Hey, guys! In this episode, I am chatting with Alba Bordes, the co-founder of Made of Sundays studio in Finland. Together with her husband and her sister they started producing cute stickers and creative wall decoration for both homes and offices.
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Get in touch with Alba
- Website: https://www.madeofsundays.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/made_of_sundays/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madeofsundays/
Key Takeaways
“Don’t take things too seriously and have fun!”
- Alba and her husband were looking for cute stickers to make their home cozier but didn’t find anything suitable. So they made them themselves and posted them on Instagram. There was a big demand for them and since then it just snowballed!
- They had no prior knowledge of production and learned from YouTube videos how to make the machines work
- Alba says that when you start with the production, all the things got wrong. Don’t stress too much, because everything is going to take care of itself later.
- Made of Sundays brand is all about stickers and as happy as possible. They make you smile. They make the wall a happier place!
Resources mentioned
💡 Please note: We are supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you! For more info, please read our disclosure.
- Blogs that picked up Made of Sundays’ work – BuzzFeed, borepanda
- Podcasts – Shopify Masters, Nerd Marketing
- Art tools
- iPad Pro with Apple Pencil and ProCreate App
- Adobe Illustrator
- Inspiration – Japanese Kawai (=cute)
Special thanks to Alba for joining me today. See you next time!
All artworks by Made of Sundays, used with permission
Episode Transcript
Announcer
Creative, artistic, happy! That’s you. There are endless possibilities for living a creative life. So let’s inspire each other. Art Side of Life interviews with Iva.
Iva Mikles
Hello, everyone and welcome to the next episode of Art Side of Life where I chat with inspiring artists five days a week. My name is Iva and my guest today is Alba borders the co founder of a design studio made of Sunday out of Helsinki, you will learn about how to run your own design store and why it’s important to learn about marketing, also in the art industry.
Alba Bordes
If I will stand out from the beginning, I will probably start like really learning how to market if you learn how to market the most difficult product, then you know how to market everything, how to explain all the message kind of how you create this need for people to buy your products. That’s something that I will say that you should start with that
Iva Mikles
album move from Barcelona to Helsinki in 2008 and started as an interaction designer. But after a few years, she decided to follow her passions together with her husband and later joined by her sister. They started made of Sunday design studio, producing cute stickers and creative world decoration for both homes and offices. So please welcome out by borders, and let’s get to the interview. So welcome everyone to the next episode of Art Side of Life. And I’m super happy to have Alba here. Hi,
Alba Bordes
Hello.
Iva Mikles
Hi, my pleasure that you took time and just joined us here. And let’s just dive in right to your like background story. And maybe you can share some of your stories like from childhood Have you got to art and design and like how you got to do what you do now?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, well, it’s like, I studied, like programming and this kind of like nerdy thing. So not very artistic. Different. Yeah, my dogs are like, the there was like, design also included and photography and all these. So it’s either study a bit of everything. And then I kind of like went towards design, but it was being quite self taught. Most of the things especially like all the marketing and business, all the business kind of
Iva Mikles
so how the whole thing started, what was the first idea? You know?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, well, I was, I was working as a consultant, like as a usability consultant. I mean, interaction designer in Finnish company. And then I was like, at some point, I just like, I got really bored, and it didn’t like fulfill me anymore. And then yeah, just quit. I was like, Well, I will come up with something. And then with my husband, we actually we have been like, looking for stickers to decorate our apartment. And we didn’t find any that were like nice. So there was like, well, let’s make like, we can do this much better. Okay, let’s make it and then we just started making it for fun. And it became it kind of like exploded and we ended up doing sticker something I will have never kind of happy. Of course, like all the production pyland is like with everything. And I had no idea. So it was a lot of like checking YouTube videos on how you get this machine to work and all this. So it has been like very fun kind of journey to learn all this kind of product like man all things.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. So what was the first sticker you made?
Alba Bordes
We made like, we open the webshop with six stickers, which is like ridiculous. But we’re just like, well, let’s open it. And we had like four kids. Basically, we have like different sets for kids. And there were we had a company producing them for us, because we then have like the machines. Yeah, we just wanted to test. And then from there it started growing. And then we got our own kind of machines and all the production here so we can do more.
Iva Mikles
So so how did you find your first printing shop? Was it something local or someone advised you to do it?
