Being nice helps.
My name is Kristin, I'm a graphic designer living and working in the Montreal area.
This shop is an extension of my daily practice. I often design helpful forms and paper products for my friends and family. I also design greeting cards year-round for personal use, often selling cards to those around me.
Asking for payment has often been a sore spot for me, but creative work is work, and I'm learning to value that. Friends have been saying I should open an Etsy shop for ages, so here I am, trying that on.
I like designing, and I especially like producing helpful designs for those around me. I make things. All the time. I write. I doodle. I try things. I read. I consume art.
If it were 200 years ago and I was a dude I'd have a patron and could work creatively without thinking about bills, but it's 2017 and creative work is hard. (Interesting tidbit: I tried finding a patron of the arts on Craigslist but man did that not work).
A lot of my work these days deals with self-care, mental health and kindness. All things that touch on our ability to get through a hard time.
Sometimes, for some of us, that hard time is pretty constant.
Hopefully this shop will be a place where I can create things that represent a need in me and my friends which can then serve and mirror the needs of others.
Thank you for encouraging my paper kindness,
Kristin.
