
MP: I started out at Modern Dog in Seattle. Their work is really inspiring and in a weird way kinda provocative. They’re also into old-school tools and crafting things by hand. So that experience played a huge role in shaping how I work. Then I moved to NYC and landed at Mucca Design where I learned a whole different kind of craft, the very beautiful and detailed kind.
AD: I graduated from SVA and then spent some time at Martha Stewart as an intern. I was fascinated by all the facets of the Martha Stewart empire and how design was the focus through and through, it was a real eye opener. Then, Mucca Design took me in as a junior designer. There, I learned the ways of the branding world under the art direction of great designers.
LS: I studied design in school and had an internship turned full-time position at Mucca Design. I got thrown into branding and book jacket design, which was not something I focused on at all during my education. This was where I learned that drawing type wasn’t a weird thing.

I love the name, what’s the meaning behind the name?
AD: We had been looking for something that would speak to the fact that we’re a group of individuals. It also had something to do with us liking old-timey sounding things and wordplay.
LS: We were talking about absurd names for groups of animals like a Murder of Crows. Turns out a group of owls is called a parliament.
MP: Yeah. There’s a curiosity and cheekiness to the name.
LS: We also liked Fever of Stingrays, but we’re saving that for our indie band in which I play the violin, Ari does vocals and Meg mans the woodblock.

What was the hardest part starting PofO?
AD: I think getting started was the hardest part.
MP: We are still starting PofO to a certain extent.
LS: Parliament had just broken out from being an idea we’d chat about every Friday to something concrete. The holiday cards sort of solidified everything.

Who or what would be your perfect client/ project?
AD: I saw this Saul Bass interview where he spoke about how making things beautiful is a designer’s prerogative. The essence of what we do – regardless of the object. So for me, the ideal projects are the ones that challenge you to find elegance in a place you wouldn’t expect.
MP: Mainly it’s about trust in the relationship with the people we work with. Of course, we have to eat and pay the rent, but if you are into what I’m into and we feed off each other while learning something along the way, that’s my ideal client.
LS: Along the lines of what the other ladies said, an ideal client is one that shares in the idea you are creating. That’s when you’re able to do the best work. And an ideal client is perhaps a restaurant owner/chef who wants to pay us in delicious meals.

So where do you feel the future of graphic design is heading? I ask this because we hear a lot of talk recently about how print is dying.
LS: I’m not sure we’re really qualified to be answering that question but I think we’re just beginning to see the possibilities of what’s going to happen digitally. I think we’re going to see the spread of good graphic and information design into other industries – like healthcare and education.
AD: I think it’s already happening, if you look at the way household products are being rebranded and repackaged. There’s definitely an emphasis on bringing design to everyone.
MP: At the same time there’s a renewed value on craftsmanship and quality in printed work.

Which designer, living or deceased would you love to share a Colada with on a booze cruise?
AD: I don’t know, who would be Colada friendly? I bet Paul Rand would be a lot of fun.
MP: Yea, Paul Rand would be great or the Eames. That would be amazing.
LS: Bradbury Thompson. His work is really fun. Totally Colada worthy.

What things do you wish you knew earlier as a designer?
AD: I wish I knew the aspects of graphic design that actually have nothing to do with design. You get an entirely different kind of education when you start working. My advice would be to embrace the 1-2 years of being the go-to person who gets the grunt work done.
MP: The first 2 years are the most important of your design career. You learn so much in that period of time. You learn all the processes and the way things are done. I wasn’t a big fan of the grunt work, but I’m glad I did it because I learned how to do it well. Soak up as much as you can from the people around you, because everyone has random talents you can learn from. For example, Lauren has exceptional Photoshop skills, because she got to do fun things like make a fire skull.
LS: Yes, trial and error. Learn from your mistakes, because if a client wants a skull made out of glass, they might eventually want one made out of cosmos, water, grass or fire. You will hone your craft.
AD: We got to work at a great studio together and were surrounded by amazing designers and great people that we admire and are still friends with. They have been really supportive of our endeavor which is rewarding.

