Through the Looking Glass: Inside the Design Process

Note: this will be a semi-regular series on the design process.


I first had the idea last summer to create an Alice in Wonderland card based on the scene where she steps through the looking glass. However, last summer, I was studying for the bar, so I only really had time to make the sketches below. I also saved this shiny silver packaging that came with my printer ink, thinking that I could use it as the mirror.



After I took the bar and came back from Russia, I started on my fall collection. I didn't feel quite ready to work on the Looking Glass card, though, and then after I picked up my second part-time job, didn't have the time.

That winter, my boyfriend gave me the idea of creating 2-card designs - where part of the image is on one card, and part of it is on another card, so you can fit them together like a puzzle. I thought about it, and realized that the looking glass scene would be perfect for a 2-card design.



The above sketch was made in January. I knew that this would be a difficult design to conceptualize, so I put it off for simpler and more time-sensitive designs.

By the time my self-declared product development week rolled around, I was itching to get to work with this sketch. I knew that I wanted the colors in Wonderland to be brighter and bolder, and the colors in Alice's world to be more muted and neutral. The challenges: 1) which colors and patterns to use? 2) how to make Alice's world visually appealing using muted and neutral tones?

I started out using a bright pink as the background color for Wonderland, and very light blue for Alice's world, but then decided a bright blue would be better - and that the blue spectrum (light blue, blue (Alice's dress), bright blue) would also be a visual representation of the transition from normal world to Wonderland.

I decided to use patterned paper for some of the objects to make things look more interesting and three-dimensional.

I looked at the original illustration, which had a desk clock smiling in Wonderland, and made wall clocks.

I also vaguely remembered a chessboard, so I placed them in the corner so that area would not look so empty. I also made the board dark blue and white - instead of brown and white - in Alice's world to give it a little more color.

And here is the result:

Childhood inspiration

My mom and I separately had the idea of using the above photo as a Father's Day card. I believe in science it's called a "simultaneous invention."



This is my rendition! At first I was going to make two separate cards, one with a boy and one with a girl. But laziness took over and so I just added the boy to the existing card. I think it turned out nicely!

More from the ideas lab

Here are some more cards I've been working on this week:



These wedding lovebirds were actually inspired by a sketch my mom made. This past winter, I recruited her to help me come up with some designs for wedding, baby, and Father's Day cards (the Father's Day card below is also inspired by her).



The idea behind this card is that of a "city baby." When I was living in New York, I constantly saw people carrying strollers down their stoops, up their stoops, up the subway stairs, down the subway stairs. Steps are definitely something you take more into account when you have a baby in the city! Unfortunately, my mother and boyfriend's first reaction upon seeing the card was, "I feel scared for the baby." Hopefully other people won't feel the same way!

In the ideas lab

President Obama has declared this week to be National Small Business Week, but here at Chelleline Cards, it is product development week. After three months of (mainly) filling orders, signing new accounts, and moving, I am eagerly turning to the drawing board again!

This is my newest card, for Father's Day. My mom gave me the idea for the design and I conceptualized it. Celebrating what dads do best: napping! (Available here)

The First Step: 'E' is not for Easy, or, the psychology of selling on Etsy

It seems pretty easy to be a craftsperson these days. Rather than applying for craft fairs, or trying to get your work into stores or galleries, anyone can just sign up for an account with Etsy and start selling there. You've eliminated the middleman, as well as the need for permission to make your work available to customers! And we've all read the success stories on the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal: so-and-so sets up a shop on Etsy, gets overwhelmed with online orders, quits his or her full-time job to pursue their hobby full-time. It must be pretty easy then, right?

Well, yes and no. The easy part: setting up a shop on Etsy. Not easy: getting the sales.

You see, in order to be successful on Etsy, you have to be "discovered" - by Etsy admin, by hordes of Etsy shoppers, or by bloggers (who normally draw the hordes of Etsy shoppers to your shop). And in order to be "discovered", you have to drive traffic to your shop. You can't just list things and expect people to snatch them up without any work on your part. There are approximately 300,000 sellers on Etsy. It'll be pretty hard for people to find you unless you put the work into marketing yourself.

I'm still trying to figure out a successful online marketing plan, and I haven't really put the work into marketing myself online, so I don't have all the answers. But I do know that it can be discouraging to see things sit in your shop for months on end, to watch other peoples' sales grow while yours stagnate. One of my friends told me that she just wanted to close her Etsy shop and stop making stationery because she was getting so few sales. Recently, I spoke to a stationery store owner whose friend had stopped selling on Etsy because it was just too much trouble to keep listing and relisting without anything coming from it.

I know a thing or two about dealing with these feelings, too.

