This week our Q&A series delves into the world of artist entrepreneurs Tiny Riot, to get an insight into what they do, how they started out, and advice for budding creatives who want to turn their dream of running their own business into a reality.

A BIT ABOUT US…

Tiny Riot is a london-based company creating playful, unique and beautifully crafted art prints.  Craft is the key with even the logo focusing on the edgy but fun personality of the brand.  Their art prints range from iconic rock and pop royalty through to camo infused pop art prints.  The collection consists of affordable A3 digital prints but also a growing collection of 50x70cm hand pulled silkscreen prints which are all signed by the artist and stamp embossed.

HOW WE STARTED OUT…

When the first lockdown suddenly came upon us last year, it gave us the time and drive to make something that we’d only ever considered a side project, into a fully functioning online business.  We also own and run a production company but with the arrival of Covid, it obviously meant that the filming industry was hit quite hard.  Whilst the concept for Tiny Riot had started a few years earlier, we suddenly found that we had the creative head space to fully immerse ourselves into it.

 

THE THING WE WISH WE’D DONE DIFFERENT WHEN SETTING UP IN BUSINESS IS…

Over a short period of time we have had to do a lot of things over and over again, Redesigning the website… 4 times… learning the right e-commerce platforms, working hard to get the absolute best quality into our prints, whether that is a digital print or a hand pulled screen print.  I’m not sure that we would have or could have done anything different but we have learnt so much from not getting it perfect the first time around and I think all the steps we’ve taken has made TinyRiot a better business.

 OUR BIGGEST INSPIRATION IS…

 Our passions.  Be it music, other artists, the screen printing process, colour, design, we even get a little excited when we come across beautiful paper. 

 

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF TINY RIOT GOES A LITTLE LIKE THIS…

Lots of zooms over a cuppa!  Currently, two of us work from home and one in the studio.  We chat through everything from new ideas, social media, stock levels and reviewing the sales.  We have a habit of having an agenda and then jumping around all over the place.  We carefully package all of the prints ourselves so if the previous day’s sales have been good then a big chunk of time is devoted to that.  Signing and stamping a freshly pressed batch of screenprints can also take longer than you’d think!  And then of course there’s the time dedicated to creating the artwork.  There will be many iterations before we finally decide on image/colour/size/paper and there’s always a lot of time set aside for final tweaks!

WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT BEING OUR OWN BOSS IS…

 Every day is different, every day is fun and if we spend a couple of hours talking about what we watched on Netflix last night rather than submitting our latest accounts, then no one is going to tell us off!  We create our own working hours (although at the moment it’s pretty much 24/7) and occasionally we allow a moment to pat ourselves on the back when we’ve had some amazing feedback or a shop we admire wants to stock our prints.

 

THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE WE CAN GIVE TO BUDDING CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS…

There’s nothing like creating a business out of something you love.  I think our passion for our brand and the work we create really comes across in our artwork, our customer service and our excitement about the future.  If you have a passion for something, make that the focus and it will feel less like work when you spend all day (and sometimes night) putting your all into it.

 

FUTURE PLANS FOR THE BRAND ARE …

 To expand the collection and to have our prints stocked in more independent shops throughout the UK and even Europe.  Our artwork is currently sold in amazing independent shops in Covent Garden, Brighton, Edinburgh, St Andrews and soon in Manchester.  And perhaps to even one day have our own Tiny Riot Shop!

Shop Tiny Riot at tinyriot.co