An LSU student is turning her love of illustration into a business of international proportions.
Lauren Barksdale, a graphic design senior, and her company Elle Alexandra are making a splash in the local as well as the national stationary market.
Barksdale had been thinking about starting a business for a while, but last summer she decided to concentrate on her dream.
She worked all summer to create a line of fifteen different designs for Elle Alexandra cards.
“The designs were easy, it was the paperwork that was a nightmare,” Barksdale said.
With the help of one of her graphic design teachers, Pat Vining, Barksdale got her business off the ground.
“She’s such a big help. In school they don’t really teach you [everything]. It’s the real life stuff she guided me with,” Barksdale said.
The business end required more knowledge than Barksdale had learned in her classes. Things like picking out paper for the cards to be printed on proved to be more of a daunting task than she originally thought.
“Paper is 50 percent of the cost of the cards. I found out later I had printed the cards in one of the most expensive ways possible, but you learn by experience,” Barksdale said.
Barksdale even boxes and ships the cards herself, a huge undertaking when condensing 30,000 cards into boxes of 8 each.
“My roommates help,” Barksdale said.
With the initial printing of 30,000 cards – two thousand of each design – Barksdale was not exactly starting small.
“It’s a little overwhelming when an eighteen-wheeler is coming up to your house,” Barksdale said.
But Barksdale simply turned her storage room into a headquarters for her business. With stationary stacked from floor to ceiling, the headquarters of Elle Alexandra is a modest fortress for the stationary empire.
The business proves to be the perfect mixture of art and commerce to keep Barksdale interested.
“I love illustration. I love the business part. I basically am designing my own product so it is perfect for me,” Barksdale said.
Barksdale believes stationary is not a dying art-form, and e-mail will never truly replace the formality of written thank-yous and other stationary purposes.
“To get something in the mail is refreshing. [E-mail] is conveneint but less personal. I think e-mail replaces the phone more than letters,” Barksdale said, “That’s why I decided to do this. [Stationary] is my favorite gift.”
The illustrations for the cards were inspired by anything Barksdale could get her hands on.
Barksdale researched old illustrations, fashion designs, old Barbie ads and fashion posters. The designs straddle the line of up-to-date and more nostalgic fashions.
But Barksdale admits the fashions often are inspired by outfits she herself would love to have.
Barksdale often thinks of a dress she would want to wear and then puts the design to paper.
“The outfit comes first and the pose comes later,”Barksdale said.
Currently, all of Barksdale’s cards feature a group she dubs “the girls.” The girls, shown in various poses and dress regalia, are bound by what Barksdale calls the “same sassy look.” In each card the girls portray a different attitude or emotion, giving each design names like “Elle Adorable” and “Elle Trendy.”
Barksdale hopes the girls are only the first in many future lines.
So far Elle Alexandra is only producing blank cards to be used for any occasion. But in the future, Barksdale hopes to expand to create all sorts of paper products, such as invitations and more occasion specific cards.
Barksdale plans to graduate in December 2004 and go on to graduate school and get her masters. She aims to use the time between graduation and starting graduate school to see where the business takes her.
“It is a good time to see if this works out,” Barksdale said.
And the future does not seem far away. Barksdale’s business is growing by leaps and bounds. The Web site allows her stationary to go international-a fact that amazes Barksdale.
“When you look at statistics and people are buying [your stationary] in Asia, it’s like how do people even know?” Barksdale said. “But the further I can send them, the better.”
So far the level-headed Barksdale is focused on right now. Next week, one of her retailers, Paper ‘N Things, is hosting a “Cosmos and Conversations” event to showcase her designs.
Paper ‘n Things owner Stacey Miremont said Elle Alexandras are flying off the shelves.
“They are selling as well as our Kate Spade stationary. She is doing very well,” Miremont said.
Elle Alexandra has been in business a little over a month, so there are no preliminary numbers. But Barksdale said sales are exceeding her expectations.
Elle Alexandra cards are available through her Web site ellealexandra.com and at Paper ‘N Things in Baton Rouge, as well as shops in Monroe, Louisiana and Meridian, Mississippi.