Q&A with Pepper Raccoon

Can you tell us a bit about your journey as an artist? How did Pepper Raccoon come to be?

I’ve been an artist for many years, drawing avidly since I was about 10, and got serious about it as a career around 15. A few years into my attempted “professional career” as a UX designer, I realised office life wasn’t for me and headed out on my own as a freelance illustrator and designer. I was really excited to find that many artists were independent operators, creating their own products and merch to make their art affordable and fun while retaining ownership and agency over their creative work. So, I launched Pepper Raccoon as a way to sell my art and artist-driven merch in an accessible, direct way to the people who love my work! 8 years later, it’s the bulk of my focus, and I’ve travelled across New Zealand for events, worked with some really cool clients like Zealandia and the McElroy Family, and shipped parcels to loads of countries around the world!

What inspires your artwork and designs? Are there specific themes or motifs that you find yourself drawn to repeatedly?

I’m a nature witch at heart and draw inspiration from animals and plants for the most part, but I’m also a spooky person who loves to explore esoteric themes of death, magic, and rebirth. I tend to bounce around through these themes quite a bit and don’t take myself too seriously, so my work ranges from light to dark, from ornate, detailed birds to goofy skulls. Birds were never consciously my favourite animal (clearly, it’s raccoons), but I absolutely do love them and find myself drawing them again and again.

How do you go about creating a new design? Can you walk us through your creative process from concept to completion?

Either the idea just drops into my brain, and I have to work on it RIGHT AWAY, or I have an absolutely deranged Notes file that I keep all of my ideas in, and when I’m stuck for inspiration, I poke around in there to see what I can make sense of! I’m a messy artist with lots of unlabeled layers and sketch files, and I use the Easel function on the Arc Browser to create pinboards of loads of reference photos. I tend to do a pencil sketch first, then build linework, detail, and colour from there, but sometimes, I do these things in different orders. There’s a lot of swearing and banging away in the wrong direction, I’m definitely not a fast worker, but I always come out the other side with something I’m proud of.

What types of merchandise do you create, and how do you decide which of your designs will go on which products?

I create apparel, stickers, enamel pins, glassware, and more. I’ve dabbled in lots of different merch items, and I tend to stick with the ones that are a good balance of [time effective to produce/high quality/sustainable/popular with my audience]. 

I tend to design carefully for the type of product I intend to use the design on, and I often decide based on the composition of the design. If it has a lot of colours, it’s most likely going to be a printed item like a sticker or memo pad. If it’s a single-colour, high-detail design, that’s probably for apparel. I’m pretty practical, and I also have a good sense of what item my customers would like to see that design on.

What was the first piece of merchandise you created, and how did it feel to see your art on a tangible product?

The first piece of merch I ever made was a Yeah Nah enamel pin. It was absolutely wild sending my design away and having it come back as a tangible object that I could sell to customers with pride. I love producing things in the studio myself, but there are some things you just need the professionals for, and it was absolutely magical to see that I could collaborate with suppliers to get amazing results.

Who are your main clients and customers?

My main clients are nature lovers, goofy internet humans I connect with, and witchy people who love to bring a bit of magic into their homes. I also wholesale to eco-sanctuaries like Zealandia to help them with their goals of raising more money for their incredible environmental projects. It’s awesome to have a mutually beneficial arrangement that means cool merch for them, I get to make a living, and we’re helping do good things for our planet, too!

How has working with a screen printing and embroidery company like Print Room helped in bringing your designs to life on merchandise?

I’m incredibly picky about quality and sustainability, so it was a dream to find Print Room. Moving away from plastic inks on my shirts to water-based inks was a relief, and your customer service is so helpful and patient with all of my questions about costs, practicalities, and options for the future. The results always speak for themselves, and I’m always happy to tell people I use Print Room!

How do you stay current with trends in the art and merchandise industry while maintaining your unique style?

I tend to design things that I would like to wear, so I stay up to date by researching what brands I enjoy are doing. I also save photos and notes about new launches and interesting options I could consider for the future.

What tools or mediums do you prefer to use when creating your designs, and why?

I use digital tools like Procreate and Affinity Suite when working on my designs because they make creating and exporting design files, including Pantone selection, quick and easy.

I was originally a traditional artist, and I still have those skills, but digital has made it so much more possible for me to transfer my drawing skills to something that can easily be shared with a supplier.

Can you share any behind-the-scenes stories or fun facts about the creation of one of your popular designs?

It took me over 100 hours to draw the Aotearoa Wild t-shirt design. I revised, adjusted, and re-drew so many times to make that shirt as perfect as possible, and it was important to me to fit so many critters and plants in wherever I could. 

It was a really interesting process because generally, I draw the entire piece in the sketch phase, and for this one, I worked in small pieces with only a rough scaffolding sketch, slotting everything together like a jigsaw as I went.

How do you approach sustainability and ethical practices in your merchandise production?

Sustainability and ethics have been a huge part of what I wanted to embody with Pepper Raccoon from the get-go. While no business is perfect, I’ve always used compostable mailers, recycled my soft plastics at my own expense via r3Pack, and tried to reduce my carbon footprint by producing things in my own studio or working with local suppliers wherever possible. I also donate to Trees That Count on a monthly basis from the profits of my sales, and as mentioned, prioritise working with conservation/eco-sanctuaries whenever possible to support their good mahi, too.

What advice would you give to other artists and creatives looking to turn their art into a successful merchandise business?

Start small, scale slowly, and take the time to understand your profit margin, your audience, and business practices. Being creative isn’t enough to be successful, but it’s a huge leg up! Artists love to pretend they can’t be good at business, but I’m living proof that isn’t true, and I’m nothing special. Anyone can learn to run a business successfully alongside being a creative.

A lot of folks jump into the deep end, quitting their day job and going for broke, and while that’s heroic and might look cool on social media, it’s far better to test the market and grow slowly and sustainably in a way you can afford. Pre-orders are a great way to validate an idea and get a clear idea of numbers to order with your supplier!

How do you balance artistic creativity with the business side of running a successful merch brand?

It’s always a devil’s bargain if I’m honest. Someone recently told me they were thinking of going full-time on their art to “have more time to work on art”, and that’s just not the reality of running a creative business. I spend 5-10% of my time making art and the other 90-95% running the business. I enjoy running the business, so it’s truly not a problem, but it took me a long time to feel that way about it all!

As I’ve grown as an artist and an online store, it’s gotten more possible for me to make art that I personally resonate with, because my audience is there for me and my originality. I think it’s really important to emphasise your originality and not sell your creative side out to make things that pander to your audience, but it’s a delicate balance.

Can you share any upcoming projects or new designs that you're particularly excited about?

I’ve got a big Halloween drop coming up, hoping to do a t-shirt and another piece of apparel with The Print Room as part of that! There will also be some stationery (a Pepper Raccoon first), and of course, loads of stickers and a new enamel pin! If you like cats, raccoons, and magical stuff, you’re in luck. 🖤

You can check out more of Pepper's work on Instagram and the Pepper Raccoon website.