Today we’d like to introduce you to Ferris Halemeh.
Hi Ferris, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in Georgia and have always made art. Once I graduated college, I began selling my sketchbook pages for extra money. Then I started printing my drawings onto T-shirts and selling those on Esty. I noticed more people wanted the t-shirts than did just the drawings, and I liked seeing these images change in color and texture once they were printed.
I participated in craft shows around the city and found that people in Atlanta enjoyed my designs and that was amazing to me. After seeing people’s reactions, I felt the need to keep going, make more drawings & garments. I called my shop “The Downtown Bookstore” because every design and print was an effort to give a new life to drawings in my sketchbook. It wasn’t long after making my online store that I discovered embroidery. I knew that my line-based drawings could benefit from the many textures of embroidery, so I borrowed some money to buy my first machine.
I genuinely fell in love with the satisfying speed and intensity of my embroidery machine. I started asking my friends to help come up with new ideas or to execute ideas I felt fit their art style. They were happy to help and since then it has become a small group effort. Collaboration and idea exchange quickly became a part of The Downtown Bookstore and our workflow. Now we’re a small group of artists whose various styles and skills support and elevate each other’s creations.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not everything has been easy, but I could imagine that any local business faces challenges similar to what I’ve seen. Especially at the beginning. I think a recent challenge for a lot of artists and small businesses has been gaining traction on social media. There are tons of examples of extremely talented artists whose works aren’t photogenic enough to go viral or who can’t afford to be a videographer, editor and influencer on top of their practice. It can feel overwhelming compare your artwork to content creators all over the world, but we all know that you won’t get better at your craft by letting that slow you down. I didn’t begin feeling the love until I started doing art shows and pop-ups in Atlanta. The community here has always accepted artists with open arms. There is a consistently exciting nature to the art world in Atlanta with plenty of space for newcomers and room to grow for those of us on our third or fourth try at this. Artists at the events in the city are usually eager to learn from each other and collaborate. I’ve been lucky enough to make friends in the community willing to help me through nearly every step of the process. If you are struggling with a project, look to your peers, the community around you may be more willing to support than you think.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I run an online shop called DowntownBookstore.org. We make clothing and artwork. What has set it apart from other creators is our designs. My friend & business partner, Dean runs all of the screen-prints and I make all of the embroideries. The designs we come up with are sometimes collaborative and other times, entirely solo projects. What sets our designs apart from other brands, I think, is the attitude of these garments. Each one is a genuine expression freshly torn out from our sketchbooks. Somehow, I think you can feel that these garments were artworks first and not always just quirky graphics. Customers have described our drawings as “vulnerable” and the clothes as “Cozy like a late night pillow talk” or “Campy, but quality.”
I think that the way The Downtown Bookstore started has a lot to do with what makes us unique. It began, not long ago, as a place to buy pages directly out of my sketchbook. My sketchbooks are not far from a diary, and that feeling that you’re getting a slice of an artist’s most private thoughts, informs the work now and reminds me to stay “honest” with the designs.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me when making these garments is the customer’s reaction. When I bring the garments out to pop-up shops and craft events in Atlanta, I am always inspired by people’s reactions to our clothes. When I’m working on the designs, I think about what caught people’s eye and what subtle things people liked. If I get a positive reaction to a certain element, I push those elements further in the next design. Nothing is more satisfying than when a customer is as excited to wear a hoodie as I was to make it.
Contact Info:
- Website: DowntownBookstore.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/downtown_booksnore/
Image Credits
Jasmine Soompholphakdy Dean Mattioli
