From playing shop to printing and publishing
The byFaith Journey – Part 2
The first few years of byFaith saw both its services and product range grow. These were the early years when the tough reality of doing business was a distant thought. I felt like I was playing shop, pretty much like how little girls play house. Setting up stalls at carnivals, ‘owning’ it for that window of time. Life was simple. Business was typical.
Somewhere deep down I was aware that this wasn’t how it would always be. There was more. A whole lot more. But I didn’t know how and I didn’t know when and I didn’t know where! So, living byFaith was literally all about living one day at a time, one project at a time, one sale at a time. Living and knowing that someday, the little pieces would make sense, in the larger picture that I believed would be.
Designing covers for Newsletters and Reports allowed for me to write a few lines to describe the designs. Those few lines came to be known as poems! Over a few years there were enough poems written and immense encouragement received from readers – that led me to publish byFaith’s first Giftbook – “Patchwork Pieces”. It was meant to be a small print-run just for family and friends. But that wasn’t meant to be. It’s reach grew wider than I could ever have thought of, leading to a quick second print and a listing as a bestseller. A couple of years later journals were released. A combination of white spaces for the reader to write, interspersed with pieces of prose and poetry. The publishing journey had gained momentum.
The texture of paper, the smell of ink, the rhythmic sound of printing machines all added to my list of new found favourites.
The repertoire of work had grown, yet the dream of the ‘Design Destination’ remained…