1. Remember why you started making your art. You didn't do it because you wanted to sell it. You did it because you liked it, it was fun, and you enjoyed the process of creation. Don't stop making cards, or totebags, or soap, or scarves just because it isn't selling on Etsy. You didn't start making them so you could sell them, don't stop making them because you can't sell them.
2. Do not depend on Etsy as your sole customer. You should be pursuing other sources - craft fairs, brick and mortar stores) that can bring in more income for your business. My cards have sold far better at craft fairs and in stores than on Etsy, and the latter especially has provided me with a steadier source of income than Etsy. (I'll discuss how to sell at craft fairs and stores in a later column.) However, I still keep my Etsy shop open to reach the one or two customers every couple of months - although, I will be re-evaluating this approach as well.
3. Instead of making excuses for why you don't have time to make Etsy or your hobby/business a priority, start finding excuses for why you should. I've heard so many people lament their slow sales on Etsy and then add, "well, I don't have time anyway because of my job/kid/school, so of course I don't have a lot of sales on Etsy." However, I think it's commendable that someone would pursue a hobby/business on the side *in spite of* their current commitments. And if you look at it that way, you can and will find the time to grow your business!
4. Lastly, for those who are thinking about setting up a shop on Etsy, don't expect to get a sale, or steady sales immediately. I've been on Etsy for four years and I still don't get steady sales! It's hard, as is everything nowadays. But if you remember all these points, they should keep you going through your darkest days! Good luck!

Work in progress

In lieu of the next "First Step" post, I'm posting a picture of my latest work in progress: a Father's Day card. The idea for this design actually came from my mom, who I solicited to help me come up with designs for Chelleline Cards. This is the first one of her suggestions that I'm conceptualizing. I can't decide which color to use for the font, though. Dark or light purple?

We shall see!

The First Step: When to take the plunge?

Sorry it's taken me longer than a week for the next post in my "weekly" series. I had several draft posts ready, but in all honesty, it was very hard for me to follow up the last post with something equally inspiring. "Learning to Love Multiples?" Useful, yes, but eh, maybe for another day. I'm not promising that this one will be, but I will try!

The question I want to tackle this week is: How do you know when you're ready to start a business?

There are two steps involved (although they can be taken at the same time): there's going from idea to reality, and then going from hobby to business.

Going from idea to reality was not that difficult for me: I decided, on a whim, to start listing my newly made greeting cards on Etsy about a month after I'd started making them. However, going from hobby to business was a completely different horse of a completely different color.

For me, it was easy to start selling my cards online, at craft fairs, and at stores. But it was much harder to make the transition to a business. Something in my brain just shut down whenever I heard people telling me the steps I should take to register my business with the State of New York, or whenever I thought of how much it cost me to make each card, or whenever I thought about all those pricing formulas. And based on my background, I'm supposed to be a logical person: I'm a lawyer, as well as a former scientist (well, my bachelor's degree is in molecular & cell biology at least). I took corporations in law school. I know that sole proprietorships and partnerships are personally liable for business expenses, and that filing as an S-corporation will prevent double taxation. But I couldn't apply it to my hobby/quasi-business.

Looking back, this paralysis was caused by conflicting priorities and lack of time, which led to me not feeling ready to turn Chelleline Cards into a business. In fall 2010, I began to feel like I wanted to take steps to turn it into something viable, something full-time, and I got advice from a friend, which I took, but still, I felt impeded by my law school duties. It wasn't until fall of this year when I began thinking about it again. I'd been on three interviews, and had been passed over for all three jobs. I started to worry. What if next fall rolled around and I still couldn't find a job as a lawyer? I decided that I would take a two-prong approach to the job search: I'd spend the next year continuing to look for a job as an attorney, while simultaneously expanding the business, so that if plan A didn't work out, I wouldn't be up the creek. Also, Chelleline Cards was more in tune with my soul, anyway.

Well, if I was going to expand my business, what steps did I need to take? Registering as a business, obviously, but my thinking was not that linear. (Keep in mind that I was working two part-time jobs at this point, as well as working on Chelleline Cards on top of that.) My first thought: I needed more customers. In this line of work, your customers are your stores and individuals (from craft fairs, online stores, etc.). The best way of getting more store customers was to participate in a trade show. But to be in a trade show, I knew that I had to register my business.

And so that's what I did. When one of my part-time jobs ended at Christmas, and I finally had some time to breathe, I looked into filing as a sole proprietorship in North Carolina, and by the end of January, my business had been registered! No more bouts of paralysis, no more spacing out of the mind. I'd now made the leap from hobby to business.

And so the question you're probably asking now is, How do you make the transition from hobby to business? How do you know when you're ready? You can read all the advice out there about what you need to do to turn a hobby into a business, but the truth is, while the advice is good, it is only helpful when you are ready. And only you will know when you're ready. You may know the minute you decide to start selling what you make. Or, like me, you may dally in limbo for several years before circumstances push you into it. But when you know, you'll know.