We’re now in week 10 of the UK lockdown albeit with some small easing of the restrictions. Hubby and I work from home and are daily grateful that we do, especially as this pandemic and the seriousness of it unfolded. In that respect, on a daily basis, on the face of it, nothing really changed for us.
However, for the first few weeks of the lockdown, I really struggled to get much of anything done. I couldn’t figure out why. Yes, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic and that brings with it a level of anxiety, fear and stress. For sure.
I was feeling frustrated that I couldn’t seem to work. My creative mojo was well and truly gone. And it was worrying. At the beginning of the crisis, we didn’t know whether our business would be ok. We earned our money creating graphics. My husband works in a very niche area of graphic design, designing 3d graphics. And while he earns the lion share, I knew I needed to get my act together to make sure my part of the business would be ok.
I’ve been doing this work for over 15yrs now. I started out by turning a much loved hobby “messing around” creating graphics, drawing and designing paper craft templates, web graphics and doing commissioned work such as designs for photo book companies. There have been a number of peaks and troughs in those years from dealing with a divorce, moving house a number of times, getting married again and moving 300 miles away to start a new life. And have dealt with a few minor, but nevertheless debilitating health issues.
Nothing felt like this though. Absolutely didn’t want to do anything. After a couple of weeks though, I decided to sit down and take a long hard look at our business. Maybe it was time to reevaluate everything? Time for some new goals and dreams.
As much as I love and admire many small creative businesses that do their own manufacturing, I knew that wasn’t a business model for me. I’ve always either sold or licensed my designs/artwork either to retail, wholesalers or via online shops direct to customers. It’s always been primarily online.
How could I maximise my designs and find new revenue streams with them? I realised I wasn’t the only creative business owner trying to figure this out. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention. Well maybe not invention exactly but this pandemic really has made many sit and think about what’s important. How to survive financially? How to help others through their business and directly in the community?
And so I started brainstorming ideas. I knew I wanted to design fabric. I love sewing and quilting and fabric is a passion for me. So that was at the top of the list. While my last two collections, Merryn and Puddles & Boots, have been reasonably successful, the whole process from start to finish designing a collection for licensing, is fairly time consuming and labour intensive and so financially, it’s not particularly profitable, from a business standpoint.
However, success can be measured in other ways and I love that I’m now considered a credible published designer. It’s given me and my little business some kudos and that’s equally as important as the bottom line. And while I would love to work with other companies, setting up meetings is going to be difficult in the foreseeable future.
And so I decided to sell my designs, individual ones and collections, via Spoonflower and Fashion Formula. These online shops allow you to upload your own designs and sell them as fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap. I’ll be selling Puddles & Boots and a new updated version of Merryn, from August 1st 2020 in my Spoonflower and Fashion Formula shops.
I will also be selling my designs as graphic resources via Etsy, my own online shop and a couple of other online outlets. My designs can then be bought to be used to make your own greetings cards, scrapbook pages, logo and branding design, web graphics and much more. There will be patterned papers, clipart illustrations, greetings card and scrapbooking templates plus my hand embroidery patterns in PDF format.
Spending time creating new goals and dreams got my creative mojo back. The ideas for new designs started to flowing. I’ve been working on my Etsy shop and my website to reflect these new changes. A lot is going on behind the scenes and I’m excited to get things up and running.
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” - C. S. Lewis
And I realised in the middle of all this that it’s ok to stop. It’s ok to dream a new dream. Make new goals. Letting go of old dreams and goals. Taking time out to reflect and rest is ok. It makes space for those new dreams and ideas to flow.