Alba Bordes
It was really hard because we were looking for a co framing material, which is a uncommon in the sticker wall because all the stickers are always like PVC and plastic. So we found these material or what we call that was kind of fabric based. And then we just tried to find a company that will work with that. And it was really hard. And the one we found was in Denmark. We are in Finland. So it has you had to go like to Denmark and then and they weren’t the only ones kind of in Scandinavia. They were doing this
Iva Mikles
Cool, cool. So so how did you So you found the material like somewhere online? Then you tried how it looks? And then you went physically to Denmark? Or you send it to them like, Oh, can you believe
Alba Bordes
it? Yeah, the material was from UK. Oh, they sent the material to Denmark and the guys in Denmark, they print it. Caught it, and then they sent it back to us way back in this. Okay, like a whole adventure.
Iva Mikles
So what was maybe like the best thing or like a best advice you received over the time when you were learning about this production and label making and all of that?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, well, no like that? Well, I think when you start with production, you don’t, there’s so many things that go wrong, like, whatever can go wrong and go wrong. And I think I advice I got was, like, kind of take it easy. It’s gonna, like, everything is gonna solve. Because first you take it really personally, like, Oh, my God, this is the end and this and then someone say like, Don’t worry, this will get easier, like, what happened? But then you will just take it like, in an easier way. And now after like, for years, if something goes wrong, it’s like, okay, well, let’s find a solution. Let’s fix it. It’s not the end of the world. And these but in the beginning was like, really useful to have this, but don’t worry, it’s better, you know, don’t leave for one week, thinking about the problem. So, like, Did you
Iva Mikles
did you have like a mentor or someone who inspired you to do stuff or help you with like, oh, maybe this is how the production or colors? Or?
Alba Bordes
No, I think it was like, Well, my husband and I, we have no idea what like, I think between the two of us, we just figured out kind of we didn’t know anybody like starting a business. So we just went with our gut feeling well, my husband have a bit more background in marketing was useful and he is more like maybe business minded. So I think we do a good balance, kind of
Iva Mikles
so how did it happen that from like small shop, you know, from like six speakers, how did it explode it to go for to something successful? If you can take us through, like the biggest turning points or like,
Alba Bordes
yeah, while he was in the week, in the beginning, it grown like really organically. So I ordered these six models with all my savings. And then when they saw we invested in a very tiny sticker machine, like the cheapest you could get, and then I was working at that point from home still, then we got to a share studio. And then we had this tiny machine that was like really, but exactly like this, then we start selling more and then we call invest in a bigger machine. And then we move to a bigger space. And it has been like really organically we haven’t had any investment or anything. So we just started with our savings kind of and then from there we kind of got into like 100 square meter space and like we have four different machines and all kinds of tools but it hasn’t been very organic. And how
Iva Mikles
how are you promoting the stickers because first if no one knows you, you know like how they help people discover you.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, well he was really funny because even if we are in Finland, we had their website in English. So first we started got we got a lot of international visibility we got featured in blogs and people so our first customers were from Australia from Singapore USA, like nobody in Finland near US or in Europe. And I guess it’s because like we had like the site in English and then all the bloggers that features and these were kind of like international
Iva Mikles
English speaking blogs or retired English. Yeah.
Alba Bordes
So I mean it was also the case that a lot of like bloggers with maybe like send some products for them to check and they like it and they talk about it and also very organic and kind of not we didn’t have a lot of budget back then for marketing. So it was kind of this and then slowly it has been now getting closer kind of all our clients are more European now and then we have like the physical shopping Helsinki, which makes it very easy for Finnish people now to start getting to Norway, but it has gone the other way around from many other business
Iva Mikles
and with the blogs, did you contacted some of these blogs or they found you your online store? And we maybe you can mention some of the blog so people can check them out.
Alba Bordes
Now it was like kind of both ways. Because I think that most likely in the beginning, I think maybe we got featured in like some of these like BuzzFeed, or Bored Panda or one of these big ones. And then small bloggers started contacting you. And then with Instagram, then when we got in Instagram then in there a lot of accounts, like very small, like not any big influencers, but people that we like, and then kind of from there, like, nothing big or spectacular, but it kind of it has worked very well. Especially Yeah, Instagram.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. Now how do you? How do you do the paid advertising? Do you do the paid advertising now like Facebook or Instagram, or does it work?
