2012-2018
THE CLUB OF ODD VOLUMES
Started in 2012 with a direct-to-garment printer in the backroom of our house, I grew this business over 5 years to a successful, recognisable Melbourne brand.
Client
The Club of Odd Volumes
My Role
Graphic Design
Website Design and Construction
Illustration
Product Design
Offshore Sourcing & Manufacturing
Artist Management
Customer Service / Sales
Social Media
Marketing
Financial Management
Credits
Finalist in Frankie Magazine Good Stuff Awards
Smith Journal
No Cure Magazine (see here)
Collective Hub Magazine (see here)
Fancy
Modern Home Magazine
Inside Out Magazine
Spectrum (Sydney Morning Herald)
Sunday Style (Herald Sun)
Planted Magazine
Cleo Magazine
Fashion Journal
Australia House and Garden
Real Living Magazine
Desktop Magazine
More Info
The Club of Odd Volumes is a textile print business committed to helping independent artists bring their creativity into the world on apparel & homewares.
It features an online community with twenty illustrators designs on selected garments. Working together online, this community helped grow The Club of Odd Volumes and generate an income for themselves and inspired new creatives to join with over 300 applicants for each rotation (held every 6 months).
My role as business owner required big-picture thinking, translating into operational and marketing efficiencies across manufacturing, design, management and sales. From launch until selling the business five years later my key successes were:
Launching and growing business sales YOY by average of 45% over five years
Expanded global sales and brand recognition.
Managed all financial requirements including reducing overheads, manufacturing effeciencies, off-shore negotiations and importing logistics.
Managed over 100 artists with mentoring, art direction and monthly finacial sales commissions.
Developed and implemented all creative marketing strategies, social media, EDM’s, UX and Ecommerce. Grew following to over 40k on social media platforms.
Designed textitles with in-depth understanding of market. Sourced and managed all off-shore manufacturing.
Sucessfully ran and marketed a fundraising campaign to raise over $45k to presell new product launch within year two. With continual growth of product, subsequent new releases were manufacturing with no need for outside funding. Read more about the The Club bedding here.
WordPress site included full custom app integrations to upload customer art, position on garment and add to cart with bulk wholesale discounts. As well as personalised shop for all artists goods within our six monthly rotations.
A social media reach of 40k followers combined with high engagement and brand loyalty.
The Artist collective side of the business was named The Odd Collective. A play on the name The Club of Odd Volumes. ‘Odd‘ meaning mismatched, showcasing the wide variety of design and illustration styles. The six fingered hand became a recognisable icon printed on all carry bags, enamel pins, printed collateral and signage.
With every purchase of the artists goods, customers received a collector card telling them more about the artist and links to their personal social media and websites. Marketing initiatives included running a golden card promotion for lucky shoppers. Gold cards were printed and inserted into orders randomly, increasing sales significantly during promotional period.
With every order customers also received a sticker sheet. These were updated seasonally with the art selected through The Odd Drawing Comp. This was a twice yearly Instagram competition where customers posted their own art to the unique hashtag #theclubdrawingcomp. All designs were required to include the words ‘The Club of Odd Volumes’ as a way to generate branded art and market exposure.
A selection of marketing initiatives included: 1. Golden card with gold wax seal, 2. Helping artists get into retail stores and offering further exposure including artist collector cards attached to swing tags on all garments, 3. Various studio sales in our warehouse including other Melbourne makers, 4. Local poster campaigns to advertise studio sales, 5. Window decals instore artist promotions (this image from St Kilda’s main st.), 6. #theclubdrawingcomp, 7. Open studio to the public, 8. Online mystery boxes, 9-12. Sponsored artist rotation launch parties including TV crew from Fashion Journal Magazine.
Custom tissue wrap for every item shipped.
Six page feature and interview in The Collective Magazine
