It started with a personal project. For holiday gifts in 2011, Tori created her first run of book scarves — an excerpt from Pride and Prejudice silkscreened onto a square of super soft, off-white (think the pages of a classic book) fabric. She gave most as gifts and listed a few for sale on Etsy.

Tori had been living in Portland since 2008, when she moved here in pursuit of a career in fashion design. She was working four days a week at an office job in the dental field, and worked on her creative projects with her time off. The book scarves were the first item she’d put up for sale on the peer-to-peer e-commerce site, which focuses on handmade and vintage items.

As a fashion accessory, the scarves were a perfect statement for Tori and some of her friends. One of the things that she likes about designing wearables, in addition to the utilitarian aspect, is that “no matter what, what [a person wears] expresses aspects of one’s personality.” A self-identified bibliophile and introvert, Tori liked that she could spark connection over one of her favorite things though her apparel choices, and keep her neck warm in our cool PNW winters, too.

The Pride and Prejudice scarves sold quickly on Etsy, and Tori received many requests for more. The scarf got shared on Pintrest as well, further boosting interest. After three months, Tori was able to leave her office job and make scarves full-time.

Rising Action

Since 2011, Storiarts has expanded their catalog to celebrate more than 27 titles on scarves, fingerless writing gloves, t-shirts, pillows, and baby hats. Staying rooted in the Pacific Northwest is a key value in the company, and most of their products are printed, cut, sewn, warehoused, and shipped in Oregon, with some milling and cutting happening in LA. All of their products are handmade in the US, even though production has scaled up quite a bit since Tori made everything by hand in her garage. Now that the manufacturing is off her plate, Tori can focus on design of new products, as well as drawing all of the illustrations for their scarves, writing gloves, and t-shirts.

Though Storiarts was born through e-commerce sales and continues to sell through several online retailers, it wasn’t long before they expanded into sales at brick-and-mortar stores. The Library of Congress shop was the first to approach Tori about carrying book scarves, and today you find them in the New York Public Library as well, along with dozens of other libraries and boutiques across the US, and in Australia and New Zealand. 

To Be Continued…

Upswept Creative does much of the marketing photography for Storiarts, from clean product shots to lifestyle photography like this one featuring Amber Nicotra, wearing a new scarf from their Spring 2017 collection. 

We love working with Tori and her co-owner and husband, Chris. Their company embodies so much of what we value in working with independent businesses — from their commitment to keeping it local, to the thoughtfully-crafted, pleasantly nerdy products they sell.

What’s your next creative venture? Let’s talk about discovering your authentic and compelling brand story that will help you connect with your ideal audience. The first step to schedule a free clarifying consultation is clicking ︎ here. ︎

Our hope was to represent perspectives on design from multiple design disciplines, so  panel consisted of Design Scientist and Innovative Strategist Stef Koehler, Architectural Designer Callie Coles, Apparel Designer and Founder of Hubris Apparel Rita Hudson-Evalt, and Upswept Creative’s very own Sarah Giffrow, who specializes in website design and branding.

THE DISCUSSION

The panel dove right in, addressing the question at hand. How does good design solve problems? Kohler spoke on her practice of making the problem bigger, “see all the parts,” she said. “Look at it as a system. Don’t make it simple, complexify it.”

A major piece of creating beautiful, problem-solving design is finding out exactly what a client’s problems are–and that can often be tricky. The panel agreed that most clients don’t have the language to communicate exactly what they want, and that means it’s a designer’s job to pull it out of them. “The client may not know what the problem is. Get ahead of the problem…Make the dress that lets them feel like themselves,” said Hudson-Evalt.

Sarah chimed in with an approach all of the panelists could agree with: communicate with your client. “Have a conversation. Engage with the client to pull answers out.”

As an architectural designer, Coles described how she will go into a space to observe how people use it. When do people start looking confused? Where do they look for direction? “[There is] no substitute for observing what people do real space,” said Coles.

“[Create a] balance between ‘brand’ and what the user actually wants to get to. First impressions- big photos, catchy phrases- can get in the way of finding the pie or buying the shoes. What is the interaction the end-user wants?” said Giffrow.

This touched on a major theme of the evening, empathy. To get inside the end user’s head, a designer has to be empathetic to that experience. Hudson-Evalt suggested, “Talk to people constantly, what they need from the dress/what they want. Realizing themselves in the mirror.”

UNTIL NEXT TIME

Team Upswept Creative had such a blast putting on the event, and we hope everybody who came out enjoyed themselves, too. Thank you to all of the panelists, Design Week Portland, and our lovely audience for braving the heat to make it out to our little event.

