Juliana, sparked by her longtime love of playing cards and candid recommendation, took her journey full circle from Paper Supply admirer to vendor. What began with 3 greeting card designs has grown right into a thriving enterprise with over 500 well-loved designs bought worldwide.
How did you start your card-making profession?
First, let’s go approach again to elementary faculty. I distinctly keep in mind having somewhat white Easter basket in my bed room once I was rising up, and I’d fill it with all of the playing cards that I obtained over the course of every 12 months. Nobody instructed me to do that—and I started doing it at a really younger age (perhaps as early as 5 – 6). I’ve great recollections of pulling that little basket off of my bookshelf and re-reading playing cards from members of the family and pals. It was sort of like my first actual aware act of self-care!
Okay—fast ahead to 2014. After a few years, I had lastly ended an unhealthy skilled relationship with the performing trade (that’s its personal story, however I’ll spare you the main points), and I used to be in want of some severe skilled self-care. I LOVED to attract, and I used to be delighted on the prospect of a brand new profession the place my inventive output was not instantly tied to my very own look. Imagine it or not, I began frequenting Paper Supply places the place I’d stand in entrance of the cardboard wall for hours, simply studying playing cards and laughing or feeling impressed or being moved to tears…(nothing higher than a superb card wall, amirite?) One afternoon, I used to be purchasing for a birthday card for my sister-in-law, and I picked up a pleasant card from an organization referred to as Fats Bunny Press. It turned out Fats Bunny Press was based mostly simply up the street from me in San Francisco! So, I referred to as the proprietor, Eva Hamden Grall (who’s now a lifelong good friend) and requested her if she’d think about hiring me? She had an excellent higher idea—she mentioned, “Juju, when you notice that almost all card firms consist of 1 chick gluing issues and packing issues in her house till two within the morning, you notice that you simply, too, can begin your personal enterprise. You don’t want an MBA, you don’t must apprentice wherever…you simply want guts and somewhat little bit of insomnia. Juju, simply begin your personal firm!” Two months later, I launched an Etsy retailer with 3 greeting playing cards. Now, we have now greater than 500 designs bought in hundreds of shops all over the world!
The place do you draw inspiration from?
I believe the higher query is the place does my inspiration NOT come from…celebrated literature, the ocean, stunning butterflies, historical Egypt, toile, rivers and mountains and forests, Parisian structure, the human expertise…and laughter. Heaps and many laughter. Thank god I’ve a staff to rein me in, as a result of I’ve far an excessive amount of inventive inspiration and much too little time. However I’ll say this—there’s NOTHING extra entertaining than a Good Juju Ink inventive staff brainstorming session. My junior designers are completely good/humorous/empathetic, and so they assist push ALL of our work to the following degree! Simply take a look at our latest releases and I believe you’ll agree!
What does your day appear to be as a cardmaker?
Actually no day is similar. And in addition to my morning cup of Irish breakfast tea, I’m not one for routines. So every day may be very very very totally different. Subsequently, I’ll inform you what I did yesterday, because it’s most likely pretty much as good of an instance as any! Half 1: I wakened, had tea and breakfast with my household, and admired my attractive cat, Wallace. Half 2: I ready for our weekly Good Juju Ink inventive staff assembly with my two extremely proficient junior designers. We talked about patterns, dancing snowmen, walruses, vintage clocks—and how we’d incorporate all of these items into upcoming deadlines. Half 3: I drew all kinds of ribbons for our summer time puzzle launch (GAH, I’m so excited for these!). Half 4: I received distracted and checked out attractive textiles for a lot too lengthy. Half 5: I noticed that I forgot to eat lunch so I ate some meals. Half 6: I picked up my daughter from preschool and took her to swimming classes. Half 7: We ate dinner as a household and received my daughter ready for mattress. Half 8: I stayed awake till the wee hours of the morning performing some mixture of drawing/brainstorming/emailing/studying/ fairly footage. Half 9: I fell asleep on the sofa.
What’s your most well-liked medium?
One way or the other, again to start with of this journey, I created all the things on paper earlier than scanning and making ready for print. I’m speaking coloured pencils, scissors, charcoal, oil paint on canvas—and it took FOREVER. In some unspecified time in the future, I received a mild nudge from a fellow designer to take the leap into the scary digital world. Right here’s the thing—my background is in performing arts and old-fashioned high-quality arts. Earlier than beginning Good Juju Ink, I used to be knowledgeable actor, dancer, and choreographer. I had completely zero graphic design expertise or training. So this was terrifying!
However you realize what? By means of sheer dedication and Pinterest and the world broad net, I figured it out! And looking out again, how did I ever do something earlier than my iPad Professional? Now, I create virtually all the things utilizing Adobe Fresco/Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. My recordsdata don’t at all times comply with the perfect organizational layer practices, and so they’ve typically been identified to crash computer systems, however the last product is all that issues, proper?
What does your inventive course of appear to be?
It appears to be like like a messy mixture of Pinterest boards, typed notes on my telephone, written notes on numerous items of paper/notebooks/notepads, typed notes on my pc, sketches on my iPad, emails, Instagram, Google Docs, texts to my husband telling him to recollect a tremendous concept that I actually don’t need to overlook, and 5 billion concepts which might be continually bouncing round my head. After which, after many discussions with my junior designers/manufacturing staff and lots of MANY hours of digital illustration and rendering, all of these issues miraculously come collectively into new merchandise.
What are you most happy with as a creator and card maker?
These questions are TOUGH and I’m happy with so many issues, however for the sake of all you readers, I’ll restrict myself to 2 issues. First, I’m unbelievably happy with the Good Juju Ink staff. I like the folks that I work with, together with our junior designers, our printing companions, our success staff, and my two enterprise companions (one is my greatest good friend and the opposite is my husband and it’s superb). Second, I’m happy with the considerate, engaged, human connections that our merchandise assist facilitate. Life is full of all kinds of joys and challenges and celebrations and devastation and magic. Understanding that we might help folks navigate all of this—wherever they occur to be in their very own particular journey—knowing that we are able to contact the hearts of tens of hundreds of individuals all over the world is one thing that evokes me each single day.
Discover Good Juju Ink’s Lunch Field Mom’s Day Card and New House New Adventures Card at your native retailer or on-line at papersource.com. For extra inspiration and behind-the-scenes motion, comply with @goodjujuink on IG.