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    Season 2 · Episode 2

    Growing Your Passion From Page to Product

    ZADAN with Kristin Leeson

    · 1:48:54

    The conversation

    Kristin Leeson runs industrial embroidery machines at a small uniform store and designs fashion on the side, selling stickers through her Etsy shop, KIL Designs, and a Redbubble store. She walks ZADAN through her process, from paper sketches to Photoshop and Procreate, and her plan for paper-doll clothing lines that double as portfolio pieces. She also explains how trends move from runway shows to chain stores, and how celebrity clothing lines often just license a famous name.

    From there the talk wanders. ZADAN pitches pay-what-you-want digital tools and complains that most creator websites are hard to use. They trade notes on free Craigslist finds, earthquakes, sonic booms from Edwards Air Force Base, and the wind farms around Kristin's home in Tehachapi. Kristin recalls growing up in Blanding, Utah, and both admit to losing touch with old friends. It ends on her burnout cycle and ZADAN's advice: batch thirteen videos before launching a channel and sell merch through print on demand.

    Topics, with timestamps

    Pick a time to start listening right there.

    1. Running industrial embroidery machines at a uniform store
    2. Her Etsy and Redbubble shops and the KIL name
    3. Stickers and paper dolls as portfolio pieces
    4. From paper sketch to Photoshop and Procreate
    5. Designing clothing lines for a target market
    6. Peter McKinnon and pay-what-you-want creative tools
    7. Why most creator and band websites fall short
    8. How runway trends reach chain stores, and licensing
    9. Burning out on Southern California and Craigslist finds
    10. Earthquakes, sonic booms and Tehachapi wind energy
    11. Growing up in Blanding, Utah, and small-town Georgia
    12. Keeping friendships alive after moving away
    13. Kristin's burnout cycle with creative projects
    14. Batching videos and print-on-demand merch advice

    Worth hearing

    • Kristin learned to sew in elementary school and holds an associate of science in fashion design.
    • Her embroidery work comes down to finding the right placement for a design and hooping each garment for machines that stitch one or four pieces at a time.
    • She plans paper-doll stickers whose outfits form a clothing line she can also redraw on different poses for her portfolio.
    • Kristin explains that big retailers often pay to license a celebrity's name while in-house designers create the actual clothes.
    • ZADAN wants to offer his social media tools free with optional donations, and Kristin points out that some font sites already work that way.
    • Kristin says she keeps projects to herself until they are impressive, then burns out and stalls when they fall short of her own expectations.
    • ZADAN suggests recording thirteen videos before launching, which gives a three-month buffer at one upload a week.

    ZADAN's original episode notes

    On this week’s episode, with the guest appearance of Kristin Leeson is a Graphic Designer and Embroidery Specialist in the fashion industry, sowing since elementary school and growing her passion all the way through to her Associate of Science in Fashion. She is in the process of starting her brand by building out portfolios and merch designs from embroidered shirts to stickers sharing her passion for design and creative growth.

    In this episode Kristin and I discuss a lot about workflow and process organization as well as software and tools that can be used to maximize your potential with the work you're doing and get from the drawing in your head to the final image in a digital format that can be consumed and utilized.