Alba Bordes
Now we are starting to be like a serious. And yeah, we have like, boots on. Like, not all like we don’t have ads running all the time. But we tried like, mostly like retargeting works very well. So someone have visited our site or have put something in the car, then we send an email, Hey, there’s these in your car, and then newsletters and all these. So we don’t put that much money in advertisement. But I think we have to start kind of, we realize that more money you put more sell to get. But you need to know how it works. Because you can also put a lot of money and then nothing comes out of it. So now we are kind of testing different markets. And we see that for example, in Finland, it works very well they add because it’s very local, and people really like to see like finished made products, so they’re more likely divide. When you go like doing ads in English, there’s so much competition that it kind of like it’s lost. So now we’re like testing these, but I’m hoping that this year, we are gonna put, I think we need to put like more marketing, marketing. That’s the way to grow nowadays, unfortunately.
Iva Mikles
What is your like branding or vision mission? If you can describe it to someone who don’t know your brand, like these, like 62nd? Elevator Pitch, you know?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, well, I always say that, like we, I mean, we basically make stickers, that’s our main thing. But the, everything we do, we try to make it as happy as possible so that we put it in your home or in your laptop or something, it makes it mine kind of this kind of the goal that we have every day. If we do something needs to be fun, it’s not very serious. And it’s something that will make kind of a bit the like the wall a happier place at a more colorful and it’s all coherent feeling, it’s really dark, and the weather is horrible. And it’s now and all day, so we feel that we need kind of this colorful,
Iva Mikles
so you’re serving the needs of people who are at home and they want to make the like a positive environment.
Alba Bordes
And also, we try to source as much as possible eco friendly materials. It’s very hard. But we are always looking for like ways to like reduce waste and have like plastic free materials and these kind of things that kind of makes us different from other secret companies.
Iva Mikles
Oh yeah, perfect. Because what would you advise the earlier young artists you know, which if they’re struggling with like personal art style, you know how to kind of create the coherent branding because all of your website is really coherent and when people look at yourself they know it’s from you. So what would you advise them?
Alba Bordes
Well, I think you have to kind of it’s kind of natural. So you will need to like it and then when you like something and it feels that it’s part of you then it’s very easy to continue it comes natural oh yeah, this fits by like this so it kind of and well we have a lot of colors and so a lot of things we don’t have very structure brand but still kind of everything fits together but because I think that we have all like the whole team has the same vision every time we do something we make sure that it’s kind of fun and colorful and that fits kind of the our personalities Yeah, like
Iva Mikles
do you have like a certain color palette you always use or like I don’t know stroke thickness or every something which keeps everything like coherent
Alba Bordes
well yeah we have but we change it quite much we’re not very like like serious about that neither so we come up we have like some like fonts and colors and lists but then they were like huh, let’s change everything and then we just go ahead and change everything we are not we don’t take it too seriously like also the logo or we can change the colors and now we got a new packaging. So we just change everything kind of it’s Yeah, we don’t take into seriously or we are not very like free control freaks with that. Set of fonts and colors that we use.
Iva Mikles
Okay, and do you do like some beta testing? Or you know, how do you find that what your customers like? Or do you like have a like a mailing list where you ask your customers?
Alba Bordes
While we when we designed like something new, we usually put it in Instagram, then what’s the reaction? We Yeah, I think when we put it in the newsletter, it already is like the product is done. So I think cerami is kind of the first like testing field and also our shop, that’s really good. Because you see, when everybody that enters, you really see what they are interested in. And now like the new packaging, we have also did some tests here. And then you see that everybody, instead of going to one side of the store, they go to the other side, because there is the new packaging that it’s so much colorful than the old one. So I think the shop is really good also, and also a lot of like markets. Some like Christmas market or some design market, then in there we have something we can usually like take new things that maybe we don’t have online yet. And then we test them to see what’s the reaction. And then if there is a lot of people interested, then we like start products properly. Cool. Cool.
Iva Mikles
That’s very nice to see you also the reaction like real life with people.
Alba Bordes
It’s so easy, because we do every like we do, we design the packaging, we design the stickers, and we do all the production. So it’s very easy for us just to do one thing and test it. And then if it doesn’t, you don’t have to kind of hire someone to do a redesign of your website or packaging or, and try things. And then if they don’t work, then the work and then you do something else
Iva Mikles
and the packaging you were doing by yourself, or did you find someone to help you with the packaging? Or we thought
Alba Bordes
like, wait, because while we are three now. And we are all kind of designers.
Iva Mikles
Okay, everything. So how did you find like a new person for your team? Because it’s hard to find another person would fit your personality and everything
Alba Bordes
really hard. Like at the moment, it’s kind of a family business. So it’s my husband, my sister and myself.
