Where did Artistic Reflection come from?
About Artistic Reflection
Hi! My name is Kristan. I like penguins and Chinese food. But not in the same way.
I started Artistic Reflection as a one-person business, but now I've got some help! In May of 2017 one of my best childhood friends Kayla came onto the team. If you contact Artistic Reflection, chances are good that you'll have a conversation with Kayla. She lives in Montana with her feisty pets and mostly well-behaved husband. She enjoys tea, reading, writing novels, and teaching music lessons in the afternoon. If she doesn't respond to you right away, it's probably because she's off teaching music! In June of 2017 my amazing, hard-working, and talented husband James joined the AR team as well. He is a web-developing, time-saving-tool-writing ninja! He is also essential for reaching high stuff and loading heavy rolls of vinyl onto the large format printer. In February of 2022, our tiniest human, Harrison, made his big appearance. He's quickly become head supervisor of Artistic Reflection and he loves stickers. Our golden retriever Moxxi lets us know when the mail carrier arrives to pick up the daily outgoing orders. Her job is probably the most important.
All of the art created here is done by me: From Eyeshades, badges, and decals to marketing and packaging. I run Artistic Reflection from my home-based studio in Colorado. It's the work that I do here that keeps me connected with what I love to do, and that is creating art for people to enjoy.
When art meets MINI…
There’s a good chance that you're reading this because you, like me, are a MINI enthusiast. You have mastered the art of glancing back at your car when you park it, roaring through twisty roads, and answering questions like, “Do you even fit in that little thing?” We MINIacs love our cars and we stick together.
When I adopted my pre-loved MINI, Volly, in 2011 it was love at first drive. The first artwork that I made for Volly was the first ever Eyeshade. The first MINI-related graphic design that I did was a badge designed for my local MINI club. I found making car graphics was strangely fun and addictive.
So where did these silly car eyes come from?
It started as a result of the "mod bug" that MINI Cooper owners tend to catch. I had just gotten my Cooper S in early 2011 and it is true what they say - It's really hard not to go crazy customizing!
When I started creating Eyeshades, it was totally on a whim. I knew that I wanted some fun car eyes for my MINI and so I searched high and low for a sunshade with eyes. But not just any eye sunshade would do. It had to be blue. And the expression had to be right. And it had to fit my car. And it had to last. Where could you possibly get something like that!? Nowhere.
After a lot of frustrating searches around the internet, I had found out that NO ONE made sunshades with eyes on either thick or fitted shades. There were some sad, flimsy, bulk-created ones, but they were all one size and color fits all. Yeah sure, they were cheap, but that's because they were built cheaply. I knew the next step was to make my own and that's what I did.
Excited about what I had accomplished, I had that thing in the windshield any time the car was stationary. I got a lot of positive responses from it, but the one thing that kept being asked was, “Can you make me one?”
From there, I set up my shop to accept orders and, to my surprise, they started to come in. Rarely were two Eyeshades ordered to be the same as the ones before them. I had a fun time putting together each individual design. A huge reward to this was getting the occasional photo from a customer with their car or truck wearing his or her new eyes. It’s a great feeling knowing that people out there are enjoying my artwork. To this day I continue to make Eyeshades and the selection keeps growing!
Stuff that sticks:
You can't make something fun like Eyeshades without eventually sparking up some other car stuff. Since then, my shop has sprouted magnetic grill badges, decals, stickers, and stripes. I love taking custom orders for these and it's fun to see what sorts of crazy ideas people come to me with. Some of my best sellers started off as requests.
A little more about me.
I grew up in Montana before I moved to Colorado to earn my bachelor's degree in Media Arts and Animation. I met my husband James in art school. My favorite colors are blue and purple. I enjoy fishing, archery, animated movies, video games, golden retrievers, penguins, dragons, and motoring with my car club, MINI5280 of Colorado. I was elected as club secretary in January of 2012 through December of 2013. My MINI is a 2005 Hyper Blue Cooper S named Volly. We also have a 2013 Royal Gray Countryman named Max.
