Polly at Layne’s Espresso
Polly is not only an amazing illustrator, she is also runs her own independent business, which you’ll know if you read her blog pollyvadasz.blogspot.co.uk. She is currently starting her second semester at Leeds College of Art studying graphics design, but still has time to design new products! We met up for a cup of coffee at Layne’s Espresso to have a catch-up and so she could tell me all about how Sighh Designs is doing *which is her business*. Polly creates illustrations that are transferred onto phone cases, bags, pocket mirrors and tote bags and is by far, the most popular self-employed young businesswoman on the Internet. Names such as Gabriella Lindley (velvetgh0st) and Amy Valentine are known to have her phone cases in their pockets. There are so many personal photographs out on the web, whether it’s on Instagram or Twitter, that show off Polly’s work. And by this I mean, people are posting minimalistic photos of their MacBook with Polly’s Wavy MacBook Skin, photos of there ever so neatly arranged desk with her Let’s Do This Revision Planner or photos of their weekly food shop with her Student Food Shop Tote Bag. People just love Polly’s work.. I mean who doesn’t?! You will never see an Instagram post from @pollyvdsz that doesn’t have at least 1,000 likes. She first started out her Instagram feed based around her graphics design and her drawings and now over 38,000 people follow her! Nearly all of her audience are female and Polly has tried to represent the most realistic ‘what’s in my bag haul’ onto a tote bag. I can successfully admit that I do carry 1,2… 7 lipsticks, many discarded receipts, last resort gum and hopefully my keys.
In the world of Sighh Designs it’s not just all about making pretty products whenever Polly likes, some of the ideas she had took months in the making just to get them precisely how she wanted. There’s a lot of business work involved and the only products that she doesn’t package and send herself are her phone cases. These are the most popular products on Polly’s website and she sells 10 a day on average, so she can’t be going to the post office every day can she?
The new premium option for your phone cases was introduced late last year, what does this mean? “It means that the cases are a lot tougher and smooth to the touch. The print is wrapped around the edges of the phone cases and I always say I wish you could physically see things through the web because the quality of the new premium cases are amazing, so worth the money!” What inspires you to come up with fresh ideas for each new product? “I don’t tend to look at other peoples work when I’m designing, I want it to be my own design. By staying focused on what I’m trying to achieve it lets me be as creative as I want to be and my life influences a lot of the concepts that I come up with, especially with the actual products I’m making not the design. Things such as phone cases, MacBook covers, pocket mirrors are all accessories I use everyday. Although, for me the visuals are a lot more important as I’m physically drawing and laying them out and the photography of the products is essential because obviously I want them to look appealing!” What do you think is the reason behind why everyone online loves your work? “Everything kind of flipped out of control once I had designed a phone case for Gabriella, orders were flying in by the minute and I had never had so much revenue in one month. At first me and Gabriella were messaging on twitter for a while, saying how much she liked my ‘quirky’ designs and wanted to know if I could design a phone case to her specific taste and of course after it went viral I sold over 2,000 cases to my audience” Why is illustrating and graphics design for you? “I think when you start a career as a designer most people don’t think it’s going to be a career because it doesn’t exactly happen to everyone, it’s all down to finding what you’re good at. Personally I believe it’s all down to luck because not everyone is going to like what I do, but I love what I do so it doesn’t really matter”
Follow Polly’s blog, Twitter and Instagram.