Iva Mikles
So it’s your sister?
Alba Bordes
Yeah. Good. Now we’re like, in the winter, we have to get someone I think to help. So yeah, it’s gonna be hard because we have like, yeah, it’s very special grant by Pierre and we really need someone that have kind of fits very well with the whole made of Sunday’s brand, but I’m sure that we will find
Iva Mikles
Yeah, definitely. And when you’re thinking about new projects, or new products you want to work on, what is your kind of like a self dog? Or, you know, like, what to say yes and no to?
Alba Bordes
I think it’s like, we just go with that gut feeling that is gonna work yes or not. And, like, we’re gonna we’re starting, for example, with, like, collaboration with other designers. And I think we just like, if we like the person, if it has the same kind of vibe, you know, and then the designs, we just, we like it, then we just do it I but I don’t have any kind of specific, you know, it just like it feels right or it feels wrong. We know to a lot of people.
Iva Mikles
Okay, and do you look for designers like on Instagram or DeviantArt? Or other platforms?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, well, I will now we started like with friends. Especially now well, because in Helsinki, there’s like a week now street art movement. So we are starting to work with like, kind of street artists that they will wall morals and all this that we know quite many. So we will start with this kind of collaborations. And then also like basically friends, it’s kind of easier to start with people and you know, we are doing these you want to try and give it a try. And then if it doesn’t work, then nothing happens.
Iva Mikles
Oh, perfect. And what would you advise people for networking on finding new contract or new paid work, as you mentioned, like you look for artists in your area, but if someone is starting out and they’re just like, Okay, we are on social media, or maybe what was your experience when you were starting out and you wanted to build your network?
Alba Bordes
I think like Instagram in the beginning has been great. Now it’s even more difficult because there’s so much competition, but you can find really talented kind of people there and a lot of like minded people that I have got to know now and kind of we have this like groups also so I think that like Instagram has been like for us really nice. We found really nice people and then also like, yeah, like intrapreneurs groups kind of low. Go.
Iva Mikles
Okay, so that you would find like a group on Facebook or somewhere else.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, like, for example, we, I don’t know if you know, Etsy marketplace. So we have like, for example, like I’d say, Finland team, okay, all the Finnish intrapartum designers that are selling there or something. And then we meet every now and then we kind of discuss and share kind of tips. And I think that’s really important. I think there is a lot of people that they just want to keep their business secrets for themselves. And I really think that you just have to tell everybody what you’re doing, and you will get really good kind of things out of that, if you don’t say anything, and everything is so secret, and all your projects are like, then no one is going to like you’re never gonna expand kind of your reality. So
Iva Mikles
you need to have your mastermind group
Alba Bordes
to be surrounded with other creative people, because you don’t feel it’s quite tough to run this kind of business. So it’s a nice to have a bit of support.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, definitely it was there someone else who started these groups in in Finland, so you just found them online? Or are you running them? Or?
Alba Bordes
No, no, I like well, these 81 I just found it. And then we have also like this ecommerce, like finish ecommerce kind of group or something. So that’s also really there is like big communities. And I think it’s very good to be part of it, you learn a lot, and you can help a lot of people. And if you have made a mistake, you can avoid that other person does the same mistake and the other way around. So it’s really nice.
Iva Mikles
Definitely, yeah. And so do you think still that it’s a good idea when someone is starting out to contact these blogs, like board panda or like a bigger ones or smaller ones to feature their first product? Or, you know, like, or it’s already changed?
Alba Bordes
I don’t know. Because we didn’t contact anybody. So I don’t even know they like if you contact them if they feature you? I don’t I it was just probably luck. So someone saw our products, and I don’t know how I will have that I was not planning on being featured anywhere. Kind of it just happen.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And it was the stickers with the animals on the door, or was it something else? Because I think that’s how I found you.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, no, I think that door animals were kind of our like, because there are so different people about the interested. And I think those were when we started getting teacher in place, because everybody’s doing stickers. So these door ones have been kind of like really, really cool. Our kind of best seller product.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, definitely. And so when you are like thinking about new inspirations, where do you go for inspiration? Or maybe, do you have something strange, which inspires you as well.
