We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessie Webster a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jessie, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
The base of my skill set comes from growing up with an artist mother, who naturally taught me how to color, paint, and draw at a young age. From there I was always involved in creative adventures which led me to attending Western Washington University, in the Pacific Northwest, and applying to their very competitive Industrial Design program. This education was pivotal in my creative development. It was a grueling curriculum, yet so well rounded. Everything from calculus-based physics, business law, composites, woodworking, painting, figure drawing, CAD, Adobe Creative Suite, machine metals, and 4-hour Industrial Design Studio classes, to name a few, were required for this program. Since completing my education, I spent 10 years in the corporate space designing for big companies all around the globe. While it was great to work like this for a time, in what felt like an agency environment, it really enabled me and gave me the confidence to start my own business. I started a fine art and design business back in 2017, where I mainly focused on the art side, but more recently have done more design and brand development for smaller companies. I did this all outside of my 9 to 5 corporate grind, which took some serious mental dedication. Perhaps I am a bit of a serial entrepreneur, as I’ve just started an LLC for floral design, because why not keep doing more creative things!
With my creative work being what I deem successful and/or profitable, I really attribute my abilities to my college education. It was so foundational to all things design, that I have been able to apply it to literally everything. It was also where I discovered I loved charcoal as a medium and why I exclusively do all my fine art with it. I only wish I had dedicated more time earlier to scale growth in my personal creative businesses versus working corporate for so long. It’s hard to cut ties with a steady income and certain personalities are more or less risk averse, but I am somewhere in the middle. It took a life changing event, having my first daughter, to officially leave corporate and put all my creative eggs into my own basket; and work has continued coming my way allowing me the flexibility and time to do my own work. As far as essential skills, the Adobe Creative Suite, specifically Illustrator is my baby. I have spent years working primarily in Illustrator to do the groundwork for everything I do. I’d be lost without it.
Jessie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up in a small farming town about 1.5 hours north of Seattle, graduated from a small high school and headed off to to college just farther up the coast. I mentioned a little bit of this earlier, but I studied Industrial Design at Western Washington University. It was a career path I didn’t even know existed, but I happened to stumble across it when a few fellow classmates were talking in one of my art courses. After graduating, I worked in my field professionally for 10 years before leaving to raise my daughter in 2023. I was confident to leave corporate because I had started my own fine art and design business, Ember House Studio back in 2017. I have primarily done fine charcoal art and sell it at a gallery, online, and at in-person events. How I really ended up doing my art, stemmed from a coworker who had mentioned they sell their art at pop culture events, Comic Cons per se. I already had my moody style of charcoal art that I developed mostly in college and thought if my coworker could sell their art, I bet the industry of geeky, nerdy art might like my style in their subject matter. So yes, I draw pop culture nerd art. Everything from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and various video games to film content like Alien. My passion is actually specimen pieces but the crowd loves the geeky content so I keep doing it! It’s really fun, especially the shows and meeting the customers. I sell primarily prints but every now and then, certain individuals buy an original. I rarely do commissions just because I haven’t found them as enjoyable, however I listen to my shoppers to see what they want me to do next. Sometimes I feel it’s so odd that I told myself as a young creative that I didn’t want to be a ‘starving artist,’ which is part of the reason I went into design. Yet here I am doing art and not starving! I still attribute my design education and experience to my fine art success; so personally, it couldn’t have been one without the other for me.
Under the same Ember House Studio umbrella, I have done design projects like branding, logos, and illustrations. In the last year, I also started a floral design company with a partner called Prim House where we offer event and wedding florals to our local market. Things are still in development with the floral business, but we will be up and running this year.
The main mindset about my formal education of Industrial Design is problem solving. I have probably heeded to this a bit much, but everything I’ve ventured to do on my own was to solve a gap or problem in a market. My art style didn’t exist in the pop culture market, so I offered something different; artwork in my moody style and using charcoal as the medium… it came with solid success. With my brand development and logo design work, I have seen and worked on hundreds, if not thousands of them, in my corporate experience. That exposure alone has irreplaceable insight and is incredibly helpful when I help build out a company’s brand. To my core, I live and breathe design and am here for detail. I am always looking and studying the market, different industries, and uncovering what’s next; and this is what I feel sets me apart from perhaps other designers or artists…my brain, and how it works.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I knew from the get-go there was a gap in the market I was targeting, it was obvious the general feel of artwork at pop culture events was vibrant, loud, digitally created, and obvious. I saw that I could create the polar opposite; I created with a real medium by hand, monochromatic, and a bit more obscure. Honestly, I wasn’t sure at the time if it would be well received. After creating my initial round of artwork for my first show, it became apparent I was what many show attendees had been looking for. Since then, I have been consistent and most importantly, I listen to my fans and clients. I do polls on social media to get their help for content creation, I listen to them about what they want from me, what subject matter I am missing, and I respond! I try to be grateful and excited when people reach out, compliment, and refer me. With my product it’s not just the content I create, but the quality. I go for affordable, yet durable archival prints, I put in branded details with my packaging, and write personalized handwritten thank you notes to my online purchasers. This creates overall cohesion across everything I do. I feel all those details, and the attention to detail, speaks volumes to my brand. I know my customers notice, and it sets me a part in the market.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I think it can go unnoticed how expensive fine art can be. Since we live in such a digital space, even creatively, we can forget art is tangible. Materials alone can be insanely expensive for artists; brushes, paint, canvases, and even space to do the art! Even though charcoal is not necessarily an expensive medium, the logistics behind attending and selling at a show adds up fast. Back in the beginning, my husband was still in school, and I was working as a mid-level designer. We were renting, and we didn’t have much when it came to ‘extra income’ to fund this new art journey. We literally both sold plasma to fund the necessities for the show. I had to build a booth display, pay for the event’s table space, get the artwork professionally scanned and prints made, figure out packaging, frames, and just odd and end details to make the whole experience look professional. Not to mention create and make the art for the show! We didn’t want to use our relied upon income to fund this because it was so hard to know if it would be successful and get our investment back. Luckily, we turned a profit at that first show and have been building it ever since. Most businesses take a lot more capital to start, like a small business loan or just a big chunk of personal capital investment. But over the years as the art has grown, I have been able to invest it into capital for other ventures! Like the new floral company, Prim House I mentioned before. The risk to start yet another creative business has been completely funded by my art business. Watching the domino effect take place has been rather rewarding as a creative.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmberHouseStudio
- Instagram: @emberhousestudio
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessiecwebster/