Add A Little Texture

Why They Call Charleston the Holy City

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Have you seen Texture Design's latest set of Charleston notecards and prints?

Here is the background story for our new items! My friend, who is an amazing photographer (Melissa Griffin Photography), invited me on a trip to take pictures of some of the historic churches in downtown Charleston. The resulting photos definitely inspired our new cards and prints!

If you aren't familiar with the city, it is known for its multitude of BEAUTIFUL churches. The skyline is full of steeples popping up among the other buildings. Many people reference it as the Holy City. I did a little research, and this nickname also points to the city's early history. Among the original thirteen colonies, Charleston was one of the few to offer religious tolerance. Therefore, a variety of denominations and congregations found their home in the city and built some of the most beautiful and unique houses of worship!

So here is a brief view of our lovely photography outing. I'm not a professional! But the good thing is that I have fun anyway! (I also really enjoy the photo editing afterwards!)

(not a church, but I wish it was my home!)

(This is what my next office door will look like!)

Here is my friend Melissa--laughing because she didn't want me to take her picture! Sadly it is out of focus on her face! But she still looks adorable. Thankfully the cup of water is in focus! (ugh) We made a stop at Whisk for some yummy cookies and lemonade. You can't be creative on an empty stomach!

(another fabulous door)

(sweet little mailbox)

And we end with this beautiful old cemetery!

Be sure to check out the rest of our new Charleston items in the Etsy Shop! And happy Friday!!

-Emily

5 Inspiring Blogs: When You Need A Little Break

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Who doesn't love looking at pretty pictures and creative ideas?! Some days you just need a breather or a little inspiration. Below are my favorite blogs to visit when my creativity is waning. Some offer great tips, others suggest great products, and a few provide realistic DIY projects! When I need a to take a little time out, these are my "go-to" sites. (If you were needing a break right now, you're welcome!)

Jones Design Company

Emily Jones writes this blog about home decor, graphic design, life, and her faith. I feel like she and I could be best friends, lol. Which I guess says that she is a good blog writer! She has fabulous DIY projects and fun freebies available! I also enjoy reading her perspectives on life. @jonesdesigncompany

Oh So Beautiful Paper

Nole Garey launched this blog in 2008, and it has exploded. It offers a variety of "entertaining ideas, diy ideas, wedding invitation features, baby products, and home decor inspiration." I love visiting the blog because it always has something new. They post 2-4 times a day! Perfect for all your needed breaks! @beautifulpaper

Elle & Company Design

The Elle & Co. blog has so many useful tips for people in the creative industry. For example, one of the recent blogs is on SEO optimization! I probably need to go read it. But not only is the content very useful, it is always displayed in a beautiful manner! So it actually makes me want to read it! ha! @laurenelizhook

Ashley Brooke Designs

My favorite thing about ABD is the constant splash of color! I follow Ashley on Instagram because every day is a big bright serving of color! She writes about her design projects, her style, and her favorite products. @ashleybrookedesigns

Look Linger Love

This is a new favorite for me. I love her fashion and decor suggestions. But I especially appreciate her posts about Charleston! (great person to follow on Instagram!) @looklingerlove

So that about sums up my "go-to" sites right now! When I need that mental break, these ladies sure do offer some beautiful photography and fun ideas!

-Emily

Behind the Scenes of Our New House Portraits

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CUSTOM HOUSE PORTRAIT

I apologize for the gap between posts! To be honest, I blame this fun new project! :)

As you may know, I originally studied Interior Design at the University of Georgia. When I started my career in graphic design, I didn't think I would do renderings anymore. But then Martin and I thought, why not incorporate it into our Etsy shop?! Sooooo...you can now purchase a custom house portrait and receive a rendering of your own home! You also have the option of purchasing matching notecards! How cool?!

Here are some pictures of the entire process...

You can see the original house photo on the left.

Below is a house portrait just completed for someone's 50th anniversary gift. (so sweet!)

We have a few more plans coming for this project...new ideas of ways to showcase the portraits. But we won't share them all just yet! ;) Feel free to let us know if you have any suggestions! How would you like to see your house portrait displayed? Let us know!

Etsy listing:

CUSTOM HOUSE PORTRAIT

Are you a realtor? Please contact us for special pricing.

Have a great day!

