The Levend Art Turns One

The time has officially come (& passed) that our online shop celebrated its first birthday! It’s been a whirlwind year for learning and growth but ultimately remains a sonnet to our love of creating. The changes we’ve manifested in this time are encouraging to the plans we have for TLA's future!

It wouldn’t feel quite right to embrace this exciting new chapter without highlighting some of the amazing parts you helped us write over the past year!

Here’s a few ideas we’ve learned since going live with our website:

DO THE RESEARCH

There are a lot of quick and easy ways to get started selling a product online. Learning on the job provides invaluable experience but there are some bits of research that informed us on how to approach our platform. For example, our materials are a huge factor to what we think makes our greeting cards + home décor items so special. They’re locally sourced and responsibly produced showcasing TLA's Canadian background; something we're often inspired by.

As we continue to learn we’ve found taking online courses, joining industry seminars + reviewing feedback on a regular basis all allow us to make more informed content that better connects us with this creative community.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE WRONG

There seems to be this unspoken pressure to provide an audience with the “perfect” version of a new business without having the trial phase under your belt. Perhaps this relates to a common desire amongst creatives + business owners alike to protect the integrity of their service or product. At times, however, this can mean admitting when a design, material, product or approach isn’t working; no matter the amount of research + preparation put in. Through this process we’ve been able to re-release a slew of update greeting cards + wall prints that better represent TLA. We've also been working on making our site easier to navigate and generally more user friendly.

CHALLENGE YOUR BOUNDARIES

As with anything, it takes time to find a rhythm + groove with a new project. Looking at some of the first greeting card designs we created it’s great to see a distinct boldness emerge in some of our latest products. Although we adore their minimalist predecessors, adding other elements to our cards like cutouts + 3D decorations spurred on a realm of new possibilities. Gaining a level of comfort with one area of the shop motivated us to try our hands at incorporating other materials like resin with our paper designs.

YOU CAN DO IT

It’s true when people say taking the first step is the hardest; there’s always an excuse to not put ourselves out there. It’s uncertain and vulnerable BUT the future is a lot more inspiring when we aren’t constantly sitting around trying to predict it. Taking a chance on yourself is scary, everything after that is a matter of practicing and refining your skill. Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from this past year with TLA has been to encourage yourself;

“Yes, I can.”

Thank you for a wonderful year! To commemorate this milestone + continued devotion to crafting we've released a new greeting card inspired by TLA's one year birthday. This design is not purely self-serving but also suits occasions like 1st birthday's, anniversaries and general celebrations. You can check it out here.

Stay Creative,

TLA