Alba Bordes
By the way, we like to travel a lot. For some reason, like all like vintage vintage shops, like kind of 50s advertise in areas while actually like, we get inspired with everything, but I think traveling is a very good good way to get kind of fresh ideas. And also like for example now with for like with the new packaging, we got very inspired by ice cream, for example. Yeah. And candy, something like that the like the new packaging could have been like from ice cream shop, and the Hodge our shop, it looks like a candy store. So it’s kind of like weird, and we get this inspiration by the kind of eating works.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, because it’s positive and colorful. Yeah, so kind of like to sum up the thing for someone is starting out, you know, like, they they will need to do something special or cool. So someone would like it, then maybe they get discovered and then you kind of learn along the way.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, no, no, because I think now that we have learned a lot more about marketing. I think knowing how marketing works and how social media works is really important. And E commerce so maybe you have like a very like mediocre product, but you know how to market it. You will be successful. Yeah, I don’t know. Like if I will stand out from the beginning I will probably start like really learning how to market whatever. So if you learn how to market the most difficult product then you know how to market everything. So like how all the advertisements like making videos like what people like how to explain all the message kind of how you create this need for people to buy your products. That’s something that I will say that usually start with that. And then the product doesn’t need to be anything spectacular. Got to be nice and have like, like, you need to be different from what other people are saying. But if you know what you’re doing with marketing, you can be successful, I think definitely
Iva Mikles
do you maybe have some recommendations where to learn about marketing, maybe some favorite books or like online courses?
Alba Bordes
Actually, like my best, like what I have learned the most is from podcasts. That there is all these like ecommerce podcasts. like Shopify has a very good. Shopify is the like the web platform, we are using the market place we are using. Yeah. And they have very good podcast. That’s really, really helpful. And I just like listen to well, we all like listen to podcasts, like every day.
Iva Mikles
Oh, yeah. Do you have some other recommendations for podcasts? I like the Smart Passive Income from Pat Flynn. That’s like my favorite podcast.
Alba Bordes
And that. Yeah, no, I mean, really, like there isn’t this marketing nerd marketing nerd. That’s really good. Because it’s very short. Okay, maybe it’s just like, I’m like from the world from like, I have like 10 minutes working from home to the office. So in that moment, you can kind of get some tips.
Iva Mikles
Cool. Cool. So Ben might be new podcast. Yeah.
Alba Bordes
He’s like, marketing nerds or something like that.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. Cool. Cool. Good. Yeah. Because there is also like, a creative push podcast, then. Yeah, also intrapreneurs on fire. That’s quite nice. So that’s why I’m kind of trying to get like some from you like maybe new recommendations, which I haven’t heard yet. Yeah. And I think
Alba Bordes
like this nerd marketing is really good. Oh, cool. Cool. Nice. It’s really good also, because while I don’t have time to read books, or learn any online or we are like working almost 24/7. So that means that you are like walking home or in the bath or something. It’s really like easy. Just listen to some tapes. And then it kind of it really helps.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, definitely. I really like to listen to podcasts as well, when I’m like shopping, traveling or something.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, no, I think this is the best invention of the podcast.
Iva Mikles
Multitasking. Yeah, definitely. And so how does your normal day look like? Or how do you plan your week or month, you know, when you have so many projects and things to do?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, no, that’s really hard. Like, in theory, we have quite like a schedule like we do, because we have, of course, we have production, we have the online shop, we have to do all the like packing and sending orders and all this, then we have design, and then on the marketing. So we try to combine it because now while we are to, like my husband takes care of all the website stuff and design and will also like do ecommerce consultancy for other companies. So he takes care of that. And then with my sister, we divide the day kind of like one like the afternoon, it’s usually for designing and mornings or production. So we do a bit kind of like, she does production, I do design. But we tend to do like design and list like create new things every day. Yeah, at least one part of the day kind of goes to creating new things. Otherwise, you never have time for for it’s really hard to allocate time for creativity. And then yeah, of course, like production, it takes a lot of time to pack all the orders and the so that’s takes also like half of the day at least. And then all the marketing sometimes goes to the evening weekends, repairing newsletters, and posting stuff in Instagram, Facebook, all these. And then of course, we have like, photo shoots for all the products, like maybe a couple of times a month. But do we have a photo studio here? So it’s very easy to just? Yeah, so we just tried to organize as well as we can. But I think it’s it has been very good that we have at least like allocated like time to do design. That’s because in the beginning, we’re just like you’re so busy answering emails and making more than Sundays, and you never have time to design. So now we have like a table that is only for design. And then whoever sits there doesn’t get boarder for few hours.
