This installment of Behind the Stationery features a stationer who creates some of the most beautiful acrylic and gouache work I’ve seen. Patricia at Our Heiday is a talented artist who left the world of law to grow a stationery company in LA. This sister act has found great ways to break out responsibilities and grow the team. I’m so excited to have them here! Take it away, Patricia. –Megan

Hello, friends! Patricia here, founder and creative director at Our Heiday. We’re so excited to give you a little peek into what goes on behind the scenes at our studio in downtown Los Angeles. I started this company in June 2014 after leaving two years of law school at UCLA. A lifetime of reading contracts or writing legal briefs was not a commitment I was willing to make and so pivot I did! Our Heiday is named after my mom and her four sisters who fostered so much of my creativity growing up. I’m a self-taught artist who draws so much inspiration for my family’s endless repertoire of painting, graphic design, dance, and film. My sister and I were given drawing pads before we could even write properly and working with our hands was part of the daily.

I spent about 9 months prior to starting Our Heiday refining the first release and because my mom had run a robust wholesale business my entire life, I knew that was the direction I wanted to take the company. When the website launched, I expected nothing more than to grow organically, one shop at a time, one order at a time. After months of running solo (read: living room was a warehouse, dining table a worktable, floors a packaging station), our “Ooh Those Baby Toes” card was picked up by Anthropologie in March 2015 and this gave me so much momentum heading into the National Stationery Show that year.

So much changed after May 2015 – we had an incredible experience debuting at NSS and after running the booth with me, my sister, Donna, also left her career in teaching to join Our Heiday full time. Working with family, let alone your best friend, has been the most amazing shift!

We moved into a separate studio space (my husband is still singing praises) immediately after we returned from New York and hired two more employees so that I could focus solely on the creative side. These big moments have shaped so much of how efficient and effective we’re able to be day-to-day. Prior to having a team, I was shouldering all of the daily responsibilities of running a creative business and being able to delegate was one of the best things that happened after the show. Amber and Megan head up packaging and production, making sure that all of our orders are fulfilled quickly and carefully. Donna handles all of our operations, accounts, customer service, and communications so that no one slips through the cracks. We wouldn’t be here without our customers and it’s so important to us that every one of them feels invested in Our Heiday.

Details, details, we love them. From the branding stamps on our shipping boxes to the labels on our wrapping paper, each element is meticulously thought through before we send our products.

Every week, we have a team meeting so that everyone is contributing to the conversations about new product releases, systems that need improving, projects with upcoming deadlines. Donna lives in New York currently and joins us remotely unless she’s in town visiting. This will change when she’s back in LA this August!

Having a team means I can focus most of my time on creative and high level growth. I spend my days painting and lettering new work and making sure that we’re always coming back to the core vision of the company. I’m so grateful that my hands have been freed to do what they’re best at; it’s been the ultimate blessing. We currently offer cards, art prints, gift wrap, phone cases and table decor items, but my goal has always been to become a lifestyle brand, offering a wide-spanning range of products that elevate the everyday. We’ll be showcasing a new line of desk products full of fresh patterns and a calendar for 2017, which was so fun to put together. Sneak peek below!

Thanks so much for joining along today! You can shop all of our products including the newest release on our website at ourheiday.com and follow along with us on instagram, facebook, and twitter at @ourheiday.

Photos by Lily Glass.

If you’re interested in participating in the Behind the Stationery column, contact Megan at megan[at]ohsobeautifulpaper.com!