Our first interview of 2013 is here and it is awesome! Kara Town, of
Sydney-based stationery label AHD PAPER CO., offers up a hugely
insightful glimpse into her life as she and husband Chris build their
dream business. It’s pretty clear that they are highly passionate about
what they do and the results speak for themselves really – check out the
AHD PAPER CO. range at shelf / life here.
Tell us a bit about your business and how long you have been running it.
AHD PAPER CO. is a boutique paper company specialising in locally
manufactured, environmentally sound products created by a clever bevy of
hand-picked artists. My husband, Chris and I work directly with both
Australian and international artists, designers and illustrators to
curate two collections per year. Our main intent is to give artists a
simple, freely accessible platform with which to share their work;
serving art to the public through the medium of simple paper goods.
We’ve only been running the business for around 18 months now.
Was there a defining moment where you decided to turn your dream into reality?
The idea for AHD was born during an unforgettable 3 month stint in
Paris almost 3 years ago now. I still remember the day we sat at one of
our favourite locals, le Refectoire, and drew out the vision for our
logo, and the aim of our brand on a napkin. We still have that napkin.
We were both feeling rather disillusioned with our day jobs, impossibly
inspired by Paris, and we recognised above all else we loved art and
wanted to bring it to the people, on, albeit a small but really
accessible level. Chris had worked in bookstores and recognised quickly
that there was a really big gap in the stationery market, a gap perhaps
we could fill. So we dreamt up AHD, took the plunge and have never
looked back.
Can you describe your typical day?
At the present time we both still work full-time and run AHD in any
spare moments we have, which are not a lot, but we both have learnt to
make great use of the time we have either side of our full-time jobs.
This usually means both before and after work and during our weekend.
It’s a labour of love at this point, but it looks likely that all of our
hard work might just be paying off, and things might change in 2013. A
typical weekday goes (something) like this:
COFFEE then AHD EMAILS, PACK CARDS/ORDERS, SET ARTWORK etc, MORE
COFFEE, SHOWER, OFF TO OUR DAY JOBS FOR 8 HOURS, WALK/RUN, DINNER, SOME
SORT OF TV DOWNLOAD, SHOWER then AHD EMAILS, PACK CARDS/ORDERS, SET
ARTWORK etc…
Weekends are far more relaxed, there is a great deal of AHD work to
be done, but a lot of work is done in bed, on the couch, outdoors …or at
the local café.
A little peek at AHD Paper Co’s most recent release – PosterWRAP
What 3 tips would you give to someone starting a creative business?
Quite simply, have a: clear vision, work impossibly hard (you’ll find
this is nothing-less-than pure joy when it’s yours) and be willing to
evolve. One thing we have wholeheartedly embraced is that you need to
learn from what works and what doesn’t work, address it, make the
necessary changes and evolve. Listen to the feedback, to your instinct
and to your product. It can only make your business stronger.
How do you stay motivated? Where do you find inspiration?
Due to our business model, where we outsource all of our designs, we
find we are constantly inspired by our artists and therefore motivated
to share and best represent their work through the medium of AHD. We
have had the pleasure of being approached by a number of national and
international artists who want to work with us; to us, it shows we must
be doing something right!
If you could change one thing about your business what would it be?
Without a doubt, that we worked on it
full-time; something we are most certainly working our way towards,
rather rapidly. It’s the reason we started the business in the first
place, not only to satisfy an intense creative need, but to create a
lifestyle for us, as a family (that’s us and our three furry boys at
this point).
And lastly, what is your favourite aspect of running your business?
Despite the unavoidable tension at times, we’d both
have to say …working together. Chris and I got married almost 7 years
ago after only a short 6 months together (we were engaged after 8
weeks). We truly are the best of friends with a common vision and a love
for spending time with each other, and a real passion for art. That,
and working with so many wonderfully generous, talented, creative
people. It makes life so very rewarding.
Interview via SHELF/LIFE
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