Askew Design

“Hank’s 5 a.m. classes and the absolute stress of critique weeks were just a warm-up for the latest phase of my career,” says Sophie Askew of the newly launched Askew Design. But she’s thankful for the trial-by-fire of Portfolio Center—and for the constant prodding from Hank, which she says prepared her to push herself on down the road.

Having always created cards and invitations for friends and family, who constantly urged her to start her own business, Sophie decided to test the waters and entered the national stationery show held in New York in May, 2006. Since she didn’t make that decision until three months prior to the event, she found herself with less than 90 days to produce an entire line of work, develop her own website, and create an environmental design for her booth (which, because she’d entered late, was going to be the largest booth for a first-time attendee that year).

Not only was this her first time participating in the show; she had never even been to the show. She had no clue what the booth spaces looked like, who the competition was, or what kind of work they’d display.

So how challenging was it? She starts with the actual printing of her cards: “Talk about a crash course in print production 101! Offset press can be your best friend or your worst enemy. You have to really believe in a product to invest the money to stock it. It was a complete leap of faith. Not to mention the test runs—the endless test runs…figuring out the packaging, typeface selection, creating mechanicals, picking papers to use, envelopes, labels, order forms, business cards, logo, on and on…”

To make matters worse, Sophie was still working at a demanding full-time job. She has vivid memories of crying on her computer keyboard at three in the morning and claims she questioned every move she made. “One thing’s for sure,” she laughs, “the sheer fear of failure--of potentially ruining my reputation in the industry--lit quite a fire under my rear. There was so much at stake. It was equally nauseating and exhilarating.”

The night before the show was to open to the public at 9 a.m., she found herself alone in the Javits Center, at 11 p.m., making the tape frames for all her cards, cutting each down to size with an x-acto knife. She kept repeating to herself one of Hank’s favorite maxims, “God is in the details,” forging ahead.

In the end, no one could believe it was her first year. Vendors lined up, wanting to carry her card line, and her list of clients expands every day. She confides that the two CEO’s of The Knot (her day job) once told the staff at a meeting that if they’d had any idea what it would actually take to start their own business, they never would have done it. Not in a million years.

Sophie agrees: “Without my two best friends, Ignorance and Naivete, Askew Design would have never come to fruition. Sometimes biting off more than you’re sure you can chew can redefine your life.”

That, and a little courage.