It’s 10pm, you stroll into a bar. What would you order?
AD: Dirty martini and a meat plate.
MP: Jamison and ginger with lime.
LS: Glass of red.
MP: Is this going to make us sound like alcoholics?
AD: Well, you have to drink a lot in this profession.

Judging from these answers and the fun evening. No doubt Parliament of Owls takes their craft and work seriously while always remembering to have fun along the way. Obviously, there’s a high level of skill to their work, but what strikes me the most is that there’s a sense of ease and whimsy to the work as well.

We look forward to checking in with the members of Parliament and excited to see what great things they will accomplish in the near future.

STPLxAIRWALK collection

You do so many things – I’m really curious, timeline-wise, what was first? What was the first project you created?

First was clothing. I was at Parsons School of Design for graphic design, so I guess you could say that was first. But it was just schooling. I didn’t make any money from it.

What inspired you to do clothing?

It started because I was taking a silkscreening class. They taught you how to silkscreen on canvas and paper. Well, my friends weren’t really about putting art up on the wall of their shitty apartments that they shared with six people. There probably wasn’t even a wall – more like a curtain! I wanted to make tees for my friends to wear. That was really how it started. And the funny story is that Parsons didn’t allow you to print on t-shirts.

Really?

Yeah. They didn’t allow it. So a friend of mine and I would break into the silkscreen lab. We would leave a window open and climb in at night. We would come in with a pillowcase full of tees, set up a sweatshop, and print stuff. It was really, again, just to give out to friends.

STPL collection Spring 2009

That changed on March 7th, 1997 – my birthday. I was going to go out with my girlfriend and get a nice dinner. She wanted to get her hair done, so I dropped her off at a hair salon. While she was there, I went shopping and walked into a store on Lafayette – Triple Five Soul. Back then, in ‘97, Triple Five Soul was a boutique; it was a much smaller operation. I walked in and the manager said, “Hey, that’s a cool shirt you’re wearing, where’d you get it?” I told him I made it, and he said, “Well, if you make 12, I’ll try to sell them here.”

Nice!

That was the first order. I always wonder, if my girlfriend wasn’t doing her hair, or if I didn’t go in that store, literally this whole thing that you see might not exist. I had no plan to do it. It’s weird to think that if I’d made a left on Crosby or something, my whole life could have been changed!

So what happened next? Did you start trying to sell the shirts more?

No! [laughs] It just happened.

In a week, the guy at Triple Five Soul told me, “We sold out. We’ll take 24 this time.” So I made 24. Then another store in SoHo, called Union, saw what we were doing. They said, “Hey, we love your stuff. Why don’t you do a different design for us, and we’ll start ordering.” So I was selling to two shops in SoHo, all the while, still breaking into school with my friend to make the shirts.

Eventually it got to the point where my studio apartment in Chinatown was like a sweatshop. There were boxes everywhere. I had my friend in fashion design cutting labels and sewing them in. I had another friend making hang tags for me. I remember one time when we had to get an order out the next day, the needle on the sewing machine broke. It was the last needle. And it was 3AM! I started calling all these places to try and get more, and finally found a place that was open. I skated up to 70th St. When I finally brought the needles back, they were like the holy grail! That’s how we started. It was pretty fun.

STPL collection Spring 2009

How did you go from having your clothing line to doing work for clients?

People who were fans of the t-shirts would come to me and say, “Hey, I heard you’re a graphic designer, can you help us with our CD cover?” Or business card, logo, party flier… Various little odd jobs . I started taking that on as well, and the business kind of became twofold.

So when you graduated, were you set up enough that you just went straight into doing your own thing?

I didn’t graduate. I dropped out. It was my second year, sophomore year, that I was doing this.

Wow, that was quick!

I’m a hustler. I get bored easily. I’ve gotta do something! My sophomore year those two SoHo stores were putting in orders for 24 or 36 shirts. Then this Japanese guy bought one of my shirts at Union and told them, “I want to talk to this guy,” so they gave him my number. He calls me at home and he says, “I want a shirt, and I live in Japan.” And I was like, “That’s awesome! I’ll send you a shirt in Japan.” And he’s like, “Uh, no, I want 1,000 shirts.” My third order! 1,000 shirts.

