Lettering Works Business Journal - June in Review
It’s hard to have words to summarize June. It was an intense month filled with learning, unlearning, tough realizations, and pain. If you find yourself reflecting on this past month and don’t feel it was a difficult one, I’d encourage you to do more research and make time and space to sit with the pain that is troubling our nation and world.
Despite how challenging June was, this sixth edition of the monthly business journal blog post celebrates the wins and serves as a space of reflection of this business journey.
The Big Wins
I became more present in the Black Lives Matter movement. I have begun to understand the importance of not only being against racism, but being actively anti-racist. Sitting with realizations of how broken our systems are has been difficult, but is essential to cultivating empathy and taking meaningful action.
I launched Chronically Positive. The world (and especially those facing chronic illness) need positivity right now. While the launch date was intentionally postponed to make space for more important conversations, supporting vulnerable populations will always be a cause close to my heart and is shown through sharing these messages of positivity.
I introduced a FREE Are You on Brand? 5 Day Challenge. I found myself sharing the same key tips about branding over and over and wanted a way to make them more accessible to anyone who needs help understanding their brand. If this sounds like it could help you, sign up here.
General Updates:
I celebrated one year living and working in Chicago. What an incredible first year in the Windy City. I accomplished more than I thought possible. If you’d like to take a look at the lists chronicling my accomplishments throughout the past year, this blog post is for you.
I created illustrated portraits and logos for two friends who have been doing the work for social justice. Sojourner White, MSW (she/her) started a new series “Let’s Unpack That” to explain concepts around race and identity. Alexander Martin (they/them) is an artist and drag queen (Artemisia VanHo) in Central Illinois dedicated to raising awareness to diversity across underrepresented racial and gender identities.
I created designs in support of Black Lives Matter. I offered these designs as stickers for free to anyone who donated to an organization supporting the movement. If you’d like one, send me a message on Instagram or via email with a receipt from your donation or you can purchase the social justice stickers here.
I received an artist grant from 3Arts. I was selected for funding in round two of the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund (AIRF) for a one-time, unrestricted grant to support my living and business expenses. This program was able to support 554 artists in this round of funding. It’s honestly been hard to recalibrate expectations to align with the reality of living and working through a global pandemic, so this extra support means a lot.
I started a new branding project, expanded an existing brand, and created additional brand graphics for an existing client. After the virtual Sunnyside Chats I led last month on The Power of Passion Projects, I connected with a local maker in need of visual branding to level up her passion-project-turned-business. A past client returned to expand her brand as she is branching out into the world of freelancing full-time. Another past client returned for additional brand graphics after seeing so much traction in her community and success with our initial brand graphic design project.
I received my first wholesale order in what feels like months (and might actually be?). Retail has significantly slowed down amid the global pandemic. It was exciting to be able to restock Transistor Chicago in Andersonville with a variety of stickers and Chicago postcards. I also added some Chicago-Style enamel pins to Wolfbait Chicago in Logan Square.
I invested time in professional development. I attended the first Freelancing Females virtual conference. I was inspired by the many speakers and especially by a small group mentor session I attended led by Melody Godfred of Fred and Far. She emphasized creating a detailed daily schedule and charging your worth.
I applied for new business insurance. There are some unglamorous parts of owning a small business. It often feels like an accomplishment to power through them and keep moving my business forward.
I set up two new branding clients. These projects will kick off in July and I am excited to help both clients bring their visions for their creative businesses to life. The more I focus in on my ideal clients and partnerships the more I find myself working with established artists and makers who have their own styles nailed down but need support on the business and branding side of things.
I updated my wholesale sticker/design catalog. I’m still actively looking for new wholesale partners in need of custom artwork or quality art products on a medium to large scale. In the last year, I’ve created postcards, stickers, magnets, keychains, foil prints, and enamel pins. My speciality lies within the custom design and ability to produce vector artwork that translates well across a large variety of products. If you know someone who could benefit from this, please send them my way.
June served as a much needed wake up call for our nation. I’m so grateful to be living in Chicago and surrounded by so much activism and beauty amid the pain. If you missed the blog post I shared about murals in Chicago, be sure to check it out.
I am committed to continuing to show up and do the work that is needed to dismantle racism. I am hopeful that July will provide more opportunities for me to use my talents in support of the movement and am actively doing work behind the scenes to make sure that the BLM movement is not simply a trending topic for this month. I am also looking forward to making time to work on my business and build out additional resources to inspire and support others.
If you or someone you know would like to work on a project with me, send me a message via the website contact form and I’ll get back to you promptly.
