For as long as she can remember, Catherine Kay had a passion for illustration and design. But then there was life, with all its responsibilities and hardship, and she found herself fighting hard to carve her creative path. “I wanted to pursue this as a career but found jobs few-and-far-between and when a job did come up, I found it was someone else’s creative vision rather than my own,” she explains on her website.
And so, after careful deliberation, she decided to embark on her own creative journey, opening her e-commerce store, which allowed her to have full control of the creative reigns. Launched in 2015, her brand Katnipp is now in full swing, producing a range of paper goodies and pins featuring her original artwork.
“Slowly but surely, I have created designs, from custom portraits to hand-printed mugs (which I do myself in my little studio),” writes Kay. “I can honestly say this is my passion, I am so thankful everyday that I get to create and illustrate cute things with some of my favorite colors & inspired by the things I love the most (Anime, coffee, books & animals).”
Her creative journey is documented on her YouTube channel where she shares the ins and outs of maintaining her online brand. Her style – playful, naive, and undeniably cute – tends to stick to bright, pastel colors. “By zoning in on the things that make me happy, illustration cute pastel happy stuff made me happy, so I decided to explore this route,” she explains.
Solid choice, if you ask us!
