I studied Graphic Design at the Queensland College of Artand my first “real job” was with one of my lecturers who had a small design studio. I worked for a few local design studios and small advertising agencies for around 7 years before I designed my own wedding stationery in 2012 and fell in love with weddings. We started Fox & Fallow as a wedding stationery and sign company in 2013 and launched our retail line in 2015.
Fox & Fallow is a stationery company based in Brisbane, founded by us, Janet & Darrell. We make paper and timber-based products for quirky, creative folk. We use only the highest quality materials are used and each piece is unique, beautiful and made to last.
We launched our brand at the New York Stationery Show in 2015 and we’re now stocked in around 300 retailers across Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
From our first batch of cardboard boxes which looked like they’d been printed on a streaky old inkjet printer to having a whole batch of calendars with ink bleeding through the foil we’ve had our fair share of printing disasters!
Most of our artwork is hand painted or lettered then scanned and cleaned up in Illustrator or Photoshop. Everything ends up on the computer but I try to spend as much time away from my screen as I can. I think there’s a real hand-made resurgence at the moment which I’m loving! Hand painted and hand lettered artwork is your way to inject your own personal style into a piece and really help to set you apart.
Ideas comes first but execution is just as important. I love seeing portfolios that aren’t just trend based and have a strong concept and strategy. A good mixture of illustration- based and photography-based work is always great too!
Gain as much experience working in a design studio or advertising agency as you can - you’ll learn to hone your skills, develop a creative process and develop a thick skin! When you feel ready to go freelance go for it, but wait until you’ve built up enough of a client base, before taking the big leap. Being your own boss is super rewarding but can be stressful if you’re not ready.
We’re trying to grow our brand and get it in more stores across Australia and internationally so hopefully we’ll be able to make this happen. We’ll be releasing some new collections in early 2017 which is super exciting too!