Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Hall.
Allison, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I graduated from SCAD Savannah with a BFA in illustration and initially thought I would go on to be a children’s book illustrator. While I would still love to do that one day, I found myself falling into the wedding industry. I started by designing invitations for my friend’s weddings as well as for dinners my group of friends in Savannah would have. Post-undergrad, I realized how freeing it was for me to paint florals, especially florals that would help celebrate friends. I felt effortless and refreshing to paint leaves, flowers and berries and I got a lot of life from doing so. I realized I could gear that towards people and I grew to love the process of meeting with brides and creating art that could help make their wedding more reflective of their unique personality. I create wedding invitation suites, custom maps and large photo backdrops for brides now. This trickled into collaborating with other small businesses to create paper goods to be sold in stores, as well as murals and event installations. I currently use my business to create custom work for people and small businesses and I’m so thankful for the creative community I’ve found myself in.
Has it been a smooth road?
Graduating college, I really didn’t intend to go the entrepreneurial route. I really didn’t think I was capable to get it rolling and have it be substantial. It took a while to accept, but I really have always had an entrepreneurial drive in me and I had to take one step at a time and trust that I would learn all the looming small business skills along the way. While working other jobs, I would slowly start selling pieces on Etsy, participating in craft shows, and working with brides who were friends. These little actions started to blossom into more and more connections and opportunities to help me meet more brides and sell products in more stores. Learning to work from home was incredibly difficult, but it was so valuable to learn how to manage my time and also learn what work environments I best work in. Being an artist can be incredibly isolating, and having a creative community is SO important.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Small Creative story. Tell us more about the business.
I create illustrations with the intent to bring people together. Whether it’s a photo booth backdrop or a greeting card, I paint with a personal interaction in mind. My hope as a wedding vendor is to be a friend in the wedding-planning process. Brides have so so many stressors in their planning period and if I get to be a vendor that helps to relieve some worry, then I’ve done my job.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I would love to travel more to connect with small business all over the country. Painting my floral backdrops led me to realize that I could paint murals as well and I want to provide that service for beautiful spaces in other states. I also am selling wholesale to more and more stores, so that would be great to grow as well. Also, the children’s book dream is still alive and well. I have one book project in the works right now and I dream of traveling to my friend’s elementary school classes all over the country and reading my books to their classes.
Contact Info:
- Website: alligracehall.com
- Instagram: @thesmallcreative
- Facebook: facebook.com/thesmallcreative
- Other: etsy.com/shop/thesmallcreative
Image Credit:
Amy Anstatt
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