|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the Cards: An Interview with Joyce WanAlthough Joyce Wan designed her first greeting card while she was in the first grade, it wasn't until much later when she started her own card company Wanart. From her first line of Chinese Zodiac cards, she has branched off into framed prints, clothing and now children's books. She was able to spare some time and answer a few of our questions. Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up? What did you study in school? 
I was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts and now live in New York
City. My parents owned a little Chinese takeout restaurant where my three
other siblings and I used to work when we were growing up.
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I designed my first greeting card when I was in first grade for a city-sponsored greeting card design contest. The design won first place and was subsequently mass-produced and sold through a major department store chain. I studied architecture at Barnard College with the hopes of becoming an architect. I thought that it would be a creative yet practical career but something was still missing for me and I grew very disenchanted with the work I was doing. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be designing greeting cards when I “grew up” but here I am! How and when did you decide to start your own business? 
Being Chinese American, I often had a difficult time finding fun,
culturally appropriate greeting cards for my parents and would often
design my own Asian-inspired cards to send them. By this time I was also
trying to switch careers by applying for jobs in graphic design but could
barely land an interview!
I decided to take matters into my own hands and enrolled in continuing education courses in greeting card design at the School of Visual Arts to learn as much as I could about the social expression industry. In 2003, armed with the entrepreneurial spirit I most likely inherited from my parents and my passion for design, I incorporated my business and launched 12 greeting card designs featuring the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. I took those designs along with others to the National Stationery Show that very same year and have been growing my business ever since. I did work full-time in architecture while starting my business in the evening hours for two years before I felt comfortable enough to quit my day job and work on Wanart full-time. Today, you can find my products in hundreds of stores worldwide. I have to add that I totally bombed that first trade show. I think I made two sales – barely enough to break even but it was such a valuable learning experience and I considered it practice for the following year’s show which was a success. Entrepreneurs are constantly faced with obstacles, whether it is lack of funding, experience or support and persistence is essential. Luckily, I don’t give up that easily. What was the best advice you received when you began? The worst? The best advice was that your business can never be everything to everybody and you should focus on a niche when starting out. Focusing on the Asian-inspired aspect of my collection helped me stand out from the other companies out there and get my foot in the door to a lot of places. As I began to increase my customer base and gain traction, I was able to expand outside of my niche. The worst advice that I actually ignored was not to quit my full-time job. Luckily I never listen when I have my mind set and I’m so glad I didn’t. How do you come up with your design ideas? I’m inspired by traditional Chinese culture, my childhood, Japanese pop culture, modern architecture, and things that make me happy or smile. I go out of my way to read or see what the trends are in other industries such as fashion, entertainment and technology. I try to be creative without losing sight of what’s selling in the marketplace. You just came out with a children's book, Greetings from Kiwi and Pear  , how
did that come about? Was is it a difficult process?
I have a very popular line of greeting cards featuring two lovey-dovey
monkeys called Kiwi and Pear. The characters were inspired by plush
monkeys I had as a child. The monkeys had Velcro hands so that it looked
as if they were always wrapped in a seemingly endless hug.
I met my publisher while exhibiting at the New York Gift Fair in 2008. They said they had been following my work for years, having seen my products in a number of stores. They called me about a month after the show and wanted to do a book featuring Kiwi and Pear. Half of the pictures in the book were taken from the card designs from my Kiwi and Pear collection. Working on the book and having it published was one of the most exciting accomplishments in my life. Doing book readings for kids and receiving their cute fan letters and emails have been most rewarding. Creating art while inspiring kids – what gets better than that? Will it be a continuing series or will you branch out into other characters and stories? I would love to do more with Kiwi and Pear and do have some ideas in the works. Creating that first book introduced me to this whole new world of children’s book publishing and ideas for other books have been flowing ever since. I have two board books due out next year with Scholastic that are also based on some of my greeting card designs. Do you have a favorite product/character? I have always been and forever will be a Hello Kitty girl! What are you currently working on? 
I am always working on creating new greeting card and product lines –
buyers always want to see what’s new! I also hope to expand my business
this year by initiating strategic licensing partnerships while developing
new book ideas. The real challenge these days is figuring out how to
juggle everything! However, one of the best things about my job is that
everyday is different. I feel like I am carving my own path toward my
dreams and living life to the fullest.
|
|
|
|
We would like to hear from you! If you have any comments or questions, please send an e-mail to: writeus@jademagazine.com or click here Write Us!
Reproduction of material from any jademagazine.com pages without written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. © JADE Magazine. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER |