Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Courtney Graben. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Courtney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)
Honestly starting out in surface pattern design I was pretty self-taught by a bunch of online courses.
I Loveeee the Print School Online courses by Longina Phillips!! They helped my design and repeat skills sooo much!!! I also took some Make Art that Sells courses by Lila Rogers that were pretty helpful!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I basically create art for products!
I started my design career off when I was 20 creating ads for local business and did not have too much success with that. But, I was creating a ton of illustrations and eventually patterns to go on products, and spam posting them online.
Luckily I ended up getting a licensing deal from my posts and then eventually full-time work!
Now I have had my art on products in pretty much every off-priced American retailer!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I love seeing my art in the wild in stores! I have even seen a couple tiktokers/ influencers I follow own some of my work which is super exciting!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When starting out in surface pattern design it is pretty hard to get licensing deals and freelance work, there is soo much talent and you will have soo many rejections. But you just have to keep going!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://courtneygrabendesign.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/courtneygrabendesigns/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-graben-b1a170128/
