I recently picked up 2 T-shirts (a yellow T with the 2 giraffes seen below, sans arrows and a navy T with a giant panda – also snagged at half price!) by the Crowded Teeth gal – a self-taught illustrator named Michelle Romo. I hate that she’s self taught. Ok, over it now. But I love her style of illustrations, color palette, and little stories behind her characters along with her fabric-like swatches of patterns. She’s got T-shirts, key chains, paper sculpture products, bags, wallets, mittens. More importantly, I really dig her branding, her website, and how she’s marketed her company. I’ve been hyper aware of that sort of thing ever since we started thinking about love + scorn.  The success story – How did she get to where she is now? How did she get companies (like ModCloth) to buy her products to sell on their websites? How did she get people to recognize her? I know that we can be the well-oiled machine like the companies we admire. But for my head, it’s a matter of visualing that path.