Delightful illustrator Doris Chang expands Little Sister Co

art

Introducing Doris Chang, illustrator and Brick + Mortar resident

Words by Ilona Wallace July 9, 2015

Doris Chang is an Adelaide-based illustration wizard. She creates whimsical tableaux of Australian native flora and fauna in bright, delicate watercolours. Her works are all handmade, first painted in watercolour and then defined with ink and pen.

Chang graduated from UniSA in 2013, and has spent time working in design (and as a horse-riding instructor). She has recently been invited to take up a residency in Brick + Mortar, a creative retail hub just off The Parade, Norwood.

“My Brick + Mortar residency will provide me with a physical space to sell direct to retail customers,” says Chang, “but it will also be an excellent studio environment from which to work. As much as it’s an opportunity to test new products and make sales, most importantly I’ll be giving myself the time to focus fully on my illustrative work as a business rather than just a side project.”

To get things rolling ahead of her first days at B+M (Chang’s residency will take place from August to October this year), she has launched a Pozible campaign: Little Sister Shop.

The modest fundraising drive will work as a pre-order service, rather than a production offset, for Chang’s first line of tea towels. This fruity design will be Chang’s first print to textiles, which is where she would like to see her practice grow. At the moment, you can purchase Chang’s work as greeting cards and art prints.

This will hopefully see Doris on her way to making her first ‘real life’ shop a success. Currently, Chang sells her work through popular craft website Etsy, as Little Sister Co.

The name, Chang explains, “is a nod to that stereotypical younger sibling that the whole family sometimes doubted would grow up: the flake, the creative one, the dreamer”. Chang is the second of two daughters, so her design identity is a little tongue-in-cheek poke of fun at herself.

Chang’s Brick + Mortar residency will see Little Sister Co branching out from the internet and setting up roots in the open-plan studio space.

“Being a creative hub that plays host to art exhibitions and creative workshops as well as its capsule store tenants, Brick + Mortar is a great environment for local creatives and entrepreneurs to network and collaborate,” says Chang. “I have always been interested in designing and illustrating for textiles (as seen in my Pozible campaign), so I would love to work with a designer in textiles or fashion in the future.”

Collaborative work could be on the cards, with Chang telling Rip It Up she’s becoming more and more aware of local designers and makers with whom she’d love to work. On her list so far is Naomi Murrell, plus fellow B+M residents Fruszi Kenez and Days Of August. Others include vibrant clutch designer Tiff Manuell, ceramics genius Katia Carletti and creator of the world’s greatest cat tote Pip Kruger.

Already, Chang has received a “very encouraging” response to her Pozible, and she’s looking forward to the future.

“Those that support this campaign will be among my first customers, and I’m so excited to see some of them in person when I open my shop at Brick + Mortar,” she says. “It can be daunting to put your ideas out there and not be sure of the outcome, but I’m cautiously optimistic about meeting my campaign goal before the deadline.”

For those interested in donating to Chang’s Pozible campaign, you can find it here. Otherwise, keep up with Doris/Little Sister Co on Facebook, Instagram and Etsy, or drop by Brick + Mortar in August – October this year.