After giving my website a little re-fresh recently, I thought it was about time I gave this whole blog thing a go! So for my first ever blog post, I thought I would share a few random things about me and tell you how Purple Tree came to be...
I'm Sam and I'm the designer, creator, accountant, tea maker etc behind the business. With a degree in graphic design and having worked in creative roles for the past 15 years, it was a natural next step to create my own designs. Purple Tree began life after creating a wooden plaque for a colleague as a secret Santa gift. Reading 'Mrs Gosling' the plaque was actually a wooden chopping board from Tesco that I sanded and then handpainted! When I could proudly say that I made it when asked where I got it from, the lightbulb moment happened and my little creative business journey began! This also explains my business name, purple is my favourite colour and trees are where the wood comes from. Simples!
A few craft fairs later, and needing products I could have ready to go to fit in around my full time job, I decided to expand into printed goods, starting with greeting cards. With just 5 card designs (including 1 inspired by my naughty cat Jenson) I started to take a new path which has led to the Purple Tree you see today. That makes it sound oh so simple, but there has been a lot of learning, early mornings and thinking 'this design is shit' along the way!
If you'd like to follow my Purple Tree journey and see a glimpse behind the scenes, you can follow me on Instagram.