No way. That’s when you have to drop everything and just do it.

I was like, “Please hold,” and started screaming and jumping up and down on the bed. And then got back on the phone, “OK, yes, 1,000 shirts, we can do that.”

But I had no idea how – how was I going to break into school with 1,000 t-shirts? That was really when I said, OK, I can always go back to school. But this opportunity – I’m not going to tell this guy, “Let me graduate, let me take my finals first.” It was now or never. I took the opportunity, and I haven’t gone back yet. But I do teach now! I teach at NYU, Parsons, and I just started teaching at Columbia University, at the executive master’s program. I don’t even have an associates degree! It’s kind of ironic.

Reed Space in the LES

It makes you think about the value of school.

It does. I think school is for some people and not for others. It just depends on how your brain is wired.

So your clothing brand was taking off, and your consultancy was taking off – when did you open Reed Space?

Right as the clothing line was doing well, I knew I wanted a retail store. When I would go to visit stores that carried Staple, I’d always be a bit disappointed. As a store, you’re not worried about individual brands, you’re worried about your whole shop. I would think, “Why are they displaying it like that?” Or I’d listen to a guy selling it to a customer and I’d think, “That’s not the concept!” It just wasn’t right. I always felt, “Man, I want to open my own store.” And not just to sell Staple, but to represent brands properly and in a way that they respect and appreciate.

In 2001, 9/11 happened. Our office at the time was on Division St., which is in the shadow of the World Trade Center. I couldn’t go to my office for weeks. Sometimes they would let us in, but the electricity was shot. If you printed and faxed and got a phone call at the same time, all the power would just go down. We had to move.

Why did you move to the Lower East Side?

One of the other things that I like to do is DJ, and I was DJing at this place that doesn’t exist anymore, that was on Orchard St. DJing would mean getting off of work at 5AM, standing outside with your records, and waiting 20 or 30 minutes for a cab to come. This was 2001, so the LES wasn’t like now. You had to hope that cabs would come by.

One night, as I was waiting for a cab, I looked across the street and I saw this “For Rent” sign on a storefront. When I looked in the window, I saw that the store went through the whole block and had a second entrance on Allen St. It was amazing! I immediately typed down the phone number. I called the guy, and then the next day I went to go look at it.

Reed Space in the LES

So you moved your office into that storefront?

Originally, it was Reed Space on one side, and Staple Design in the back. I built a partition to separate the space.
The idea was to have a design studio, and then make clothes and just put them in the store. Plus we could talk to our customers – it seemed perfect.

A couple years later, we moved Staple Design out, and made Reed Space the whole thing. The split space wasn’t big enough to carry all the brands that I wanted to be in Reed Space. And we were trying to work in the back, but every 30 seconds someone was coming in. In the beginning, only 10 people a day would come in, and it was fine. But once there was a constant stream of people, we couldn’t get any work done. So we had to separate.

Wow – so Reed Space just kind of took off on it’s own.

Yeah. Again, maybe if I wasn’t DJing that night, or if I didn’t look in a certain direction, there would be no Reed Space. I never said, “I’m going to open a store. I’m going to hire real estate agents, and scout locations, and create a P&L, and a budget.”

In the beginning my path was very random, and it felt random. But more recently, I’ve learned the ability to listen to that voice in me. You could say that it was totally random that I went to Triple Five Soul, or totally random that I found Reed Space. But I think that there is some sort of ethereal voice that compels you to do these things. The key to success is listening to that voice and acting on it. I think if you can get yourself in tune with that, whatever you want to call it, third eye, or soul – different people have different words for it – then you can start really rocking.

STPL collection Spring 2009

So as the whole thing grew, and you started bringing other people in and making a business out of it, what was the hardest lesson to learn? What was the hardest part of all of that?

People management. I’m still working on that one. It’s hard. We have a team of, depending on the time of year, anywhere between 18 and 20 people. The team is the most important thing, because no matter how smart or how hard-working you are, there’s only 24 hours in the day, 7 days in the week, and you’re only one person. You can only do so much. You need an army of people to help you.

