Recently, I had the extreme pleasure of interviewing Lindsay Nohl of Paper Bicycle Creative. Lindsay is a highly motivated, creative genius and wears many different hats. She teaches at MCAD and is the owner and creative director for Paper Bicycle Creative. The agency provides a variety of services specializing in product design and development. Another side of Lindsay and PB that has generated some excitement, is the shift in focus of the Paper Bicycle blog. The shift in the blog is to create a daily pattern, and have her fellow creatives at PB assist in the production. They've definitely found a niche and the things they produce are amazingly fun, creative and inspirational. She has great taste and a great sense for trend. Please browse their portfolio to see for yourself. Lindsay has been a tremendous source of help and inspiration as I delve further into my passion and appreciation for trend and product development and it was great to be able to pick her brain a little. Thanks so much Lindsay!
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
Q: How did Paper Bicycle come to be?
A: I've always loved working in art and drawing, I used to make my own stationary at home. After working for a couple of corporations I realized that it was possible to have a job where I could just draw and design art all day. If I wanted to draw cupcakes all day, I could, and I could have a job doing it. I was freelancing and licensing my art, and in that process was building a client base. As I started my business I realized that I was enjoying the whole process of the product development cycle more than just the art production, so I altered my plan to include more of this work.
Q: With the shift of the blog to the daily pattern, which do you find more fun? The pattern making, or the product development?
A: The pattern making is sort of like a return to free association creative brain dump, like free writing or free drawing. It's a place where I can show some personal work that I like doing, but the product development is definitely a fun challenge. I like the challenge of thinking across all of the small pieces of a collection. Creating each piece from the endcap to the thing that sits on the shelf; that's what I find most exciting, seeing a collection from birth to production.
Q: Where do you see the blog going/growing in the future?
A: We'd really like to have the blog be more interactive and have more guest artists. In July we started an open contest and called for submissions. It would be great to get more people involved.
Q: What is your favorite bird?
A: Red Factor Canary
