Inspiration is everywhere from pop culture, to the streets – I love reveling in it.

I try to stay in the loop with what all the cool kids are saying these days, but at the same time honoring my brand and finding ways to tie in my cheeky and sassy side with modern pop culture. I also take influence from the culture I grew up in, I’m from Nor Cal. More specifically, the 209. Stockton (West Coast, what?! what?!).

There is a lot of culture in that small city, which shaped me and gave me my unique voice – from old school rappers like Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac, to movies like Friday, I was constantly surrounded by an eclectic melting pot of diversity – African Americans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, and Mexicans. Now that I’m a little older and have shifted the mindset of my business, I’m using The Roc Shop as a way to explore powerful topics such as women equality and empowerment.

Once I come up with my design ideas, I figure out how I want to represent them; ie. as a topper or stir stick. Then, I decide where the product should live. Is it merely an extension of an existing line, or perhaps it is so powerful it deserves a line of its own.

If it’s not a design element, like a cactus or ice cream cone – but rather an expression, like ‘Drunk in Love’, I narrow down the aesthetics. Personally, I’m a big fan of calligraphy or fonts that are sans serif, fun, flirty, girly, etc.

Now comes the fun part, hitting the sketch pad and by hand, transforming inspiration into an actual template for production, be it with image tracing or creating the design in Illustrator using my hand sketches as a guideline.

Before you know it, a new party starting Roc Shop item is born!