I didn’t take any business classes or anything like that, but I do now read a lot of business magazines. The one thing that I always am intrigued about is management skills, for lack of a better word. Trying to figure out how to get the most out of people. A really big part of my job now, as President or CEO, is making sure that people are in the right position to do the best job possible. You might have a person that is a great person, but stuck in the wrong seat. You put them in the right seat and all of a sudden they’re a star! You don’t want to just fire somebody – you’ve got to make sure that you’ve vetted them properly.

That’s a really good attitude to have. What are you working on now? What are you excited about at the moment?

Well, let’s see. I just came back from Europe, and we showing/selling our Spring 2010 collection. Now, the second you get back from that, you go straight into designing and brainstorming for Fall 2010.

We’re also working on the next issue of Reed Pages. Quite honestly, I haven’t been this excited about a project in years. And it’s ironic that it’s this old-school art form – making a magazine. It’s experimental, in the way it’s done, and the feedback we’ve gotten on it has been incredible. I’m not looking to make millions of dollars with it, because it’s a dying industry, but it is something that I’m really excited about.

Jeff’s new magazine, Reed Pages

One last question. What does it take to succeed as an entrepreneur? What’s your advice to people who want to work for themselves?

Be prepared to work the hardest you’ve ever worked in your life, and multiply that by 100! And, hey, some people aren’t cut out for it. That’s cool, that’s why they make desk jobs where you just clock in at 9, clock out at 5, and you’re done. Your definition of “hard work” really has to be redefined. I talk to some friends, and they say, “Oh my god, it was such a busy day, I had a meeting! And I had to go to the bank! It was so hard, there was like a long line at the bank…” And I’m like, “I did that from 9:15 to 9:30!”

One comment I always get is, “Man, if I was just as lucky as you…” You know what, come to my office at 3AM, and I’ll show you how lucky I am. You don’t see that part – all you see is the Nike that came out, or the finished art exhibit, or the trip to Paris. It’s really hard to explain how much work goes into making those things happen.

Scott Ballum of Sheepless Co.

We’ve found, with a lot of the people that we interview, that the companies they start fulfill many of their needs beyond the financial. Social needs, creative needs… Your job should fulfill all of those other needs. It’s your life’s work – it’s what you’re doing every day.

But most people don’t enjoy what they do every day. It’s surprising to me! Even when I was working for someone else, it was still at a design company. And a graphic design practice is still going to be more enjoyable than so many other jobs that are out there. I was still using this artistic skill that I wanted to use.

Since I’ve been working here at Green Spaces, and on a couple of other projects that I’ve done, I’ve met a lot of people who basically are finding ways to support themselves – but it’s around some issue, or some mission, that they feel really passionate about. Not just because, “I want to make money.” I find that really inspiring. I think a lot of people wish that they could do that, but they don’t think it’s possible.

Graphic design for the Art Director’s Club

That’s definitely similar to what we’re trying to do on our site, which is promoting creative entrepreneurs who are creating their own path and making a living doing it.

I’m specifically interested in “activist entrepreneurs.” I want to show the relationship between really political street activists who band together and sell their posters online to make money, and, say, Seventh Generation. Which is a big cleaning products company, but they’re also based around social and environmental issues. i want to create this new way of thinking about business.

What I’m hoping to do is provide a voice, a way for those people who are doing it to branch out and tell others, “Yes, this kind of career is possible.” You can leave your horrible middle-management job, or whatever it is, and do something that you’re excited about.

It will start as an online magazine. I hope to, at least quarterly or bi-annually, do printed versions as well. I think there’s a place for that – people want it. You can hold it, you can take it places, you can show it to people. But it’s a lot easier, and faster, and cheaper, to build an audience online. As I’m sure you know!

Graphic design for the Art Director’s Club

Absolutely, the internet makes finding an audience so much easier. What is your background?

I’ve always wanted to be independent. When I came out of school, where I studied graphic design, I passed up a couple of jobs because they just seemed like they were too focused on one particular type of design. Or one particular industry. I wanted something that was broader. I ended up freelancing by default, because I kept turning down jobs!

