Interview with India Joseph

(@moonandmothstudio) (www.moonandmothstudio.com)

What kind of things do you think about when you have an idea for a product?

I wanted to also interview India as she has a much larger following and is particularly successful in the area of illustrated products. She was extremely helpful and understanding, and answered all the questions in extreme depth.

My main criteria is what I'd like to buy, wear, use, hang in my house etc. If I wouldn't see it myself and say 'I need that' then I don't produce it. I know that my style or taste wouldn't be for everybody but it's one of the most important things to me that I love what I sell/make.

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How much work is it to keep on top of orders and make sure they ship by a reasonable time?

Honestly, a lot. I have a full time job in the NHS and I have a 3 year old. It takes planning and my partner helps me out often with post office trips. It takes a lot of planning and a fair few late nights.

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What is the process of getting your illustrations onto products? Are they all hand-made? Do you use any companies to help print and make the final products?

For my personalised painting these are all hand painted in my studio at home. For my material, I design the pattern and have it printed in the UK. For my art prints, I do have a good printer but I actually prefer to outsource it to other small printing businesses as I feel their result comes out better. For small amounts there's a printing shop around the corner from my house. For larger orders there's some really fab printing businesses out there. Things like mugs and notebooks, again I use other companies. So generally I outsource almost all of the production.

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How do you make decisions on what illustrations you put on what products?

I sell a few different items - prints, stationary (notepads, notebooks), mugs, baby muslin squares, beaded embroidery hoops, seamless patterns for clothing/products. So the illustration is very much decided by the shape of the item. For my stationary I tend to use seamless patterns because these suit the shapes. For something like the embroidery hoops, they are circular so something that fits nicely in a circle works best.

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How do you go about keeping track of orders, taxes, etc?

I have a spreadsheet for everything! Online platforms are really useful as they track your orders and profits for yo. I use my own website via wix, Not on the High Street and Etsy.

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