This night’s features:

• A first look at the MOVED. project, an ongoing photography venture focusing on people who celebrate their bodies for what they can DO.
• Fashion and photos from the Fall/Winter 2014 collection by Carolyn Hart Designs
• New jewelry designs by Noniko

As always, we’ll have lots of lovely things to take in, and refreshments at the ready, including delicious pastries by nom*ables. Come party with us!

RSVP ON FACEBOOK>>

Tuesday, October 7th, 2014
4:00-7:00pm
Upswept Creative HQ
217 NW Couch St.
Portland, OR 97209

Details on the Design Week Portland web site: http://www.designweekportland.com/openhouses/upswept-creative

Portland fashion photographer | Portland rebranding agency | Upswept Creative

In with the New in Old Town

We opened 2013 settling into our new space on NW Couch St. in Portland’s Old Town, and it was quite a change from our old space in Southeast. It’s cozier than before, but the added character, new amenities, and awesome street-level location (complete with a sweet window display area!) more than made up for it!

That also made the perfect opening for Petra to come on board! She hopped right into keeping the studio gears turning, and brought some extra magic to the mix with her styling prowess. She’s the wizard behind our window displays, and she started bringing her panache with floral and visual styling to our photoshoots, over the course of the year.

And speaking of team additions, in the Fall we also added our first intern, Malee! She joined us and flexed her muscles doing some graphic design pieces, and honing her skills for designing and building web sites from the ground up in WordPress.

Workshops! (?!)

I have to admit, workshops weren’t the first thing that sprang to my mind when I thought about things I’d be doing. Public speaking isn’t exactly a thing that comes naturally to me! But, 2013 had me pushing myself on that front–first with the help of Shelby Rice Style in our co-led online class + photo session, Branding Your Style. We loved working together and we’re looking forward to offering the workshop again in 2014!

After that, I found the inspiration to launch my first solo workshop through Upswept: Make The Camera Love You, which is all about being your best, most authentic self in photos. It was really fun and valuable time spent–enough so that we’re offering an expanded version of the workshop in January 2014! We’re adding live mini-photo-sessions to the workshop, so you can practice what you’ve learned and get some individual attention. You can get more information and register for our January 30th session.

I also had the pleasure of presenting at the Siren Nation Festival with a workshop I called Getting To The Heart Of Your Brand. I did that presentation coming off of a nasty flu, but we had an amazing group of ladies who shared great discussions, and gave me a lot of inspiration to take forward. You might be seeing this one again in the future…!

Rebranding: even tougher when it’s your own brand.

After adding onto the team, and realizing that, hey, maybe this whole, “run a design and photography studio in Portland,” idea could be bigger than just me, the notion of re-branding started gnawing at my thoughts.

The name had already been rattling around in the back of my brain for months, so in the fall, I finally decided to do the work and make it a reality. It was much more agonizing to make branding decisions about my own brand! Our minds, hearts, and emotions can get so tangled up in our own work that everything seems critical and dire. So, when I say that I know how our clients feel, I’m really not kidding, especially now.

Upswept Creative became official in October, and the new name seems to fit like a glove so far. Best of all, we got to unveil our new name as part of Design Week Portland! We hosted an open house gathering together some awesome new collaborators, and chatted with a lot of awesome new people. And, we’re fairly certain that ours was the only Design Week Portland Open House with a pair of live steampunk heroines on-site.

A Couple of Goodbyes

We did have to say goodbye to a couple of people, towards the end of the year. Malee’s internship was for Fall Term, so after her 10 weeks were up, we bid her a fond farewell. But, who knows? You might be see her hand on some of our future projects–some goodbyes don’t last forever.

December also saw our last photoshoot with Bonnie Thor Style, before she moves to California. I had the good fortune to meet her at a summer BBQ over a year ago, and she’s brought endless thought, creativity, and style into all of our sessions. When Bonnie asked about the possibility of squeezing in one last photoshoot, turning a one-look beauty shot into a three-look fashion session was the least I could do!

It’s rare to find someone whom you respect and have fun working with, and who you enjoy as a person, too. I’m so, so grateful that we got to make so much pretty together! We’ll miss you, Bonnie!

Looking ahead at 2014

What’s coming up in the new year? As I already mentioned, January 30th is our expanded Make The Camera Love You Workshop, and we’ll have more offerings in the coming weeks. We’ll have more pro tips and pretty photos coming at you on the blog, too!

We have a few potential changes to make around the shop, and some exciting consultations already on the calendar, so there’s plenty to look forward to. If you’re looking to refresh your brand, we’d be so excited to help you! Get in touch with us, and let’s start talking about making you look awesome.

THANK YOU for being a part of our adventure!

<3, Sarah