Text by Hannah Jones
While working as a graphic designer, Erin Flett felt like she needed more. Though she loves her designs, at the time, they felt fleeting. “The need or obsession to create something that lasted more than a few minutes was my vision,” she says. “As a graphic designer loving paper and typography, I always felt a little sad that people would not be able to enjoy my designs and my work for more than a brief moment.” She originally tried a stationery line, but after that didn’t quite pan out, she revisited her original thought and the answer became clear: screen printing.
Now, a decade after starting her Maine-based company, Erin has expanded the business greatly, and in more ways than one. She and her husband, Maslen, started out working in their basement but have since moved the screen printing into a local mill in Westbrook, Maine, while weaving her barkcloth and canvas in North Carolina. With this move, Erin also grew her team and her product line. In addition to pillows, she now creates bags, totes, wall art, drinking glasses, and even wallpaper and shower curtains. She’s also started a line of bags with hand-printed patterns on linen inside of luxurious velvet exteriors, an eclectic and much-loved stray from her traditional designs.
Though life is pretty busy nowadays for the wife and mother, she hasn’t slowed down. In fact, she just moved into a new all-inclusive studio space. Erin enjoys creating custom projects for trade and hospitality clients and working directly with interior designers and architects. She’s committed to growing her brand even more, too, saying her vision is “to continue to create highly designed and crafted home goods that are mindfully made and encompass all the subtle details that make [her] unique, hand-drawn, graphic patterns sought-after and collected.”
