Building Dark Studio in public — the catalogue, the candles, the choices.
Product launches, the logic behind TheTempleofCompliance, what's working on Etsy, the journal design process — the story behind the brand, told honestly. The choices both elegant and embarrassing.
A logo on a wax seal is a coat of arms. A wax seal on an envelope is a promise. We chose the second, and the catalogue rearranged itself.
The platform does not know you contain multitudes; the platform will, however, suspend you for trying to prove it. A taxonomy of accidents.
A diary is for keeping. A journal is for being kept. The covers we settled on, and the three we threw away. The grain matters more than the gilt.
A hundred listings, a hundred buyers, a notebook full of messages I did not expect. The phrase that came up six times. The complaint that came up never.
There is a price that says I am a curiosity, and a price that says I am a commitment. The candle costs forty-two dollars. Here is why.
Two storefronts is two times the work and one half the focus. I did it anyway. Here is what the first quarter taught me, and what I should have asked first.
Notes from the studio — the journals, the seals, the choices both elegant and embarrassing.