Okay, I’ll admit that I’ve had a girl crush on Sara Selepouchin of Girls Can Tell for over a year now!  Her diagram artwork has soared into popularity and recently she designed work for a food truck.  How cool is that?  Her screenprinted tea towels, coasters, lunch bags, etc. are sure to delight you.  She’s been kind enough to answer a few questions and give you some advice on how to snag a wholesale order from someone as big as Anthropologie.

In case some people don’t know about you and your amazing business, would you mind sharing what you do?

I’m an illustrator – I primarily make line annotated line drawings, little diagrams of everyday things people love. I’ve designed a line of homewares + useful gifts featuring my original illustrations, called Girls Can Tell. Girls Can Tell wares are sold in museum shops + independent boutiques around the country, as well as at select major retailers. You can also find them in the online shop + the South Philly flagship shop.

You’re one of the few makers I know who has an online shop AND a local shop.  What have you gained from having a place where people can walk in and buy work from you every day while you’re printing?

You know, it’s something I’m still getting used to. I’ve gained the realization that having “regular hours” when you’re only one person is tricky – I’m out of the shop often for client meetings, retail shows, trade shows, and all of the things I’m involved in within my local communities. And I have to lock the door when I’m actually getting ready to do a print run because, as much as it’s a quaint mental image, I can’t actually have people walking in while I’m printing. (I’ve ruined more screens than I care to think about by having to stop and do something else mid-printing session). I think I’ve accidentally created a bit of an aura of mystery around my shop by having kind of erratic times when I’m actually functioning as a shop. I hear a lot of curious people talking about what they think I’m doing in here as they walk by (that’ll change this summer when I’ll have dedicated help in the shop!)

A while back you were picked up by Anthropologie!  Now that you’ve worked with a nationwide wholesale client, if you were picked up by them again, what would you do differently?  (I’m assuming you learned some tricks to streamlining and keeping stress levels down.)

Working with Anthropologie was a jumping off point for my business. I learned a lot from that experience, like the importance of delegating specific tasks to professionals who will do those things better than I can, and to not reinvent the wheel. I don’t need to have my hand in everything. I’m happy to be putting all the knowledge I’ve gained in the past year to use with some even bigger clients right now.

What advice would you give a maker trying to break into wholesale?

Are you ready to scale? Consider your dream order – the most ideal, dreamy client you’d like to work with, and think of the biggest quantities of an order you can imagine. Then double it… Could you realistically handle that type of volume? You have to be really confident in every aspect of your business and what you’re doing from soup to nuts – having your suppliers, process, invoicing, inventory, packaging, shipping systems and everything else all tuned like a well oiled machine – to make it worth it.

You print on just about anything, from felt coasters to food trucks!  Do you have a favorite product or project?

I can’t play favorites with products or projects! What if the other ones find out?

You and your work have evolved a lot over the years.  Did you ever worry about failure or encounter a difficult obstacle?  How did you get through it?

I don’t spend time worrying about failure. Not taking risks is more of a failure than actually failing at something you try. I have a very tough love attitude toward my work + my business. I feel like I fail all the time in little ways, but I know my business is stronger, better + bigger because of those tiny failures.

Do you have a crush on her now too?  Don’t forget to take a peek at her site!