We recently connected with Dominique Marinzulich and have shared our conversation below.

Dominique, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

I had a really great Graphic Design teacher in Art School and one of our projects was to put together a “found alphabet”. We had to use objects that we saw/worked with in our daily life and put them together to create the full alphabet. I wanted this to be different than what people would expect of an art school student; pencils, paints, empty film rolls, chalks etc… at the time I had more than a couple pairs of jeans, so I started there. I borrowed jeans from my roommate and everyone around me to get different shades and styles and made my letters by shaping the pants then photographing them overhead. That was just the beginning.

At the time (12 years ago now) one of my younger cousins was a fresh toddler, so I gifted a print to my aunt…well, she’s in advertising and said this could be something big. I sat on it for a long, long time, but always had it in the back of my mind, “I have to do it, I have to do it, what is stopping me?”. Eventually I got it together, rented a studio and photographed all of my letters on a white background so they were cleaner, set up my Etsy shop and started spreading the word.

I launched the Etsy store in May and just did my first in person market two weeks ago. I think this is just the beginning for Alphabetize.d and I’m really excited to see where it goes!

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 Dominique and I am a Northern New Jersey based Social Media Manager and Photographer. I got into photography as a teenager and never really stopped. I majored in photography in art school and then came back to New York to learn more about the commercial side of the world. I was always working in a restaurant alongside my internships and when I moved back home to New Jersey, I started serving at one of the new bars in my hometown. A few years later, my boss asked me to take over the Instagram for him and everything else happened organically from there. I really enjoy learning new things; the landscape of Social Media is ever-evolving so I’ve grasped how to quickly adapt the needs of my clients to stay relevant. I regularly manage 10 social accounts, provide photography and videography for a hospitality group, and do freelance work on the side, so wearing a lot of hats is something I’m accustomed to. The days are never boring, that’s for sure haha.

I’m proud that I took the leap and got my little side business off the ground because it took me several years to get through the sea of fear to get to this point. :)

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Not really a lesson, but a feeling that I’m still trying to work around is definitely self doubt. Getting to a point where I believe in myself enough to just do the damn thing is really hard for me! It’s scary to just take the risk, especially into something I’ve never done on my own before.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Ultimately, I would love for this to evolve into something much larger, have it be a sustainable business and my sole income, be able to create for myself and share those creations with the world. I would love to be able to provide my products to stationary stores across the country at some point…So we’ll see!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @alphabetize.d
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555158617580