Staying True to Your Aesthetic With Stengun Drawings

My Small Business & Me

#023 - Husband and wife team Brett and Caroline run botanical design brand, Stengun Drawings, offering a collection of contemporary greeting cards, postcards and Giclee prints featuring flowers and plants.
After having studied Fine Art at university, Caroline started working in the fashion world. And when her full-time job went down to four days a week, she decided that she wanted a hobby. So she started painting again.
Originally her paintings featured birds. She set up and Instagram account to share her work and started to get positive feedback and commissions, which boosted her confidence. Then she was commissioned to paint a plant and hasn't looked back.
Caroline made her paintings into greeting cards and sold them in local markets in East London. And Brett helped her out, coming on board full-time a few years later after having working in fashion in PR.
You'll hear about the process of creating their designs, from the initial photograph taken on a field trip to painting and editing. They also share how they've started taking their finished cards and prints back to the place the flowers and plants were initially photographed and have taken photos of them in situ.
Commissions from Selfridges for their website and collaborations with The RHS have also come about in recent years. And their greeting cards, postcards and prints now have an international reach, with distributors all around the globe.
Listening to this episode, you'll hear how passionate Caroline and Brett are about staying true to your aesthetic, finding your niche and growing a small business organically. At the end of the podcast, you'll discover their numerous practical tips, which I'm sure you'll find very inspiring.
Show notes are available on the My Small Business & Me website: https://mysmallbusinessandme.com/episode23