It is always a thrill when I meet somebody and later find out that they are a famous illustrator or own their own highly successful design studio. For instance, it turns out that Brett Helquist has a daughter that attends the same Sunday nursery as my son. He is a really nice guy and very down to earth. I was quite surprised when one of my designer friends introduced him to me and said that he does all of the illustration work for the Lemony Snicket books (which I am not embarrassed to say I haven’t read).
As much fun as run-ins like that are, it is almost better to meet people who are on their way up. I have a few friends who I think are really going places.
Amy John, a designer living in Brooklyn, has a background in fashion and is quite handy with a sewing machine. After her first daughter was born she decided to make her own stroller blanket to battle the cold Brooklyn winters. Everywhere she went people stopped to ask her about it and where they could get one. Amy knew she was on to something and started her company, Chic Demure Baby.
These blankets are nice on many levels. They are made with organic Vermont raised wool and thus are water resistant and gentle on babies’ skin. And Amy has, in my opinion, a great business plan. She currently hand sews everything from home on her vintage Singer while raising two daughters. But when things start to take off, as they are bound to do, rather than building her company full-time she plans on recruiting other stay-at-home moms to do the same thing she is doing. I just love the idea of a bunch of ladies putting their kids down for a nap and sitting down to make a good quality, well designed product like this.
Another person I look forward to tracking throughout the years is a young photographer named Mark Weinberg. Mark did his internship in 2007 with the company that I work for and came back to NYC this last summer to freelance. He’s the kind of guy who makes professionals look bad while he’s still in school. He surely has a bright future ahead of him after he graduates next year.
This last week I had the privilege of working with Mark again when our company photographer took a much needed vacation and she hired Mark to run the studio in her absence. He took a week off class, flew back to New York and did an fantastic job. When we came into the the office on Monday morning we each had a professionally designed and printed envelope on our desks. Inside were some amazing promo prints of Mark’s work. I got numbers 13-15 from his Hong Kong trip. I definitely learned a couple of things about presentation from him.
