Last month, just before she started maternity leave, I sat down with Jen from Fancypantsrodgers Illustration to hear all about the making of her business!
What first got you into illustration?
“My love of drawing began when I was really little growing up in South Wales. My Grandad was a bedroom designer so he used to give me really large scale sheets of paper for me to draw on from a really young age. I’d just be on the floor drawing anything and finding inspiration in everything. This then led on to a passion for art through school and I went on to study a BTech in art and design after school and then that enabled me to narrow down my illustration. Then from 2002 to 2005 I completed my illustration degree at Kingston Uni.”
How did you go from doing your degree and finding the love of illustration to then starting a business from it?
“I’ve always struggled to find prints, art and cards that I love to suit my tastes and my budget. So after Uni, I was inspired by things that I love like nature, dinosaurs, pop culture, celebrity icons, vintage and things like that. And I started creating greeting card designs. I was really lucky to get an agency not too long after Uni and I was with them for a little while. Then I moved to Melbourne in Australia and I started selling my prints at a gallery in Melbourne called Signed and Numbered which sadly doesn’t exist anymore. When I moved back from Australia, I finally designed and built my website so that I could start selling art on my own terms and develop new product ranges.”
Bonus question: You mentioned you were with an agency out of Uni. What does that look like as a maker to be with an agency?
“That agency was very concentrated on children’s books, which isn’t really my bag. But with them I was doing a lot of greeting card licensing and wrapping repeat pattern licensing. It just meant that I had a bit of regular money coming in and also helped prompt me to create. At the time I was working full-time because I was just fresh out of Uni. I wanted to stay in London and I needed to pay my rent and I’d come home from my full-time job absolutely knackered and then have to send across four finished pieces of work a week, which was loads. But that’s how I’ve got such a big range of greetings cards now. So, it was a really good way to build up a body of work.”
You’ve mentioned all the different kinds of things that you make, but if you had to pick a favourite product or collection, what would that be?
“It’s tricky because I think all my print collections are so different. I’ve got a dinosaur print collection which is suitable for slightly older kids. Then I’ve got my nursery artworks which would be for very young babies and kids. And then my pop culture foils, which would be more for the LGBTQ+ community. I love my pop culture foils. I love how they sparkle and I think they’re quite different to a lot of other stuff on the market. But with being pregnant, I’ve been looking at going back a bit more to my nursery stuff because it makes sense with meeting other young mums at antenatal classes and things like that.”
What have you found has been the biggest challenge in running a business?
“I’d say it hasn’t been straightforward for me. Working full-time straight out of uni and trying to do it on top of full-time work and various jobs has been difficult. Then I also have multiple sclerosis so I suffer from chronic fatigue which makes it tricky to be fully productive with my business. I’m lucky now that I work full-time on my business with financial support from my partner and family and savings. I would say finances are always going to be a challenge. Making money from something creative is difficult, especially in the current financial climate. I guess another challenge would be that people think it’s amazing that you get to do what you love every day. And it is, but that’s a very idealistic view. Actually probably 80% of your time running a business is doing the admin, social media, marketing, writing newsletters, doing the finances, and the actual amount of time that you get to spend creating is probably about 20%. So it’s trying to balance it and make sure you block in days to actually create new work.”
What do you love about running your business?
“I guess I’ll go back to being able to do what you love and work on your own passion every day is amazing. Knowing that my work is decorating houses around the world and being sold in shops is just such a special feeling. So, I think that that’s got to be the best thing about running a business.”
What have you got coming up? I know it’s difficult timing, but is there anything that is coming up in your business that you can tell us about?
“I’ve got three UK stockists at the moment and that’s something that I really want to grow. I’ve just moved from South London to North London, so there’s a couple of stockists that I’m going to try and visit before the baby comes to try and get my work in a couple more before she arrives. And then I’ve also just started a new series of prints which is quite different. So it’s around the theme of retro desserts and cocktails, so they’d be good kitchen decor. I’m also looking to extend my range into tote bags, clothing and pin badges. I’d love to do some summer festival t-shirts with my pop culture designs on them, but I’m just struggling to find a decent digital t-shirt printer. That is something I’d like to get working on.”
You’ve been involved with a lot of Super Seconds Festivals by now. So, why do you like getting involved? What do you love about it?
“I know everyone says this, but the community spirit of Super Seconds Festival is just amazing. I feel like all of the makers put everything into it, with setting up market stores at home, all of the social media marketing that everybody puts into it and sharing everybody else’s work. I don’t think there’s another market or festival like it really in terms of that and it’s not just the support through the festival, it’s also afterwards. I still speak to all the people who are involved in Super Seconds which again you don’t always get with other markets. It’s always my most successful event of the year. I think you and Sophie do such a good job of organising it as well with the workshops that you organise and the speakers that you have who are experts in their field. It’s so useful. I think as an artist, you always end up with a lot of seconds, prints, cards, for various reasons and rather than bin them, it’s a really good opportunity. And often customers don’t even notice a second because when you put a print in a frame, you can’t tell that it’s got a bent corner or a little dot on it. It’s just a really good way to reduce waste and make a bit of money out of something that would otherwise have just gone into the bin. It’s a win-win situation.”
Thank you Jen for taking the time to chat with us! You can shop Fancypantsrodgers Illustration here!