We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelsey O’Brien Michelle Leatherman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kelsey O’Brien, appreciate you joining us today. How has Covid changed your business model?

Kelsey: We had to pivot our entire business model from a brick-and-mortar gallery to fully online. Covid stay-at-home orders and being deemed a “non-essential” business took a big toll on us. Michelle and I, like countless other small business owners, had to make the tough decision to shutter our doors in July 2021 after being open to the public for 5 years. Instead of gallery installations, planning and promoting Opening Receptions, and running the sales floor, we found ourselves pouring our time into building out our website, strategizing how to grow our online presence and establishing ourselves in brand new marketing channels like Pinterest. One of our biggest challenges was working out how to translate the personal experience we were accustomed to giving our customers at the gallery to the online realm as well as how to effectively tell our photographers’ stories. We are finding that the e-commerce model is one of constant learning, evolving and growing.

Kelsey O’Brien, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

MK Envision Galleries Co-Founders: Michelle Leatherman & Kelsey O’Brien

MK Envision Galleries curates and sells gallery quality prints by San Diego photographers. The physical gallery recently closed but its spirit lives on through mkenvision.com where you can find hundreds of coastal, abstract, nature and travel fine art prints. Shop by curated collection, subject, media or price.

Kelsey: Michelle and I are college friends, which is where our business idea brainstorming began. We found we had the following common interests: we both care about shopping and supporting local, a deep appreciation for nature and sustainability, and a love of photography. We decided to combine those ideas and created MK Envision Galleries in 2016. For 5 years, the gallery partnered with local San Diego photographers whose work highlights the beauty of nature. The 19 photographers we exhibited at the gallery became the substance of mkenvision.com. The collections have grown to over 600 original fine art photographs, available in multiple sizes and media options.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Michelle: Before dreaming up the idea of MK Envision, we never pictured ourselves producing Fine Art quality photography prints. And now, our online gallery features hundreds of fine art prints that are made to order, many of which are produced in-house. Even now, Kelsey and I have to remind ourselves where we started and how much of a journey we’ve been through already.

While there are thousands of online tutorials about how to print gallery quality prints, we learned mostly through trial and error and an undying need for perfection. From printing program basics to ICC profiles and OBAs, we learned the ins-and-outs of producing the highest quality prints. Eventually we also sought the help of a master printer and color expert, who helped us reach the next tier of professional printing.

We learned so many lessons along the way to becoming a professional Print Lab–operator error and a sense of humor being key. However, we also had to learn to focus on our niche and to outsource when needed, so as to not to overstretch ourselves or compromise the quality of our products.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Kelsey: We manage our own site using the Shopify platform. There are some blaring pros and cons of managing our site independently rather than utilizing a larger platform. It goes without saying that the sheer traffic volume on Amazon and others is appealing, however things like brand identity, customer interaction and user experience would be limited or out of our control. Building traffic independently takes no shortage of time and effort, but ultimately our build-it-ourselves and learn-what-we-don’t-know-ourselves small business mentality made this the obvious path for us. We are satisfied that we built our website to reflect the quality and personality of the gallery and aim to give each customer who finds their way to mkenvision.com a good experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mkenvision.com
• Instagram: @mk_envision, https://www.instagram.com/mk_envision/
• Facebook: @mkenvision, https://www.facebook.com/mkenvision/
• Other: Pinterest: @mkenvisionart, https://www.pinterest.com/mkenvisionart/_shop/

Image Credits
Sandra Kourah