Iva Mikles
That makes sense.
Alba Bordes
That has worked really well.
Iva Mikles
And how do you combine your income streams? As you mentioned, you do also the consulting and the shop. So how does it look like maybe the split you know, like what is the meaning common?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, well, now at the moment, of course, like consultancy brings a lot of money. Because it’s kind of like it’s kind of this. How do I said, well, because I were quite senior so you can it’s very easy to kind of make money with that. So now it’s kind of like the FTP is the online shop, the physical shop and then also like the consultancy, but we are hoping that it kind of that it takes over. May of Sunday’s kind of sticker company takes over the consultancy and we can fully like focus on that. Yeah.
Iva Mikles
And then they’re like consultancy, you do like one on one? Or do you do it online? Or you create the course?
Alba Bordes
Well, yeah, no, no, it has been like client projects that have like, mostly ecommerce, because we have learned so much that we can really have fun. We also like, build like, concepts and marketing campaigns and these kinds of things.
Iva Mikles
Really cool. Yeah. And what are your like, favorite tools you work daily? You know, do you create your artworks like in Illustrator? Or do you sketch first and
Alba Bordes
now we have got this iPad Pro with a pen is really good. So you can lie on the sofa? And do all the first sketches there? And then it goes to the computer and then we work with Illustrator mainly, thing. Yeah, I mean, not to use but this like now with the it’s so much faster to go with it, but on the pen, because first we were drawing by paper, then you scan it, then you pass it to the and now it’s so much easier. Everything you see and use it so much faster if something is gonna work without spending too much time. So that’s really it. It has been very good.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, and when you’re creating the stickers, it’s like laser cutting or some special thing.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, well, we have like two different methods like we got from color, like one color. Or animals. They are just like black. We got it. And then now our new collection. We got like a big printer. So we print and cut.
Iva Mikles
Oh, nice. Yeah, really interesting. Oh, cool. Cool. And so if someone is like, looking for like new projects, and you know, what would you maybe give some tips? Like, where to look, we talked about the the groups a B, then some of the other Online Communities? Do you have maybe other tips like how to like find new paid projects or just starting your own business?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, I guess would have been so lucky. Because well, feeling is so small that the word to mouth like the mouth to mouth really, really sorry, you are in the right, you have the right friends, and finding the right network, you will get always if you do a good job, there will always come people like Oh, I heard that you do this. And these are in here. It’s very kind of like networking personally, and knowing people and doing also things kind of for free for the community or we have a nice for example, in our neighborhood, we started with the group now with all the shots and we organized like maps so that people go from job to job or Christmas kind of markets and this. So sometimes you also have to do these kinds of things that people like community. Yeah. events on these that you don’t get money out of it. But people get to know you. And it always open doors. And you’ll find people that maybe need Well, in our case, stickers, or some company like oh, yeah, actually, I need these and these. So for us, it’s kind of very, like, person to person.
Iva Mikles
Perfect. And is there something you wish you knew, you know, like, before you started the whole, like art business or, you know, like advice to young self.
Alba Bordes
While I, as I say, like market I wish I will have no marketing works on how to sell. Because that’s really important. Because doesn’t matter how cool is your product, if you don’t know how to sell it, you’re not going to sell it? Definitely. And in the beginning, you’re like, Oh, you’re so cool, everyone is gonna love it. And then you realize that if you don’t do anything, no one will find it. So it’s really I think, if I will have started now I will start kind of listening to all these podcasts. Yeah, before Yes, I’m gonna like business perspective of things and investments that you have to invest so that you get kind of bigger, and these kind of things that in the beginning, you’re so scared to do any big kind of risk that you have to change the mind into a business. When you are like creative kind of person. It’s a bit hard. So I will start with like, trying to be like business minded or then find someone to partner with that. It’s kind of a business oriented person, and also on marketing and how to sell I think that’s like really important. Yeah,
Iva Mikles
did you also have some like difficult moments or like biggest struggles? And if you hit something like that, like what do you learn from it?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, I think like with production, it’s what I say that when everything will go wrong, nothing goes as planned, everything kind of breaks, things don’t get done as they should, especially when you have subcontractors. So I will just say like, take it easy, and it never works the first time.
Iva Mikles
So maybe create some like time buffers? Or what would be your like key takeaways?
