The designer of this month is Marieke Ooms, also known as Indie-ish. Marieke creates super fun, colorful designs, who fit the child theme perfectly. In the previous blog you already saw her pattern as DIY kids legging. In this blog you'll find out how she started her own web shop from nothing!
Marieke is a Jack-of-all-trades!
Marieke is married and together with her awesome man they have one-year-old. So, you can guess where the inspiration comes from to design kids patterns. But she does way more! During her education 'Docent Beeldende Kunst en Vormgeving' (Teacher Art and Designing) she turned out to be a jack-of-all-trades. "I experimented with different techniques. One week I was screen-printing and the other day I was walking around with a sealing machine. Carpentry, ceramics, making cups, stamping fabrics.. I kind of tried everything you can think of!"
Starting your own product line
It's clear that Marieke has a passion with everything that has to do with. So during her education she started designer her own product line, inspired by nature. She loves to make consumer articles. Think of cups, bags, stationary, hand-bound books and brooches. She was able to put all her energy and all her learned techniques in it! "For my last school assignment I designed a web shop where, of course, I also sold my own product line. And that started growing.. so right now I also make crocheted lampshades, beanies and rattles. And yes, the last one goes together with the birth of my son!"
Fired...!? Well, than let's start with my own web shop!
Again and again Marieke finds another way to express her creativity. First she maintained the web shop next to her regular job. But when the crisis also hit her company and she lost her job because of savings, it was a huge disappointment. But it only took a little time before she saw new opportunities! First, starting her own brand: Indie-ish. She already had the web shop, so why not? And that's how it all started..
Selfmade products, by me and by others
Indie-ish is a web shop full of selfmade products complemented with designs from other "Indie-designers". Marieke's love for handmade products, materials and paper goods all comes together in this web shop. During the launch of her web shop she jumped in to Motiflow on Instagram. It was almost meant to be. And so she started designing her own fabric collection called Indian Season. "From these fabrics I make pillows, which I complement with home accessoires from wood or with wooden accents. I sell this in combination with other products from Indie-designers," says Marieke. Since you might wonder were the name Indie-ish came form: Indie is derived from the term "Independent Designers", which means designs and brands who work without agents or big companies. And the ish? Well, the ish gives it style. We could'nt agree more!
The Indian Season fabric collection
From at home to the webshop
"The products I design are all self made, so there is no intervention of big companies. That's also how the shop started: with only products from Indie-designers. The collection is growing each day. I want to have a variated, beautifull offer of nice products. It makes me super enthusiastic of a brand or designer comes to me to ask if I would like to sell her products. Sometimes I secretly spotted the brand myself as well. Than it's an extra compliment that the designers I like also feel like their style would fit mine."
From web shop to pop-up store to a real store!
At this moment Indie-ish her collection is variated. In 2013 Marieke opened a Pop-up shop for a year. It was open about 2 till 3 days a week. It became a big succes, so she wanted more. And now she already has a real shop for 3 years in a row, called Concept Store Dordrecht. "It's like a dream came true. In a physical store you can put even more creativity! Not only do I design the printed matter, I also do the styling and decoration for the shop. I even build the interior myself for the biggest part! Because that way the .... come in handy again. "The assortiment in the shop is comparable with the Indie-ish web shop, but Marieke also sells stuff from other collectives or designers like one-of-a-kind and Dordtse bodem."
Back to the basics
But Marieke can't bear to be idle. "My own shop takes lots of time and therefore I have less time to design things from myself. Designing more selfmade products again is my goal for this year, and that's why I made the hard decision to close the Concept Store Dordrecht from 30 december. I'm going back to the basics to create more time for designing products, where it all started with! Also I want to give the Indie-ish web shop a boost. But I never plan to much ahead. You never know what opportunities may arise. So that's my tip: always keep your eyes open, you never know what's around the corner!" Sometimes even a step back can create new perspectives and chances.
'' always keep your eyes open, you never know what's around the corner!''
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