How My Brand Has Grown Through Collaborations with Other Artists & Businesses

My name is Carley Hussain and I am the owner of Parcel Island Paper Goods. Parcel Island is a print and paper goods boutique based out of Philadelphia. We specialize in greeting cards, art prints, stickers, and other giftable goods. The name Parcel Island comes from this idea of creating a single destination of stationery and giftable goods, that people would want to come back for over and over again.

A bit about my background – I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from Montclair State University in 2013. I have almost 10 years of concentrated experience in various fields of design, including branded content, art direction, social media marketing, and digital marketing. I have worked at both in-house teams and for design agencies, and some of my past clients include Comcast, Wawa, and CBS Radio. I currently work for a design agency called Bounteous as their Senior Graphic Designer, so I balance both my full-time job and operating Parcel Island.

My first job out of college was a role in the stationery industry. I worked for a small stationery boutique out of Hoboken New Jersey called Perfectly Invited as their wedding stationery designer. As a designer, I had a first-hand look into all the processes involved in owning and operating a stationery boutique, including customer relations, vendor relations, printing processes, industry trends – you name it. The knowledge and hands-on experience within the stationery field is what helped drive me into the beginnings of Parcel Island.

While I valued my time in this position, one roadblock I constantly faced was the inability to truly express my creativity. When working with wedding stationery, there typically are a lot of constraints. For one, you must adhere to the ideas and direction of the consumer, and you don’t want to make a “bridezilla” angry. There are also a lot of formal applications you must adhere to when developing stationery. Proper wording, proper formatting, only certain colors and fonts can be used, and so on. Because of these constraints, I felt this need to combine my love of paper and design into another avenue.

I am definitely a paper nerd. I think the coolest feeling is when you get a nice, quality, piece of paper in your hands. You know your design is making an impact when you can get someone doing a mundane task, like opening a letter for example, to stop and say, “I like this paper.” I know we’re all guilty of doing that at one point.

I took these two ideas with me – the idea that the tangibility of design can make a larger impact on consumers and that humor could also leave a lasting impact, and used these as the driving force behind Parcel Island.

Parcel Island has been in business for 5 years now and we now have over 130 SKUs in four major product categories. And we sell our products in over 15 stores across the country! 

Starting the Business

Like most makers when they first start selling their product, I started by opening an Etsy Shop, however; before selling greeting cards I sold digital designs. At the time when I first launched my store (Around 2016) it was really popular to sell digital downloads on the platform.

Digital downloads, simply, is a pre-designed file that either someone could purchase and edit themselves, or a client could send you their information and details and as a designer, you would include it in the design and send them the print-ready file. This method of selling my art was pretty seamless for a while. There was no overhead, so no risk of losing revenue as the only thing I was “selling” was my design time. I found this business model to be really successful for the first year I was in business. It led me to collect enough money to expand into offering print services for these digital files – but still at no overhead. I worked with third-party vendors and suppliers who would print the designs for me, and even drop ship my orders. It allowed me to increase my profit margins and offer more services, all still without holding any inventory or supplies. 

However, like most creatives, I came to another major roadblock with managing customer service. At the time, I was working as a full-time designer at an in-house marketing department, so balancing the 9-5 and also managing expectations and turnaround times of a thriving Etsy store became a lot to manage. I began researching and looking into what other types of avenues of stationery I could explore. I attended the National Stationery Show which at the time was a major trade show that displayed all things stationery, gifts, and paper goods. Attending this show completely inspired me – I was in awe over the creativity and freedom an artist could have created greeting cards, and that you can make an entire business out of it, too. 

When I launched my own product line, I launched with only 6 designs. My goal, simply, was to have fun and express some of my creativity through this new medium. To my surprise, my greeting card line did really well within the first few months! My model was to always take my “revenue” from the business and put it back into printing costs.

But like most things I do, I definitely jumped into this market and failed several times along the way. When I first sold my cards, I didn’t even realize you needed to package your cards in plastic sleeves! I made plenty of silly mistakes, but all helped me have a better understanding of how to run my business and a better understanding of the industry as a whole. 

Collaborating Locally & Virtually

Although I originally started Parcel Island while living in New Jersey, I moved myself (and business) to Philadelphia with my now fiancé in 2016. I immediately saw how much more positive and collaborative the artist community of Philadelphia was compared to anywhere else I lived. From simply giving praise and support over social media to the sharing of ideas and knowledge – the maker/artist/small business community of Philadelphia is a wonderful network of entrepreneurs that still amazes me today. I saw the true value in working with those around me, from fellow artists to businesses and brick and mortar stores. 

Here are some of the ways that we collaborate with other artists and businesses:

Subscribe to Handmade Seller Magazine to read the rest.