If you know much about me, you know that I love great stationery!
I have always thought that I would open my own stationery store one day, so I’m always on the lookout for fantastic, unique stationery and paper goods.
I first came across Brim Papery on Instagram a few months ago and have been loving her work ever since. You can imagine how excited I was when I learned that she is also from Columbus, Ohio.
Please briefly describe you and your artwork. (Or in your case, it’s more of your craft)
My name is Jolie Ankrom, and I am the founder and designer at Brim Papery. I live in Columbus, Ohio with my husband and daughter. In early 2013 I quit my teaching job to stay home with my daughter, and I now work out of [my] home creating paper goods with hand lettering and illustration. Everything I produce at Brim Papery is drawn by hand, converted digitally, then printed at a local print shop.
What kind of art education have you had? (Did you grow up taking art classes? Did you study art in college? etc.)
It’s a little embarrassing, but actually, I have none. My undergrad degrees were in Spanish and Education, and that’s the path I pursued for four years out of college. I have always had an interest in art and took a few art classes at the local art museum when I was a youngster, but I hadn’t honed my skill set or determined a specific artistic passion whatsoever when it was time to choose a career path, so I headed toward another passion, language and teaching. It wasn’t until I had my daughter and decided that it was better for our family if I stayed home that I even had the chance to consider pursuing art as a career. At the encouragement of some friends, I decided to try and market what was (until that point [it] was just something I did for fun.) From there, I learned everything I know about design, art reproduction and marketing by trial and error. Lots of trial, lots of error, haha! I still have a very long way to go.
What’s your creative process? How do you get inspired?
I used to try to have a “creative day” set aside to dream and work up new ideas, but I’ve found that it puts unnecessary (and usually counter-productive) pressure on myself. Typically, inspiration comes when I’m not actually working, so I always have notebooks lying around my house or my iPhone nearby so I can jot down or type out ideas as they come to me, and then develop them later. Sometimes it comes from seeing some old script on the side of a building, or a conversation I have with my husband about an article or a quote or an idea we really like. Once I have an idea, I spend a lot of time working it out over the course of a few days, while we watch television at night, while my daughter naps, etc. – sometimes I will spend half a notebook’s worth of paper on a single piece, figuring out how exactly I want to lay out the words or what style to run with before I rest on a final design.
Who are your creative influences (artists, magazines, blogs, etc)?
Being a creative and having creative influences is a really tough balancing act for me in this day and age. As a designer I am inundated with design all over the web and it can be really hard to find your own voice in a world of Instagram, Pinterest, and blogs. Between having a toddler and wanting to stay true to my own artistic voice, I really hardly spend time looking at Pinterest, blogs, or other artists’ work – at this point, it’s less of a principle and more of just where I am: running a business solo with very little spare time. Much of my inspiration comes from things I find in life, like the lettering on a vintage tin or the flowering on an old plate at the thrift store.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue art as a career?
I feel wholly unqualified to dole out advice, but I think if had to think up advice, I would say two things:
1) Don’t wait! It is very tempting to think that you need to have a degree finished, or wait until you have perfected your trade more or (fill in the blank with a hundred other reasons) but none of that is true. The truth is, you will learn everything you need to know as you go, as long as you are truly passionate about making the rubber meet the road. I’m not saying you shouldn’t get that art or business degree (I wish I had both of those!) only that if you are passionate about making and selling what you do, you don’t have to wait for all of that to get started. I knew so little when I started out that it honestly makes me laugh just to think about it, but I just took things one step at a time and eventually things started to fall into place.
2) Be persistent. Nothing happens overnight! Anyone that you see that has any degree of success in the industry got there from a lot of work, a lot of late nights, a lot of messing up and starting over, a lot of putting themselves out there and re-working all kinds of kinks, whether on the creative side of their work or on the business side of things. Don’t let a failed piece of work or being turned down for a show be the end of your story – just consider it a chance to evaluate where you could grow. In order for other people to believe in you and what you do, you have to do that for yourself first!
If you’re local to Columbus, be sure to checkout Jolie work at the Summer Flea on Sunday, August 3rd at Seventh Son Brewing from 11 am – 5 pm.
Excerpts from this post will also be published on Live Columbus.