Alba Bordes
Yeah, no, I think that’s really good that if someone tells you, this is going to be done in one week, you can like, say that it’s gonna be done in one month. Like, because then you have well, we have also wholesalers or their shops. So sometimes he has been these and we have like, prepare something and then the machine breaks or whatever, and we cannot, we have promised that we will, they will have the new collection. And then the new collection is not done. And then some with the materials. It’s also very tricky when you start printing, you know, new material. And so it just like yeah, take, take it easy, and don’t put too tight deadlines to production, because it just kind of, it never goes, well. Just relax, and try to find a solution instead of kind of getting really stressed. And, like, help,
Iva Mikles
because you also need to see like samples before you approve the things right. And like some proof prints.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, and I’d say it’s hard because it always looks very good in your head. But then when you make it, it’s not something that you like, it’s very difficult to get when you weren’t expecting and sometimes you have to make compromises and it just kind of
Iva Mikles
Yeah, like the colors are misaligned. Or a live word doesn’t fit and you’re like Yeah, exactly.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, he’s got our things and sometimes three times a month and you don’t know how to fix it but then if everything solves itself if you just look relax and think and be rational say okay, well we’re gonna do this, how we can do it, let’s kind of that’s how it kind of,
Iva Mikles
yeah, because you also have to think like, yeah, what colors can be printed on top of each other, right? If something light and dark and ya know,
Alba Bordes
you never see well the colors are like and you kind of you never in your skin never looks. But I mean, the main problems we have are with new materials, because we just try to like print on them and sometimes they don’t handle kind of the colors well or our machine can break the paper or it’s to see currency in our body doesn’t stick on the wall as a tool. You know, there’s also these with the wall stickers, it’s so you have to go out of test which kind of walls they will seek which kind of materials sometimes you’ll get, like 100 meter roll of some material and then you realize that this doesn’t work as a chole and there’s a lot of things
Iva Mikles
Yeah, so So to test and try that the best thing you can do right? It’s easy
Alba Bordes
and patience and everything will work out
Iva Mikles
and let’s talk about the future and my last questions are about like your dream scenarios and like what would you imagine yourself to be doing in five to 10 years if you like cannot fail and everything is going according to the plan so what is happening well we will really
Alba Bordes
really like to like open like a shop in Japan for example. And be able to like to travel there and I think that will be like super cool and also USA it’s on the dream list because we know that like we really like kind of then how they like it’s very different market when they have always been very interested will be so cool to try they’re also to have a kind of shop and see
Iva Mikles
oh nice nice so when did he do some research trip already to Japan and the US there’s
Alba Bordes
no like Japan is on the list like we have been to USA many times but Japan is on the list and we are very like Japan fans and we get a lot of inspiration from like Japan characters Japanese characters and kawaii and only so I think if we go there and we are going to get crazy yeah
Iva Mikles
definitely I’m sure you will love it I visited like a few years back and everything is so cute even like cones on the road and signs for the buses and you’re like
Alba Bordes
yeah no idea we’ll die. Yeah.
Iva Mikles
Be taking pictures of
Alba Bordes
everything. Now I’m sure he will go there and we come back with a totally new collection of like cute another level of cuteness for all him so let’s let’s hope next year we can do a three but that will be my dream to kind of be have like, visibility there.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, or you can have like a special Cafe combined with your two words you know like they have this Alice in Wonderland cafe and I don’t
Alba Bordes
know are really cool.
Iva Mikles
And my last question is about far, far future. And I would like to know, what would you like to be remembered for in like 100 years and more?
Alba Bordes
Well, I think it’s kind of part of the plan. Also, there’s that to make people happy. So I hope that if our stickers are somewhere back in the Canada year that people still sees them and they smile, I think that will be like really cool. That it’s this kind of makes people happy. I think that there’s so many like bad things in the world that even if we can make a very, very tiny difference of someone’s day that it gets a bit better. I think that’s kind of a win for us already.
Iva Mikles
I totally agree. And before we say goodbye, maybe you can share, like last piece of advice or key takeaway, and then we will finish.
Alba Bordes
Yeah, and I think it’s this don’t take things too seriously. Have fun. That’s one of the most important things with any business. And then just Yeah, try to kind of yeah, basically, like, take it easy and enjoy it. Because it’s really tough. And if you don’t enjoy it, it’s not like your clients will notice and your products are not gonna be as nice on your design. So you really have to enjoy it.
Iva Mikles
I agree. And again, thank you so much for being here. So Thanks. And thank you everyone for watching and listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Alba Bordes
Bye. Thank you.
Iva Mikles
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