Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Corrie Sullivan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Corrie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

The first big project my business booked was an art installation at the Los Angeles Food and Wine Festival back in 2018 for Lexus. This project still today holds lots of special memories and it was also the project that made me feel like I could do anything and that I had finally found something that could be something. I landed this project via a cold call email I sent to the founder of Create and Cultivate (a platform for women entrepreneurs) Jaclyn Johnson the founder emailed me back within an hour and said yes to my request. I asked her if I could create an installation for her event in LA. I asked for my material costs to be covered and a post on their instagram page tagging me with my installation. The installation I creates was a giant paper roll backdrop with thousands of rolls of paper, it turned out great. Someone from the Lexus’ agency saw my installation and asked if I would come and create something for their booth at the LA food and wine festival. I said yes! I remember just feeling lots of joy and was proud of myself. That installation started the growth of my business and I now have 3 employees and great studio space in Glendale! And I have never looked back!!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Corrie Sullivan and I am an Irish-born creator and artist, and the founder of Corrie in Color. I live in Los Angeles with my husband, Aaron, and three daughters, Sienna, Scarlett, and Indigo (yes, all colors). We initially left Ireland to spend a year exploring LA we fell in love with the city and we are still here 18 years later,. I have never not been creating my love of texture and art has been within me from childhood, and led me to hold a degree in Textile Design and Art History, specializing in embroidery, from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. This passion for creating led me to start Corrie in Color.

Corrie in Color is a Los Angeles based creative studio specializing in custom art installations that bring events and interiors to life. Through an experimental use of diverse materials, from fabric to finely cut paper, our work creates an environment that is a tangible, textural expression of the imagination. We aim to evoke joy, bring celebration, and foster positivity in the spaces that we experience daily, or perhaps only once in our lifetime. To inspire everyone to experience a moment – to experience life – in color.

We collaborate with brands by immersing ourselves in their vision, then magnifying it through our uniquely colorful expression. For permanent installations and one-day events alike, our work radiates happiness each enhancing a space to fully come alive.
We are different than other event decorator companies because we bring an artistic handmade approach to all our projects and use unique and different materials to create something truly special. Guests can sense the joy and effort we put into each of our projects and this is are magic sauce.
I am most proud of my incredible team, over the last 7 years I have slowly built and incredible team of designers and artists who work incredibly hard – they are truly amazing. We are great communicators and collaborators and love working alongside event planners and producers to make the most unique and show stopping moments for their clients and events. We are also unique in that every project we do is different and we can work in many different venues and enviroments to make a vision come to life.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

One thing I have noticed is that a high precentage of my business growth came from repeat customers and referrals. Feedback from these clients showed that they appreciated our communication skills. Simply responding to an email on time goes along way – not ghosting! Showing kindness and professionalism matters and people will come back and work with you simply because you are easy to work with. Level of artistry, we approach each of projects like it is art and putting effort into producing things at a high level. Details matter!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building our audience took time. I started doing all the content myself at the start and it was a mixture of my business and my personal life highlighting things that inspire me and my travels. As the business grew I kept that personal connection by showing my growing team building installations onsite. The personal connection was important to me – telling the stories of my team creating beautiful things in the studio to my travels where I found inspiration for upcoming projects. As things grew I also invested in a social media manager who is amazing and has helped me grow my audience to what it is today. As I was starting out I was only on instagram I was hesitate to invest in other platforms. I started to focus on pinterest as I noticed a lot of my clientele where on that platform. It was worth the effort as I have noticed more inquiries and projects are coming from people discovering our business on that platform. .

My advice is to always stay true to you and your business – your audience is attracted to authenticity. Be aware of who your audience is, what are they responding to, what are they asking you for and engage with them. Asking for advice and feedback from other established brands and businesses has been very helpful to me. I had a friend who had a very successful floral business she created amazing floral installations for events and I reached out and got incredible advice from her and her team and will always appreciate that. Keep going – you never know who is looking at your work and what opportunities can come from butting your business and yourself out there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://corrieincolor.com
• Instagram: corrieincolor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corrie-sullivan-91557a47/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/corrieincolor/
  https://www.tiktok.com/@corrieincolor