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I
started my greeting card company, SNAFU Designs, out of the basement of
my parents' house. I had finished college a year earlier, and like many
other recent graduates, found myself asking the question, "now what?".
Growing up, I loved to draw, and spent countless hours filling up sketch
pads with cartoons of goofy looking people and animals. When it came time
for college, I did what every aspiring artist does whose parents were
footing the bill, I majored in economics.
After graduation, I felt my creative side pulling at me again. I tried
to satisfy it by finding a job in advertising, but all of the agencies
I interviewed with failed to see the connection between a degree in economics
and the type of creative job I wanted. With plenty of extra time on my
hands, I started drawing all the time. My childhood cartooning bug had
come back, and it bit me hard! I managed to sell a few cartoons to some
magazines and newspapers. But the truth is, it was a hard way to make
a living.
The question was, how to draw cartoons and earn an income at the same
time? And then it struck me, if I want to see my cartoons in print, why
not just print them myself? Why not start a greeting card company? How
hard could that be? So I printed up 10 designs, and headed off to New
York City and the National Stationery Show to find fortune and fame. I
spent three days wandering around the show wearing a blue T-shirt with
white iron on letters that read, “SNAFU Designs Is Looking For Sales
Reps”.
I
got a lot of funny looks, but no reps.
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Needless to say, the first couple of years were a struggle, but they were
also exciting. It was a thrill to actually have stores ordering the cards
I drew... and reordering them! To finance my business during those lean
years, I worked a variety of forgettable jobs and ate a lot of macaroni
and cheese. My line gradually started attracting more sales reps, and
SNAFU greeting cards began to pop up in stores across the country.
I'm happy to report, that SNAFU Designs is no longer headquartered out
of my parents' basement. (They kicked me out years ago!). We now occupy
a 2,000 square foot warehouse, and continue to grow. Today the cards sell
in most of the 50 U.S. states and also in Canada.
Looking
back, I remember sitting in that basement and wondering what I would be
doing in ten years. I am happy to say, ten years have come and passed,
and although I have a little less hair to show for it, I am still doing
what I've always loved to do...drawing cartoons!
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