Looking around the room and scrolling through Instagram searching for hints of inspiration sparks a design idea in junior Dania Loredo’s mind. Her next step is to decide whether her design would look good on a sticker, a hat or even a poster. 

Last year, Loredo had the idea to turn her love of digital design into her own art business. With encouragement and inspiration she created a new opportunity to add to her life.

“I got inspiration from a lot of different people,” Loredo said. “There were some people that always told me, mainly my family that ‘you should sell art.’” 

Loredo uses different platforms to create and sell her designs. She explains how the platforms are easy to use and are great for designing. 

“I create designs on Procreate and I basically sell my designs on this website called Redbubble,” Loredo said. “So you put your design in and then they place it on different products. So shirts, hats, stickers, and things like that.”

In the process of creating designs, Loredo considers whether the design should be available to customers. To assist this process she watches the world around her through social media to see what people are into these days and especially what sticks out to her. 

“First I like to think of what I would put on stickers or merchandise because one thing I like to think about is if you don’t like it then I don’t think anyone else would like it either,” Loredo said. “So I have to start off with that idea in my head, ‘what would I like’ and then I mostly draw nature and animals or simple designs.

Loredo’s most popular design was a blue jellyfish, but when starting her business she first started off using a design inspired by nature. 

“The first one I did was this little picture of an olive branch with a nice background of different earth colors like green, orange, yellow.”

Loredo said she runs into struggles while managing her own business, such as editing, finding inspiration and being consistent with posting her designs on the Instagram account created to advertise her business. 

“It’s a process– editing it and making it look clean and sometimes there is that fear of not being good enough or not having that perfect image that you want,” Loredo said. 

As a new business owner, Loredo finds motivation to continue creating designs by learning to pace herself and work hard. 

“I think what motivates me is trying not to focus on getting there right away,” Loredo said. “So like [having] patience and practice and to not focus on having that perfect design but just doing the best.”