Then I actually fell into a couple of jobs that were pretty fantastic. I worked in-house at Housing Works, and then I got a job with C&G partners. I would be working with design legends, and it was the kind of job you just don’t turn down when it’s offered. I liked, when I was there, that they had a very broad range of clients. I was taken in as senior personnel and I was able to run my own projects. But even then, I still had to report to someone else. There was still someone else who was deciding the direction of the company.

Also, I have a background in writing, and I was finding more and more venues to do that write. But I had to squeeze it into after-hours and weekends. I wanted to find a way to make that a really solid part of what I did. I decided to go out on my own and turn it into some sort of a business.

Graphic design for the Signature Theatre Company

How did you end up a part of Green Spaces?

I left the company I was working for in September. Great timing. I had projects all lined up, and I thought I was totally set. Well, the big projects all disappeared when the economy crashed. There were a few months of serious drought there. During that time, I was working in coffee shops.

I would tell myself that the people who worked in the coffee shop were my “co-workers” and if I was late they were going to know! I really had to convince myself of that – there had to be some way to get myself out of the apartment. I had to go somewhere else and say, “OK, this is work time.”

In February or March of this year, I started getting a few phone calls, and projects started coming up. Doing design work and writing in the coffee shop environment was a lot harder than sitting there looking for work. I started thinking I should find some other space – not having any idea yet how I would ever afford it. In that same coffee shop, people from this building had put up a flier with little take-away tabs with their phone number, saying, “Co-working office space.” I decided to just take a look.

Graphic design for Housing Works

Why not?

Exactly, why not? It sounded like fun, and I figured I’d meet some more people. When I got here, I loved the building. It’s so alive, and there are so many different people here doing so many different kinds of things. And yet we all have a very socially-conscious, environmentally-conscious mission to whatever we’re doing. We’re not competition – we’re all very supportive of each other. It seemed like a great thing to try, so I tried it, and I loved it.

As your own small company, you could just sit at home or in your little office and be really isolated. Places like Green Spaces let you be autonomous and let you do what it is that you want to do, and yet still share resources and share inspiration.

Could you tell us what your mission is at this point? What kind of projects are you doing?

For the design practice, I aim to work with small, socially-responsible businesses or non-profits – cultural organizations, things like that. I’m trying to work on projects that I can really get behind and support. It’s not easy, because that’s definitely not a niche where there’s a lot of money. It means that I have to take on more projects. But they’re much more rewarding. Even if I have to put in long nights, I’d rather do it for something I feel good about and am excited about.

Fruit Cocktail Collection by Flavor Paper

How did Flavor Paper start?

I was based out of New Orleans, working for a real estate company out of Baltimore, doing projects mostly in Florida. I was working on a couple of apartments in Miami, and had decided to hang on to one of them for a while. We were going to do it up and see what we could get for that, versus a plain box.

I was working on it when a friend of mine came over to give me some ideas for decor. She was standing in the kitchen, trying to get wallpaper from a company in Oregon. The guy called her back and said they were going out of business and burning all their equipment. I thought it was cool wallpaper so I called the guy up, who said he was literally dragging all the equipment outside and burning it. He told me if I wanted anything I had 24 hours to make up my mind, and 48 hours to get the machinery out of there.

Next thing I knew I had a truck full of wallpaper equipment, and was headed to New Orleans with no place to put it. I went online and found a building. When I got back to New Orleans, I checked it out, got it under contracts, moved my stuff in, and started figuring out how to make wallpaper. Since then we’ve had a flood, a fire, a train wreck, a hurricane and we’re still trying to go strong. Still making wallpaper. It’s pretty exciting to say the least.

Flower Pedal by Flavor Paper

Wow. That’s intense. When did you finally get your first line out?

We released our first line at ICFF 2004, and got lucky. Our first client was Lenny Kravitz’ house in New Orleans. From there it kind of just kept going. We weren’t really ready for it because we’d just had a fire that ruined most of our equipment, and were still on the rebound. We got it together pretty quickly and have been learning ever since.

Right now is our first time ever designing a space, knowing what we’re doing, and building it specifically for making wallpaper.

Let’s talk about this space. There’s a buzz this year about whether you’re Brooklyn-based or not. What made you decide to move your manufacturing, studios, and showroom to NY?

