Changing my Etsy Logo & Discovering my Illustration Style

Hey everyone! I mentioned a while back that I was going to talk more about my foray into small businesshood (haha). At the end of January I decided my Etsy shop needed a little makeover. I thought my designs were getting kind of stale and could use a revamp. Also, I was adamant that, in the new year, I would try my best to tackle Illustrator and develop an illustration style that could be carried out with all my designs.

The first order of business was to revamp my shop logo. My previous logo (similar to the logo I use on this blog) was near and dear to my heart because I painted the watercolor overlay myself. Like, painted painted with a brush and watercolor paints. I feel like traditional forms of art like painting and hand scripting are falling by the wayside, so I was always proud of incorporating that element into my logo. That said, it was time for a change. I opted for a similar watercolor-inspired style, and chose one color - a beautiful, bright coral. What I like about having one color in a logo is that it's super malleable. I now change the color of my logo based on the sticker sheet so that everything matches. It's a simple adjustment but it makes everything look cohesive.

Then I decided to close my shop for a couple days to create 10+ brand new sticker sheets. This was kind of nerve-wrecking at first, because I wasn't sure I could afford to close the shop at all, let alone for more than one day. I put out an announcement on Instagram saying I intended to close my shop & that all items in the "SALE" section would be discontinued. What happened then shocked me... I received TONS of orders scooping up the last of the sale items, and made about $200 in a day - a record for me. It was really effective, to say the least.

So I closed the shop and got to work. The first thing I wanted to do was design a full page of colorful breakfast stickers. I knew I wanted to work on this first because breakfast foods are overall really "illustrateable" meaning that they're colorful and easy to make into little clipart elements. My strategy was to get the outline for each item down in Illustrator, and then import the design into Photoshop where I would add the color and lay out the sticker sheet. This breakfast theme is one of my absolute favorites - I love the bright colors and how well everything works with my new logo.

Once I got the ball rolling with the breakfast stickers, I designed more than 10 new sheets. I worked super long days trying to get everything set up for the shop reopening, and overall I accomplished what I set out to achieve: a fresh, new shop look with hand-illustrated stickers in a unique style.

My Lil Business: Etsy Shop

Hi everyone! Lately I've put blogging on the backburner to focus on something new: my Etsy shop! About three months ago I discovered the niche community of planners online. Essentially, there's a whole industry built around planning and planner decorations and stamps and stickers. There's a company called Erin Condren that sells custom planners, and an entire market has opened up for those who want to buy art supplies to beautify the inside of their planners.

I've always enjoyed stuff like scrapbooking so I was immediately interested, and now, months later, I have my own shop where I sell my own stickers!

It's been doing really well, so much so that I decided to quit my part-time job (I'm also a university student) to pursue it more regularly. I was told by someone earlier this year that I should take my passion for design work and put it towards a business. They suggested I do freelance design work. Thing is, I'm not confident I can design anything and everything. I'm self-taught in Adobe software. I'm artistic. But I'm not a professional. With my stickers, I can create things on my terms that meet my standards, so from that perspective it's kind of empowering!

I hope you don't mind that I'll be blogging more frequently about planner-related stuff. I want to pursue this for all its worth and blog along the way so when I'm older I can remember my first real entrepreneurial endeavor!