We were lucky to catch up with Emmie Hsu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emmie, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My hero is anyone who is kind or helpful to others, anyone with a joyful spirit, and anyone who perseveres through adversity.

I also love many artists, like Taro Gomi, for his exuberant nature, Miroslav Sasek for his playfulness and technical prowess, Hiroshi Yoshida for his beauty and composition, Alice and Martin Provensen for their texture and magical renderings, Fion Stewart for her picturesque and idyllic aesthetic, Kaya Doi for her charming illustrations, Diana Wynne Jones for her creativity, sharpness and imagination, and the photographers and designers of Japanese lifestyle/home/design magazines. There are tons of people I admire (and not just artists, of course), but I’ll stop there.

If I had to name a lesson I’ve learned from these artists, it’s that you do your thing, one work at a time. You present the world (or a world) in your own way.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I design greeting cards, and sell them to retail shops in the U.S. and overseas.

While growing up, my sisters and I spent a few summers in Taiwan, eating wax apples, watching colossal ant marches, exchanging animal-related insults with our cousins, sweating, scratching mosquito bites, buying baby turtles at the market that died within the hour (don’t worry, we only did this once), reading any available English book, hogging every available fan, chortling at the A+ Engrish everywhere, and wandering around stationery shops.

I loved the stationery stores – chock-full of charming cards, letter sets, journals, bookmarks, stickers, stamps and figurines, mostly from Taiwan and Japan. Asian sensibility in stationery tends to be whimsical, oddball, enchanting, wistful, fun and nostalgic. There’s a focus on nature, animals, cottagecore (I don’t love this term, but it’ll conjure up the image) and Europe (this was true back in the 80’s, but probably less so now). There’s an overarching theme of idyll and gentleness. This might sound cheesy, but the beauty of the paper, printing, illustrations, photography and words combine in a way that makes the final effect touching and not cloying (to me, anyway). I also love watercolor and other natural media, and there’s a lot of this in stationery.

If you’d like to see examples of this type of stationery, I’ve listed a few brands and shops that I’m fond of here:

https://fomato.com/pages/japanese-stationery

I hope you discover some lovely work that you enjoy.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I read Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow” book when I started the card business, and I like that his primary advice is to be remarkable. In my head, I translated this to “unusual” or “different,” and just followed my odd tendencies. This was key to starting the business, and the simplicity of the recommendation allowed me to keep it top of mind without getting distracted.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’m unlearning a hyperfocus on visuals. Sometimes I get distracted by trying to make images look good, and forget to focus on providing value for people.

When I get excited about someone’s work, it reminds me that what I’m responding to isn’t always their technical skill, but what they’re saying, or the effect they’re creating. This is especially true when someone’s not the best renderer. It reminds me not to be vain, and that I should prioritize thought and communication. I really appreciate it when someone doesn’t let a focus on visuals get in the way of being splendid or effective.

I wasn’t able to draw or paint for many years due to a wrist injury. Since I’ve started painting again, I’ve worked with simple subjects (probably to avoid doing a terrible job with challenging ones, which I should be doing as well). I think that feeling like a beginner has resulted in me concentrating more on the surface of a illustration, rather than on its content. Basics and form are essential, but it’s helpful to keep communication and connection as the top priorities.

I’d like to focus next on stories (non-fiction and fiction).

Lately, I’ve been inspired by books that my daughters and I read at bedtime. One of our favorite author illustrators is Noriko Kudo, whose work is popular in Japan and Taiwan (and other countries, I’m sure – I just happened to hear about her being popular there). She’s created several children’s book series: one depicts the everyday adventures of five endearing chicks, and another features a gang of stray cats who get into mischief under the not-super watchful eye of their mentor/supervisor dog friend. The cats concoct fun projects (some focused primarily on pigging out), and unusual events follow. Kudo’s work reminds me that creating enjoyment for others is extremely valuable, and her dedication to this is what I admire most about her.

If you’d like to check out Kudo’s work, a few of our favorite titles are: Noraneko Gundan Pan Kōjō (Stray Cats Army Bakery), Piyipiyo Mori No Yu Enchi (Baby Chicks at the Forest Amusement Park), and Piyipiyo Hajimete No Camp (Baby Chicks’ First Time Camping). They’re in Japanese, but the illustrations alone tell the stories in a very entertaining manner.

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