We approached Little Pickle as we have been admirers of her beautiful work, she tells us her story of how she started and more…
1) I used to be a graphic designer and then a teacher of design before I became a fulltime mummy and whilst on maternity leave I started my first design as an illustration and wording I wanted to put on a canvas for my first born ‘s nursery. I knew what I wanted in my head and also knew I could implement it. It was a set of 3 illustrations - a rabbit, butterfly and horse that would go with her colour scheme and theme of her room. These designs I then thought would work well as a framed print. My friends around me were having babies and I started making the prints to give as a gift for them and just thought having the new babies name and its meaning was quite different and meaningful. So I began giving these Baby Name Meaning framed prints as gifts and October 2012 I’d posted a picture on facebook of my 2nd daughters birthday party and an old friend saw a print of mine in one of the photos and asked where I’d bought it from & I said I made it!! She then bought four different Name Meaning prints and I thought hmmmm maybe I could actually do this. So in November last year I thought up the name and designed my logo and started a Facebook page selling my designs. I had a great response and added new designs to my range and Little Pickle has gone from strength to strength. I joined Twitter early this year and since then I’ve been contacted by various websites to sell my products with them and am now getting a steady amount of orders each week.
2) I’ve always been arty and loved to draw or create and so being able to make money from what I love doing is really satisfying. I also really enjoy making something personal for someone else, knowing they’ve chosen my designs as a gift or keepsake for their home is a great feeling. At the moment I fit Little Pickle work around my two little ones, working late into the night whilst they’re asleep (luckily I have been blessed with two great sleepers;)) as my children grow I hope Little Pickle does too so I have a thriving business to work with whilst they’re at school.
3) I think Little Pickle prints and wall art have a particular style which sets it apart from the rest of the typographic prints out there. They’re ‘beautifully simplistic’ as one customer kindly said of them recently. The fact that the customer can choose the text and colour of the design makes each one bespoke and personal to them. As it’s just me working on them from start to finish I make sure I’m communicating with the customer on a personal level to make sure they are completely happy with the design before printing and sending the final product.
4) Little Pickle currently only has a Twitter and Facebook account of it’s own but is available on a number of other websites so I think the next step is to have my own Little Pickle website. That is what I’m currently aiming for and hopefully that will help my business to reach more customers and continue to steadily grow so that in the next year or so as I have more available time with the girls going to school I have increasing sales and it can be my full time job. I’ve been so amazed with the quick results I’ve had so far and it’s all down to social media so keeping up to date with social networking is also a key element of moving forward; I wouldn’t be writing this blog if it wasn’t for Twitter so please keep an eye out for my tweets and posts - and remember every home needs a Little Pickle
If you’re interested in connecting with Little Pickle, you can connect with her on twitter and facebook
Please also leave your comments below!