Creating For An Audience of One.

Many years before I started this business, my dad would tell me that I could sell the greeting cards I made for friends and family. I would always shrug it off, as I had no idea how these from-the-heart messages I made could ever be mass-produced. It wasn’t until I was encouraged to make personalized cards, custom-made for each special occasion, that I started to see a path for selling something that once was so personal. And yet, as I’ve progressed, stepping away from one-of-a-kind cards because it was a lot to keep up with, I’ve lost touch with that personal touch. How do I make cards that speak to someone when I don’t know who I’m speaking to? How do I commemorate occasions we all celebrate in a way that says more than I’m sorry for your loss, or happy birthday?

And the answer I’m discovering is to create for an audience of one. Instead of trying to blanket your product into something that can please the entire world, pick one person. Please them. Make the clothes that they want to wear. Write the words that they need to hear. Draw the image they need to see. And somehow, you may find that this creation connects to more than just that one person.

What does that look like for me right now? Rooting into the people and events in my life, creating cards for their unique needs, and then taking those designs to my shop. It is a slow and steady way to create—I don’t get to sit down and say I need to make more birthday cards, and churn them out. But it does make my shop a tapestry of all the places and people and particularities that I hold dear. It does give me a body of work that comes from-the-heart. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.