Last month, I sat down with Melissa from Western Sketch to hear all about the making of her business!
What first got you into illustration?
“It was really at university. Before I went to university, I went to art college and I did a GMVQ in art and then I decided I did want to go on to uni to do graphic design. Whilst I was doing my graphic design degree we got to specialise. So we got to try out a bit of graphic design and also a bit of illustration and it was in my second year that I decided I really loved the illustration side of the course and so I specialised in that. Then when I graduated, I didn’t continue my illustration. I ended up working in retail and that’s where I stayed for fifteen years and then got back into illustrating after I had my children. So it was a slow burn really to actually do anything with my degree.”
How did you then take the step to start your business with it?
“I didn’t really know where to start when I started doing some illustration again. It really was just something for me to do whilst I was a mum and had a small newborn. So I’d do a bit of illustrating and I’d use Instagram to share my illustrations and it just built from there really. After about eighteen months, I had quite a lot of little illustrations and I thought, oh, is there something I could use with them? I’d discovered the Just A Card campaign, which was about eight years ago now. It was quite a big campaign for small businesses and creatives. And I saw lots of other people were turning their craft and their passion into products. And I thought maybe I could do that with my illustrations. And that’s when I started thinking that the designs suited themselves to a greeting card and they’re relatively low in cost to set up as a startup. It wasn’t a huge amount of investment I needed to make to get myself a few cards printed. So that’s how it started, as an Instagram account of just me sharing illustrations during my baby’s naps.Â
For a few years I was doing it around being a mum. My oldest was at school but my other two were not at school, so I really had limited time. It was an evening thing that I just did for myself. I was selling on Etsy and I guess it was a business in the making, but it didn’t really feel like a proper business at that time. After lockdown I decided I really did want to make it something a bit more and that’s when I started thinking about wholesaling my cards. Because for me I didn’t ever see myself being able to build my business probably without that side of it.”
What has been your favourite product, collection or design that you’ve created?
“So it would obviously be the cards. I have dabbled in other products over the years, but it’s always been the cards that have been the thing for me. My favourite collection is called Tiger’s Tea Party and it’s my collection of cake cards. So, I’ve got Fondant Fancies and Battenburg. Those are my bestselling cards and they’ve always been ones I’ve really enjoyed painting. The little fondant fancies were what my husband’s grandma brought out whenever we went to visit her. She lived quite a long way from us and so, it was quite a special thing to go and see her. It would probably be an annual thing and she’d have a little tea trolley. She’d wheel it in to make us a cup of tea and she’d always have French fancies to pop out for us. So I think I associated them with her and then when she passed away it became a fond memory of those times.”
Bonus question: Do you just paint one version of a design and then get it printed or how does that work from your perspective?
“So with my most recent collection of sports balls, for example, I focused on trying to create a sport collection that’s a bit different to traditional sporty cards and I wanted to make sure it was appealing for all genders and all ages as a fun card. So how I would go about it is I would use reference images. I do like to paint from life if possible, but that’s not always the case. So, a lot of my images are reference images that I’ve found online. Then I will just do one painting for each one. Sometimes those don’t turn out how I wanted so, I’ll have to do it again. But on the whole, I do tend to just do the painting once and when I’ve done all the little illustrations, those are then scanned in. I’ve got a Canon scanner and I import that image into Photoshop and I will edit out the paper background and then I will use a fine line pen to add in the little smiley faces. I used to always draw the smiley faces on the actual illustration for years. I did that because I couldn’t quite work out the layer bit on Photoshop and then I had a discovery that I didn’t actually have to do that all the time and I could add it in afterwards. Before I’ve ruined an illustration I spent ages painting when I drew the face on. I remember when I did cherries for a wedding card and I think I must have painted those cherries about three or four times because every time I would come to do the little face on them they’d look really angry and it drove me mad.”
Apart from drawing smiley faces then, what is the biggest challenge in running a business?
“For me, it’s definitely managing the stock. So it’s just being able to keep on top of how much stock I have, reordering the stock and finding a space to store the stock. All of those things I find really challenging. Because I work from my home, I don’t have a big storage space or anything like that. So I do try and run my stock quite tightly. This does mean I have to do regular stock takes and it takes me the whole day to count all of the cards because I don’t really have any systems in place. It’s very manual. So, I’m counting all the cards, logging it on a sheet, and then I go through and look at which ones I would need to do some orders for, and I’ll reorder that. I tend to do that probably once a month, and then I order that through the printers, and it will take about eight days or so to turn that around and be delivered to me. So I do find that whole stock management a real challenge.”
What do you love about running a business?
“I really like the variety of jobs it gives because I have thought in the past, oh maybe I would just enjoy doing the illustration, but would I enjoy just being an illustrator and doing illustrations for other people’s greeting cards? And no, I don’t think I would. I really enjoy all the aspects of running a business and the challenges that it gives. It can be really frustrating at times but I think you get such a sense of achievement and fulfilment when it does go to plan and it does go right. And I think even when it doesn’t, when you have the bad days or something’s gone really wrong, it really teaches you how to overcome those challenges and it really teaches you great resilience. So I really love the variety that it gives. And for me it allows me to be flexible. So, I can flex what hours I work and which days I work which really helps as a mum with the school runs. It’s a massive challenge without that flexibility and I did it with my first daughter when I was working a more 9 to 5 traditional role. It was a challenge to get her dropped off in time and get to work in time and not feel guilty about having to leave on time to pick her up. So I don’t miss that at all. I felt a huge amount of guilt on both sides with having to work that way. It’s really nice to work from home as well.”
Have you got anything coming up in your business that you can tell us about? Any new collections on the horizon?
“I’ll have a Christmas product which will likely be launching in September time. I’ve got a few new Christmas card designs and I’ve got an advent calendar card, so, I’ve got a new version of that and that’s been really good. And then in terms of the business side, which is more for my wholesale where I sell to other shops, I’m doing a trade show this month at Harrogate Home and Gift. So I’ll be going there for four days.”
Why do you get involved with Super Seconds?
“I have done quite a few and I really love it. Earlier we were chatting about the stock management side of it and for me Super Seconds is amazing for that. I won’t actually run any other sale in my business apart from Super Seconds because I have in the past tried but I think with a card if you take a 10% off or even a 20% off it’s not really that much money for the customer when you are trying to sell it as a sale. So, for Super Seconds I do a one pound price point for the cards that I put into the sale and that’s a great price point. I’m always putting aside anything that’s my second stock. In the past, I’ve had issues with the stickers that I’ve used as I’ve had damage from the sticker clasps that hold the card and envelopes together and they’ve caused marks on the cards. Also, sometimes the way the ink has printed affects the colour of the card as it hasn’t come through as well. So cards like that are absolutely fine and most people wouldn’t notice the defects and so it’s perfect for me because I don’t like to destroy them or anything. And it’s great for customers as well because they can get a bargain when they stock up on their cards. So I love the sale. It’s been brilliant for me. And every year I do it, it gets a bit bigger. I’ve got quite a loyal following now on my newsletter and I think most people are subscribed for when I do Super Seconds so they get first dibs on it.”
Thank you Melissa for taking the time to chat with us! You can shop with Western Sketch here.