We probably do about 90% of our business here. Even if we have a job in Hong Kong, it’s probably sourced in New York. So we’ve always been thinking about getting up here but couldn’t really figure out a way to pull it off. After Katrina we started investigating our options and this was our number one choice. All of our paper suppliers are in Queens or New Jersey. Instead of making a huge carbon footprint by shipping our papers to New Orleans, back here, and then off to other places – it just made more sense to be here.

I looked at almost 300 buildings, over a year and a half, before picking one. We have such a unique beast because we have a 50-ft table we have to fit in wherever we are.

The 50-ft table.

So are you personally going to be moving out here?

I’ll be spending 70% of my time here and 30% in New Orleans. Instead of closing the New Orleans location, we’re turning it into a fabric-printing space. Really we’re expanding rather then moving. We’re trying to bring ourselves into more of what we always wanted to be.

What has been the hardest thing you had to learn about the wallpaper business?

Figuring out how to get a 50-ft long table to be perfectly straight is about the hardest thing you could ever do. Lasers don’t do it. We got this 35-yr old table, that had been moved several times already. We strapped a bunch of plywood to it, lifted it up with a log lifter, and moved it in one piece. We had it hanging off a trailer bouncing down a mountain road. It was definitely out of wack when we got it to New Orleans.

Getting something like that straight is incredibly difficult. If it’s not straight, we’re not printing right, and the paper doesn’t line up. Unfortunately, we then learned that our space is right next to train tracks, and off the Mississippi river bed. The table goes off-kilter by up to an inch when it rains.

City Park by Flavor Paper

Whoa. How did you find that out?

Our manufacturing process is – we take designs from hand-drawn artwork, print a digital film, and use that to burn a screen. There are all these different points where things can go wrong. We couldn’t get anyone to print our film straight, so we bought a digital printer to do it ourselves. That’s when I realized how much our building moved. One day it would print perfectly straight, then two days later, it would be way off.

How big are your screens?

About thirty-six inches wide, by seven feet tall.

So I assume it takes more then one person to print?

Two people are printing at all times. But now we’re designing this custom one-armed counterweight. One person pulls, and the counterweight helps keep it straight and more even. Some variation is to be expected in handprinting, but we’re pretty anal about keeping things as tight as we can. This way only one person has to pull, and the paper still has that handprinted quality.

Nouveau Riche by Flavor Paper

Have you found that you’ve had to educate people about using wallpaper?

Absolutely. The biggest thing that people don’t understand is how to size and hang it. They know if they like the aesthetic or not. That’s why I decided to take the wallpaper company. I didn’t know a single person with wallpaper, but I figured it’s been around for thousands of years – no one had it, so there had to be a market for cool paper.

Some of the original patterns from the company I bought were great, but the colors we’re absurdly dated. Our first line was seven of their patterns, which we changed the colors on. Flower of Love, Cycloid, Highway 66, Sheeba, and Vapour – all of those were originals.

Are there new patterns coming out for Design Week?

We have seven new patterns coming out – crazy stuff. Four designed by Dan Funderburgh. He’s Brooklyn based, and we’ve worked with him in the past. Famer’s Market uses artichokes, wheat leaves, and other vegetables that form vertical stripes. Fruits of Design is a Damask but with fractals, compasses and paintbrushes thrown in. Not Wood is a diagonal running woodgrain pattern. Power Plant has power cords that turn into light bulbs, and finally, Sharp Descent, has pretty much every sharp thing you could think of raining from the sky.

Parlor Secrets by Eskayel

Going into this series of interviews, I knew nothing about wallpaper. It really wouldn’t have occurred to me as a decorating option. Hearing about it from all of you guys is so much fun!

I don’t think wallpaper occurs to a lot of people. I think that’s why BKLYN DESIGNS will be good, to get the idea in people’s minds. So you’re interviewing other wallpaper people?

Yeah, we’re covering four wallpaper designers.

Katie from Grow House Grow is really sweet. She helped me a lot. And the other girl, Jill Malek, helped Katie. Jill got her set up with her printer, and helped her with getting a business license. So Katie said to me, “Jill helped me so much, now I want to help somebody!” She sent me emails with all the information I needed to get started.

