LIZ’S DESIGN STORY

I began designing and producing textile products in 1989, first hand painting, then screen printing onto aprons, tote bags, placemats and accessories.

I've always made things that I needed and enjoyed. Fabric paint was a revelation where anything white could become a canvas. My hand-painted textile business began with painted and sewed canvas director chair covers, pillows, aprons, place mats, table cloths, floor mats. My designs were inspired from Islamic tiles, flowers, and gardens from our years living in Israel and back home in California.

But then when stores wanted my work, the new challenge was to learn how to manufacture.

My first big retail customer was the fanciest store in San Francisco, Gumps. We had just returned home from Israel and my father-in-law bet me a nickel that I couldn't sell my hand painted products to them.

Here is a picture of the store window of my work at Gumps on display for 2 months on Post Street in downtown San Francisco. 1989. My girlfriend, Chloe stayed for a long visit to help me paint everything.

Liz Lauter Designs takes off like a rocket

Liz Lauter Designs, the name of my business grew into a 10 year business of designing, screen printing, sewing and marketing locally manufactured textile products. I worked closely with local screen printers and sewing shops in the San Francisco Bay Area. We sold nationally and internationally from the garage of our house, then we moved to a warehouse when the landlord threatened to evict us for running a business out of the garage. All the while we were raising our 4 children with the help of all 4 grandparents.

My Brand Took Form with The Flower Pot Apron

Gardening and Gourmet casual lifestyle themes defined my designs and products. The FLOWER POT APRON was my signature product which I created to hold a cell phone and tools while working in the garden. The cuffed pockets were shaped to look like flower pots. It remained unique in the marketplace and sold in garden gift shops, departments and catalogs across the USA and internationally.

Denim fabric was my favorite surface and the fabric of my generation. It is the most practical textile because it doesn't show the dirt and wears well.

It was a challenge to print colors on the dark denim fabric, so I developed a printing method with my screen printer that we called "Glaze Printing". We were able to print vibrant prints on a dark ground so my artwork still looked hand painted.

APRONS exploded as a popular category and I expanded my collections to include "GOURMET APRONS"

My byline, "Liz Lauter brings the garden indoors with lush painterly prints" reflected designs and products expanding from the outside to inside the home. I really enjoyed writing the copy for ads! “LIZ LAUTER IS HOT” got a lot of attention for my popular Chili Peppers design. Our sales were on fire. We hit $1,000,000 in sales after 6 years.

Gardening Theme Popularity

As I flipped through seed catalogs during the winter time, I noticed that the connection between descriptions of fruits and veggies could be associated with a person!

It made me laugh to think that a person could be described as "ready early", "very reliable", "disease resistant". 

The Liz Lauter Seed & Plant Co. collection was born with chalk drawing designs on t-shirts and then big white chef’s aprons.

I designed packing for the t-shirts to look like giant seed packets with an old fashioned looking label. The sales were huge and stock constantly ran out. The fastest seller was: "Big Jim. Hot and Spicey. Firm meaty, 7" fruit, fire engine red when fully mature."

Gardening became the #1 gift category for year 'round sales. That inpired me to create the seed packet inspired collection.

THE BIG SHIFT AND END

Most of my 5000 customers were literally on "Main Street" across the USA.

Then the recession of the late 1990's reduced my customer base of "mom and pop" gift stores and replaced them with "big box" retailers. Online sales didn't really exist yet, so I closed down my production business and focused on my own art making and got my high school teaching credential to teach art. (That was a wonderful thing)

I felt sad turning away loyal customers who still wanted my products. Still, you can find some of my products on Ebay and even products I designed for other companies.

NEW PRINTING TECHNOLOGY ARRIVED!

Fast forward to 2016. I discovered online selling and "print on demand" as a way to bring back my designs onto products. It’s a dynamic business with new products and innovations constantly. I make a design and another company prints it on their product and sends it to my customer. T-Shirts are the most common.

Quality products can be illusive however, and I wear my manufacturer’s hat when I source out products. It’s not the same as custom design and manufacturing control with my own manufacturing.

The first products I have really brought back are my gardening Seed and Plant Co. t-shirts. Look for them in my Etsy Shop, Liz Lauter Designs. There is sure to be one that matches someone you know.

As I explore the new manufacturing world, I am discovering all of the new products that I can put my artwork onto--products unimaginable when I did my own manufacturing. Fabrics, mugs, tea towels, duvet covers, blankets, and more.

So I've just begun again.

Liz

Here are some photos from my scrapbook of national catalogs selling my products, advertisements, promotional product images, and my wholesale catalog