After Amanda and I decided we were going to open a store and settled on a name, the first call we made was to Karli Kujawa-Smith. At the time, the 28-year-old designer (BFA in Visual Communications, Truman State University, MA Metals, Ball State) lived in Irvington and had already handled print and web design for the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange for a year leading up to that fateful day. Kujawa-Smith recently relocated to Chicago with her husband but she continues to work on design jobs from clients in Indianapolis and all points beyond.

You’re a jewelry maker as well as a designer. What led you to choose design as a career path?

I chose to be a designer (whether print, web or jewelry) because it was the best way to meld my creativity with my type A, perfectionist tendencies. I get to play with color, pattern and type everyday for a living – I can’t think of anything better than that.

Tell me a bit about the work you’ve done for Homespun – what inspired it and what ideas/themes were you trying to communicate with it?

As the designer tasked with creating homespun’s visual identity, brand and promotional materials I wanted to emphasize two main characteristics of homespun: high quality handmade and contemporary style. When you first approached me to create a logo for the store, I was inspired by the name homespun and how it immediately conjured an image of a handspun ball of yarn. The yarn ball image was the launching point for all the items to follow.

With the promotional materials I wanted to incorporate other handmade items that would be sold at the store, as well as, potential classes that may be taught. Amanda enlisted the help of local illustrator, Candice Hartsough McDonald, to create a number of custom images that I was able to incorporate into the promotional materials to continue the idea of “handmade”.

Now that you’ve moved to Chicago, what does the future hold for The Hot Cookie?

I am in charge of The Hot Cookie’s branding, marketing efforts and online sales. Since I recently moved to Chicago for my husband’s work, The Hot Cookie is looking to expand to the Chicagoland area. I am doing research on local independent grocers and coffee shops that would be a good fit for our product. I continue to meet up with my partner, Sarah, twice a month to pick up cookies for shipment across the country from our online sales. We are looking into getting an intern or part-time baker to assist Sarah with the cookie production. My move to Chicago is just a chance for us to branch into a larger market and we are extremely excited by this opportunity!