Will BKLYN DESIGNS be your first trade show?

Yes. I’m kind of “officially” launching. I’ve been doing this on the side for about a year. A shop in London recently decided to carry it, and that encouraged me to really push this. I think doing a trade show is the way to push it forward, because I don’t exactly know how to market it to interior designers. My background is fine art and graphic design.

How do you develop your patterns?

I scan pieces of my paintings in and flip them around. Sometimes it’s obvious how they come from the paintings, and sometimes I just take tiny pieces and rearrange them. I flip it around, mirror it, and turn it into a pattern. Let me show you a painting… This one’s really obvious. This is the painting that made the pattern that’s up on my wall.

It would be impossible to screen print these – there are so many different colors, and they blend into each other – so it’s digitally printed.

What made you think, “I should turn my paintings into wallpaper.”

Sometimes I would have to scan my paintings, and since I have a small scanner, I’d have to scan them in pieces. I had these pieces, and they looked like really cool designs all by themselves. I do a lot of graphic design, so I wanted to play with patterns. I just made a lot of patterns on my computer. And every time I looked at them I thought, “These would make cool wallpaper.”

I used to live her with my ex-boyfriend, and when he moved out I felt like, “I want to redecorate the whole place!” So one of the first things I did was to try to make my wallpaper. I worked with this printer, and she said, “Yeah, you could totally do that.” She knew the paper to use, etc. I put it up on my wall, and I liked it, and that was that.

When did you start selling it to other people?

Everyone who saw it said, “You should do something with this.” So I started making wallpaper to hang behind my paintings in exhibitions. They’re not like these – they’re a lot more psychedelic and crazy. They’re not designed for a home, they’re for a really funky gallery space. And from that, somebody asked me to do something for their shop.

Then I decided, maybe I should try to do patterns that would be more for the home. I developed patterns on the computer, and got good feedback from people, so I printed some. My new collection is the Frontier Collection, and it’s inspired by Native American patterns, African patterns and tribal stuff. The earlier collection is called the Opulence Collection. It was inspired by the Victorian era.

Ivory Outpost by Eskayel

What are you looking to get out of BKLYN DESIGNS?

I want to get in front of interior designers. I think what I’m doing is pretty unique – there’s nothing else like it. It’s special, and I like customizing it for different spaces. I can change the colors to match a specific project. And I like the idea of working with scale. Because a lot of the repeats on my wallpaper are really big, just buying a roll doesn’t really work, because it needs to match up.

What I’ve done for most of my clients up until now is, they tell me the dimension of the wall they want it on, and I make it so that it fits that wall exactly. I have it cut to the right amount, so there’s no excess, and so that the pattern is symmetrical.

I’ve always wanted to do my own thing. And I have done it – I’ve done t-shirt companies, and other projects, but nothing seemed like it was going to work the way this does.

Tiger’s Eye by Eskayel

Captain Smith by Grow House Grow! – photo via The New York Times

When did you realize you wanted to make wallpaper?

It took me years to connect the dots. I knew since I was really little that I wanted to be an artist. My mom is a professional storyteller and children’s book author, and as I got older I realized it was important to me that everything I made had a story attached to it. This led me into illustration. I felt more confident in my artwork because there was a purpose – I was telling a story.

I moved to the city, started doing freelance illustration, and became totally dissastified. I still felt like I was just making work for someone else – not doing it for myself. I was sitting in husband’s apartment one day, messing around in Illustrator, and I started repeating some of my little drawings and thinking about pattern. The great intuition spoke, and I realized I wanted to make wallpaper.

That was in 2005. I didn’t officially become a company until 2007. In those two years I got married, got a studio, realized there was no class for how to make wallpaper, and just started chipping away at it myself. My first line of wallpaper was totally inspired by children’s book characters and memories from when I was a kid.

Cottontail by Grow House Grow!

How did you get attention for your first line?

One thing they don’t teach you in art school is marketing. That was super hard. I saved all my money and hired one of my husband’s co-workers to put up a website. Then I just emailed lots and lots of companies and blogs. Most were receptive, some weren’t.

