Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sade Culliver. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Sade, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I’ve always felt a sense of conflict between all the different forms of art that I have fallen in love with. If I simply pursued being a fashion designer, I would miss the piece of me that loved painting. If I simply pursued creative directing, I would miss the piece of me that loved event planning. As I grew my creative circle, I met more and more people that felt that same sense of conflict. So I decided to create my own space that wouldn’t require me to choose. I based my company on all the confusing things I felt throughout my journey as an artist. The fact that I have never seen anything like my company is both the reason why I know it will work… and the reason why I get nervous about the company’s future at the same time! My company, On Edge Art Studios, is very unique because it is so broad and open. It’s a place where creatives, art lovers and entrepreneurs of all types can come for encouragement, products, inspiration, networking and more. I wanted to create a space where people like me, who often feel so alien or “other” in this world, can feel right at home and express themselves without limitations.
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?
If you ask my mom, she’ll tell you I’ve been an artist my whole life. She has old pictures of me as a tiny human sitting in front of a mini easel with a paint kit! Creativity has just always come naturally to me. Painting was my first love, then I fell hard for fashion around age 11 when I started sketching new dresses for my polly pocket dolls lol. In college I dabbled in event planning and absolutely loved it. Then my friends / customers saw I had no limits, so their orders started getting crazy too! They’d get creative and ask me to do things I’d never done before. Because of them, now I can add home decor pieces and shoe customizations to the never ending list of ways I can create. My brand encompasses all of that. On Edge Art Studios specializes in custom creative products (like paintings and garments) and events. We are also building an online community, where artists can connect with one another, be encouraged, and discover new resources to grow in their own crafts. I always overthink answering questions like this because… if I’m being honest, I think God is calling me to create something totally new. Something I haven’t seen before myself. So that means I have my days where I don’t even know where all this is going, but that’s the beauty of it! I am trying to lead by example for other artists so they don’t make the mistake I made of trying to limit myself or put myself in a box. My limitlessness is what I am most proud of as an artist and a brand owner. I’m not afraid to try new things, to fail, to put my work out there. I want On Edge Art Studios to continue to spread that creative fearlessness. Without that, no artist can truly reach their full potential.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Last year, I started working on a collection that was literally titled resilience, It was inspired by a fashion designer I met that kept trying to host her first fashion show. I watched so many random obstacles throw themselves in her way and she never seemed phased by it. In the middle of making the collection, my own resilience was tested. On a random Friday, I packed up my car and headed to downtown Atlanta to meet my family for lunch before heading to Macon to spend the weekend at my boyfriends house. After lunch, we walk back to my car and realize someone had broken into it in broad daylight. They stole my clothes, my laptop, and my workbag which included all the progress I had made on that collection so far. They broke into my parents car and stole from them as well. Typically, I would let moments like that break me. I’d wallow around feeling sorry for myself and probably quit whatever project I was working on. But for some reason, I felt a shift when this happened. I immediately bought a new sketchbook and redrew the sketches for the collection as quickly as I could while they were still fresh in my brain. My boyfriend and I hunted through multiple fabric stores until we found the fabrics I needed again. I got right back to work on that collection and I am STILL proud of myself for that to this day.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I got my degree in Apparel Design, so I spent a lot of time exposing myself to designers throughout history. Majority of them choose to name their brands after themselves. So it seemed like a no brainer when my professor gave us a branding and portfolio assignment senior year. I found a random free font on Canva or something like that and spent hours coming up with all my branding on my own for that project. I took it really seriously because I knew I needed to do all this for my actual brand anyway. Which is why I went and bought business cards and sew in tags with my name as the logo right after I graduated. That all lasted for about a year before I realized following in those designers footsteps just wasn’t working for me. I didn’t want to try to rebrand alone again so I called Robynn, owner of Sublime Arthouse and did a consultation call with her. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made to this day. We came up with a brand name and talked for hours about what I wanted my brand to be. Then she gave me a color palette, fonts, logos, an entire brand guide to teach me best practices for using my branding materials… It was the reset my brand and my mental health needed!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.onedgecollective.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onedgeartstudios/