Hello!
March seems to be all about Meet the Maker, so I thought I’d introduce myself here. I’m Emily! Yep that’s me, wearing a Christmas sweater still and it’s nearly April (I’m always cold haha ah), my studio uniform aims at comfort - a knit sweater, leggings and a messy bun. I went to the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U) for illustration and graduated in 2012. Since then I have been freelancing, creating editorial illustrations for magazines including the Walrus, Good Housekeeping, Today’s Parent, Reader’s Digest, Corporate Knights, Precedent, etc; creating illustrations for advertising campaigns such as Subway, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Cashmere; creating surface patterns for two textile lines of bedding/home and tableware products for Sarah Richardson (as well as packaging design) and patterned children’s play mats for The Pieces; and working through custom illustration jobs that have included portraits, custom greeting cards, wedding invitations and logos.
A few years ago I began Cabin Journal, originally to be a small-scale, independent publication revolving around artists, designers and the growing maker scene within Canada, celebrating the revival of past traditions and heavily featuring real people, their everyday lives and stories. Cabin was born from a love of printed matter and the tactile experience of paper in a world that is quickly making a shift to all things digital. I wanted to hold on to the experience that comes with a physical magazine; the time you give yourself to peruse it, the time away from screens, the act of giving yourself a quiet moment away and giving your attention to something so analogue. The first issue was planned out, and some features shot, edited, and ready for it, yet I will be completely transparent and say that self-publishing is a very expensive business. The magazine took a spot on the back burner as I reassessed, and while doing so began risograph printing passion projects like printed postcards.
The Cabin Journal that exists today came from those illustrations that I wanted to do - no client looking for them, but instead the things I was interested in drawing and exploring the use of unabashedly bright hues, with no one telling me to tone it down. Today Cabin focuses on vintage, Canadiana, flora and fauna. They are cheerful products with a taste of nostalgia; the main inspiration comes from memories, from my surroundings in nature (mostly forest and shoreline), and from my collections of vintage this-and-thats. It has been nearly a year since I started wholesaling Cabin and I am overjoyed to find so many people share an interest in the same things I love, and are just as unafraid of colour.
Running two small businesses and creating all the content from scratch every single day has had a steep learning curve, one I am sure I will be riding for the rest of my life. It is at times both challenging and frustrating, often forcing me to wear every hat from photographer / graphic designer / web designer / illustrator / social media coordinator / marketer / product manager / accountant, etc ... but the rewards that come with being able to do what I love for a living make it worth it and more. I am so lucky and grateful to be living and creating in a city with such a strong support network of fellow creatives, all struggling through the exact same challenges and knocking them down one at a time.
I should be getting back to work now! The One of a Kind Spring show is next week and I still have to finish packaging a few hundred prints, work on the layout of Cabin’s new wholesale catalogue, edit images, write copy for new products and update the website ... among other things haha. Off I hop! Cheers,
xoxo
Emily
