As the creative mind behind Lucy Maggie Designs we caught up with Lucy Spence to find out more about her love of imaginative greetings cards, which you’re going to want to send to everyone you know.
“I’ve always enjoyed drawing and creating things, but being a greetings card artist is something I kind of just fell into.” says Lucy, who studied a mix of both English and Illustration at University whilst figuring out what she wanted to do.
I’m sure we all love the idea of being able to do something we love everyday but it’s not easy and Lucy still works full time in a Marketing role, leading to plenty of late nights working on her side business which she hopes to make her full time job in the near future. If her current designs are anything to go on then Lucy has a bright career ahead of her.
“My illustrative style has certainly gone through many stages of evolution, but I am now really happy and comfortable with my style. I love using bold colours and focusing on current trends and pop culture in my designs, and they seem to prove quite popular with my customers, which is really rewarding. Above all, I like to keep things lighthearted. I’ve never been one for heavy sentiment – it’s much easier to be sarcastic… or brutally honest!”
Lucy’s cards are available through Thortful – an online greetings card shop. “It’s really great especially when testing out new designs, as they print and send out your cards for you direct to the customer. It makes it easy to see what might be popular without investing money in expensive print runs. I would encourage anyone wanting to start out as a card designer to sign up with them.”
Lucy’s cards are also stocked in Utility Design, “When I finally managed to get my cards into store, I was over the bloody moon. Having them show interest in my cards and thinking they were worthy of being stocked in their stores was such a confidence boost.”
So where does Lucy get her inspiration from? “Most of my ideas come to me on the way to work – I have a 40 min commute so plenty of time to think, but I also spend a lot of time browsing Instagram and finding inspiration through other designers”.
And all the hard work is paying off as Lucy’s designs have been nominated for an award at The Henries – a greetings cards industry awards organisation. She is nominated for the Contemporary Words and Sentiments Category for her #JustSaying range.
You can buy Lucy Maggie Designs cards here and don’t forget to visit Utility Design where a range of Lucy’s cards are stocked in store.
