John Pedigo, Founder of Littleweird
John is a San Francisco artist with a Haight Street address (how’s that for urban art cred?) He produces and sells screen printed t shirts featuring his original art. He has a shop on etsy.com, http://www.etsy.com/shop/Littleweird, where you’ll find tees for men, women, and onesies for the kiddos. Fond of classic cars? You may as well stop reading now and click on his site—you’re going to love what you find.
John’s past work life was online—most recently, in the video game industry (yes, more cool cred,) until he joined the ranks of the unemployed due to a mid-recession layoff. Never missing a beat, he stepped into his next role: stay at home dad to his then-infant, now-toddler daughter, Sam—the fourth cutest kid on the planet (after my own three, of course.)
Full-time parenting is a wonderful job. But exhausting. Nevertheless, John worked up some entrepreneurial mojo and decided. He made the commitment to start Littleweird, and it’s been full steam ahead ever since.
Q. What was the inspiration for starting Little Weird? Why now?
A. I’d gone to a local DIY fair, indie-mart.com, and saw some of the shirts being produced and I thought to myself, “I could do this.” I had thought about making my own shirts for a while, in fact, I had made shirts for friends in high school and had some experience screen printing. Being unemployed, I had the time to put together a series of screen printed shirts and stationary, and showed up at the next fair with my own booth. I am doing this now to get some traction with some of my designs that will lead me to something good, I hope…
Q. As a home based business, where do you print your shirts?
A. Due to child safety requirements (the safety of my hardware, not the child) I do all of my screen printing in my laundry room with the help of my wife. We have a big tub for clean up and I store most of my materials in there. I attach my equipment to a table and spread out on top of the washer and dryer. (Note: this organizer approves! Always strive to set up a system where you can store your materials out of site when not in use.)
Q. As both an artist and dad to a busy toddler, how do you manage your creativity? Do you set regular hours, or work when inspiration strikes?
A. I do some of my creative work while my daughter takes a nap in the early afternoon, usually about 2 hours. The rest of my creative time comes late at night when everyone in the house is asleep. The printing happens when my daughter is asleep for the night but my wife hasn’t gone to bed yet…I need her help most of the time. (Note: John’s wife, Laura Vaudreuil Pedigo , is the Executive Director of Refugee Transitions and one awesome woman. I had to give a shout out.)
Q. What’s been your greatest challenge as a start up business?
A. Actually doing it…you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? Cheesy, yes…true, yes. I think there are millions of people who would like to be doing their own thing, but think they don’t have what it takes to step out and do it. Once you take action, start buying supplies, thinking about products and buying that first booth rental, you realize it’s not that hard. All you need is a little push. For me, it was a bunch of inspirational (cheesy, but true) messages that I saw on the web…”Take the shot, who cares if you make it or not”, and “You took the shot that a lot of others are afraid to…” (Note: there’s nothing cheesy about that finding that “push.”)
Q. What, so far, has been most rewarding?
A. Getting feedback from customers who love and buy your work. A great day selling shirts comes in a really close second.
If you’re in San Francisco (lucky you,) be sure to stop by the Littleweird booth at either Indie Mart, or SF Market. For the rest of us, the etsy site will have to do (p.s. free shipping in the US!) http://www.etsy.com/shop/Littleweird
