Indie Designers Q&A: Cupsie’s Creations

Published on: January 16, 2023

Meet Charlotte and Michael, the creative minds behind Cupsie’s Creations, the latest in our independent designer spotlight and Q&A! These funny and creative designs are seen across the Funky Pigeon website, with fun and colourful designs for almost every occasion. So, join us as we jump in and learn more about the designers behind Cupsie’s Creations and what inspires them. Plus, don’t forget to check out some of their cards for yourself at the end of the article.

Introduce yourself…

Hello, we’re Charlotte and Michael, a Husband-and-Wife duo from South Yorkshire. We started the brand Cupsie’s Creations in January 2021 as just a hobby for Charlotte. As a full-time stay-at-home Mum of two, it gave her something else that she loved to do to focus on as a release from the day-to-day. Charlotte is the artist and hand illustrates all our designs, and Michael helps by doing all the formatting, uploading etc. We absolutely love reading all the amazing reviews our customers write about our designs.

What are the challenges you face as an independent artist? And the joys?

It’s hard as an independent designer working from home with a young family to find the time to sit down and bring the ideas in your head to life. We have lists of ideas saved in our phones, scribbled down on scraps of paper that may never ever be completed. Not working as part of a large team has its challenges too as we only have each other to bounce ideas off.

On the other hand, it’s also great being a stay-at-home Mum and working from home. I love that I get to see my children growing up. Lots of parents don’t get the privilege of doing so because they must travel to work every day.

Describe your typical work day…

Wake up, get the kids ready, take my eldest to school, housework until my youngest takes a nap around dinnertime. Hope she naps for a while so I can sit down and draw! More family stuff until the kids are both in bed, then I can draw again for an hour until I go to bed too.

Michael works full time on random shift patterns, so he helps out with the kids and housework when he can, and does our card formatting/uploading as and when he has free time.

What sort of cards do you love to design?

We love to design cards that make people laugh, something that they can relate to in their everyday life.

How did you get into greeting card design?

We initially started out designing products for Red Bubble such as T-shirts, but after not having much luck due to the saturated marketplace, a friend suggested a print on demand greeting card website that he had seen advertised (I think on TV). The second card we had accepted into the sites catalogue took off and after a few hundred sales we were hooked.

What’s your creative process?

We come up with an idea in our heads and usually run it by each other first, once we have a phrase that we want to use on the card, Charlotte draws the design using her iPad and procreate. Once she’s happy with it, she sends it to Michael on the PC and he formats the design to the correct size and adds the text. We then run the final design by each other and sometimes agree to disagree!

What or who inspires your work?

Everyday life, things that “ordinary” people can relate to such as a pile of dirty laundry, or a husband/boyfriend walking into the bathroom to use the loo while you’re in the bath. It’s sometimes the simple things in life that make the funniest designs.

What do you like to do outside of work?

We both like to play video games or watch TV series together, neither of which we’ve had much time to do since starting Cupsie’s Creations!

What are your favourite cards that you’ve designed & why?

Our bath time toilet humour design below is one of our favourites! Although this is something Michael would never dare do (thankfully we have 2 toilets!) we know it happens. The reviews from our customers that have bought this design have been great, we’ve even had customers asking for completely different text on the design which just shows how relatable this design is.

Another of our favourite designs that always gets our customers talking is the favourite dinosaur Birthday card. Charlotte came up with this idea randomly when watching a children’s TV program, she asked our eldest Daughter what her favourite Dinosaur was and the idea was born.

Our knockers birthday card has to come out on top, of all of our designs this is the first one that we brainstormed together. In the early days of Cupsie’s Creations, it got us off the ground and still sells well today almost two years on.