Our 2015 Goals....Where We Are Headed

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Last week on the blog, we reminisced on 2014. It was definitely a great year, but we are even more excited about 2015! This week we are sharing some our new year's goals with you. (You can hold us accountable a year from now). A lot of them are based on the feedback we’ve received from you, our supportive fans and lovely customers! So thank you for your help!

1. Providing More Personalizantion Items!

What does that mean? It means more items that you can make personal for you or for your friends. So be on the look out for cards and prints that allow you to add your name! Also, I’m hoping to start doing home portraits. Not sure what that is? Well more to come on that! :)

2. Offering More Cards & Stationery Sets!

After the farmers market, Martin and I realized that the individual cards are a big hit! So I’ll be adding more. In fact, I have two that we’ll be adding to the shop next week! (Side note, you can already buy them at Page’s Thieves Market on Coleman Boulevard!)

The Hello Umbrella cards were Texture Design’s first stationery set, and to be honest it is one of our favorite items. So I’m hoping to add some similar stationery sets to the shop. This will include some fun thank you cards!

3. Increasing our Product Development StandardsThat is just my fancy way of saying I’m going to challenge myself even more! I’m very proud of our current line of products, but I am taking the creativity up a notch this year! I want to provide our amazing customers with even better designs and even better products! I get so excited thinking about the possibilities!

4. Connecting with our customers more!

This one I need your help with. We obviously can’t meet everyone, even though I think it would be cool if we could. So we have to connect through social media. Are you following us? Tag us if you are! Or send comments/messages. I’ll be excited to reply. Also if you tag Texture Design items in your pictures, we’ll repost them and give you all the credit! Feel free to use the hashtag #addalittletexture. (because we all love adding hashtags!)

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

5. Becoming more available in retail spaces.

The goal is to become available in retail shops rather than just online. This particular goal we started working on this week. As I mentioned above, you can now purchase some of our items in a Page’s Theives Market in Mt. Pleasant, SC. I’m hoping to get our wholesale pricing list finalized and on the website by April. (Feel free to contact me if you think you would be interested.)

I hope you can tell that I am very excited to see what 2015 brings. Ultimately, Texture Design wants to produce quality designs with superb customer service! As our website says, “Whether it is a fabric, piece of furniture, photograph, website or stationery, it all has a particular texture that gives you a feeling or brings back a memory. We hope our designs do just that!" --Texture Design Co.

A Time to Reflect on 2014

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It is almost here...2015!
It sounds so futuristic, but it is only two days away. I love looking back over a year and remembering all that has happened (like those Facebook picture outlines). Anyway, it is cool to look back over Texture Design's year and remember how much happened!

We freshened up our branding.

The new website was launched.

Our Etsy shop opened in August.

We added hand-drawn illustrations into our line of products.

Texture's first calendar was released.

Thank you for receiving it so well! We still have a few available in the shop!

We participated in our first holiday market.

And overall, we just learned A TON!!

Things like Etsy shipping don't seem so daunting. Write "Do Not Fold" on packages, otherwise the postman may try to smash your 8x10 cardboard folder into a tiny mailbox. Ha! Thank you for all of your feedback, encouragement, and wise suggestions. We took them into account when we made our Texture Design Co. goals for 2015. Next week on the blog, we will share some of those goals and plans with you! So excited about this upcoming year!

Feel free to leave us feedback if there are things you'd like to see us offer next year! We love hearing from you!

Festive Fun: Recap of the Holiday Farmers Market

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We participated in the Mt. Pleasant Holiday Farmers Market last weekend and had the best time! Thank you so much to our friends who were able to stop by and say hi! We really enjoyed being out in the community and making some new friends. (Here is a shout out to you if we just met you at the market!) Below is a picture of Martin and I at our booth. (That funny looking thing I have on is an apron...keeps me organized.) The weather was perfect, and the food was phenomenal. Overall, it was just a great experience. We thought we'd share a few pics from the day. All photos courtesy of our good friend and fabulous photographer, Melissa Griffin!

If you're interested in any of items in the photos, please check out our online shop!

www.texturedesignco.etsy.com/shop

We're hoping to do some more shows this spring, so we'll keep you posted. Let us know if there is one in your area that you think we should do! We're open to suggestion!

Thank you again to Melissa Griffin Photography.

Best, Emily