Were there any specific blogs or magazines which really helped out out?

I got really lucky and Daily Candy featured my papers last September. I still get a ton of hits from them. Then, randomly, I was bartending and mentioned to a guy that I design wallpaper. He said he worked at Time Out and I should give him my card. I did, and it took like three or four months, but I got a phone call from them.

They didn’t feature the wallpaper specifically, but agreed to do a how-to guide on making your own light-switch covers. Then I realized I had to figure out how to make a light-switch cover… That’s the definitely the way I roll. You have to be a yes person. I got a great response to that article.

Nellie by Grow House Grow!

How is the wallpaper made? Your colors are incredibly rich.

Originally I had a studio on Morgan and Grand, and was doing the printing myself. I had these huge screens that were impossible to move, and it just hit me that doing it this way wasn’t going to work. At the time, I didn’t really know my options, but I knew I wanted things to be handprinted. I liked the craftsmanship.

When I decided to approach a professional printer, I asked several people for help. Jill Malek gave me her contact, and I am eternally grateful. The printer is amazing. It’s this husband and wife team that has been handprinting wallpaper for over thirty years. They’re located upstate, in this old converted bowling alley with super long tables that they roll the paper on. Even though they do really high end stuff, they are also so helpful and understanding. It’s been a huge relief to me to work with someone who is so professional, and yet so easy going.

How would you like Grow House Grow to, um, grow?

I’m really working on selling my paper to individuals right now, through my website. It would also be amazing to work with contractors, architects, and interior designers.

I could also see myself, under a different name, producing patterns which are machine printed. I hate that my wallpaper is so expensive, but I think I’m pretty much at the bottom, price-wise, of what people charge for hand-printed wallpaper. To create a product that is beautiful, handmade, sustainable, and actually priced to sell it is really difficult.

Could you tell us about your new line?

My new line is a bit darker than my last one. I took three historical characters and thought, “What would be on their walls? What would their parlor rooms look like?”

The first pattern is for Captain Smith of the Titanic. It’s a jellyfish damask. As the Titanic sank in those early hours on April 15, 1912, Captain Smith was lost and his final actions remain unknown. It’s easy to imagine the luxurious ocean liner gliding under the currents to the soft ocean floor, and being taken up by a new, undersea crew – this time with tentacles.

Captain Smith by Grow House Grow!

The second one is for for Aleister Crowley. I read this one specific story about him, that details the summer he spend in 1933 in Cornwall. He was having these crazy drug-induced parties, and this couple got involved in his black magic debauchery and feared for their lives. They approached a woman named Ka Cox, who was married to a well-to-do man, and good friends with Virginia Woolf. She was down to business. She said she’d help them, went to their house to prove that the black magic didn’t exist, and for whatever reason, inexplicably dropped dead that night. The pattern is for her – it’s a damask with hands.

Aleister Crowley by Grow House Grow!

The last pattern is for a woman named Cattle Kate. She was an incredible lady who bought some land and decided she was going to raise and drive cattle. She branded her cows, and was living happily with her husband until her neighbor, a very wealthy cattle rancher, decided he wanted her land. He started a rumor saing that her cows were stolen from the state and misbranded. Not only that, he roused up a bunch of angry neighbors who dragged her and her husband to the river, and lynched them. The wealthy rancher was put in prison for the murder, but mysteriously every single witness disappeared or backed out from testifying.

Cattle Kate by Grow House Grow!

Amazing! I can’t wait to see your booth at BKLYN DESIGNS. Before we close, do you have any advice for your fellow entrepreneurs?

When I first started all of this, I had so many questions; they really don’t make it easy for you. Trying to figure everything out business-wise, and logistically plan out the future of my company, was really hard. I couldn’t believe I didn’t take any business classes in college. Then again, there is something to be said for learning it along the way.

One book that really helped me is called Craft, Inc. It’s for the typical Etsy designer and craftsman. It really lays out every step of the process: having an idea, making a couple for your friends, taking it seriously, the legal stuff, how to market yourself and onwards. I basically just followed every chapter. I have a few friends that have tried to start businesses, and I recommend it to everyone.