Story of Logpix - Where it all began

Hi! I’m Lisa

So you are here because you want to know more about me and my business? How nice! Well I’ll tell, and also show you.

I’m umm.. well I have been called artsy, a little weird and humanlike creature. I’m from Finland. Yeah the country that is dark and cold most of the year. So with my art I hope I can bring some colours and warmth in this cold hard world. But I’m not afraid to also bring my dark thoughts out in art form.

Since I was a little girl I have loved drawing, painting and crafting. I’ve always wanted to see the stuff my mind comes up with, but as a person with aphantasia (my mind’s eye is blind) I couldn’t just imagine stuff, so I had to draw them. My brothers and I were always encouraged to try all kinds of things. And I wanted to know how to do everything by myself. And that attitude is still with me today. In good and bad. It has been easier to cope with being poor all my adult life because of this but also I could be so much further in life if I knew how to ask for help.

After rapidly rising challenges in school my ADHD mind was everywhere else but the subject at hand, and I just doodled all over my notebooks. Unless there was music, crafts or art. I loved those.

So after ninth grade I applied to study clothing in Ikaalinen college of crafts and design. Barely got in since all my non artsy grades sucked. I loved the school even though it was super hard.

So finally in 2014 I graduated as a clothing artisan. Now I knew how to design and make clothes from scratch. Trying to find a job where that talent was needed felt useless.

Two years later I got a job at a factory.

It was my first full time job ever. My coworkers there were really nice. But many of them have been working there for decades so the company expected extreme speed from their workers’ sewing, but also quality. Well I wasn’t a very experienced seamstress so I was under a lot of pressure. I knew I was gonna get fired so I just tried and cried. And again. And again..until I could’t get out of bed. At least I learned what I don’t want to do. A factory is no place for a creative, fragile mind.

Since then I’ve been on all kinds of unpaid internships and workshops. I’ve made short movies and music videos with a few different groups, I’ve made unique clothing for theater, I’ve made a stop motion animation, I’ve been part of a team that designed and instructed an awesome camp for teens, I’ve been on another team that designed a house of horrors, I’ve also been a peer tutor for people with mental health problems, organizing artsy workshops. Also I’ve been in some band projects. A few gigs here and there. And the newest project was a computer game for a contest. We had to make it in two weeks.

So I’ve done a lot of stuff but I haven’t made any money because everything I do has to have some kind of purpose for some reason. Also there have been times my crappy mental health just couldn’t let me do anything. But I’ve learned so much new things from all the awesome people in my life that have helped me to push through the hardships and keep trying

More about the things I’ve made:

The start of Logpix

It all started from an idea that I’m sick of trying to find a job that suits me and I’m sick of having to worry about money all the time. And also I had big dreams of changing the world a little and having fun doing it and crap like that. I picked one crazy idea and with that in mind I went to a short entrepreneurship training that was done with video calls and a two week practice with the entrepreneur of our choosing.

I chose the owner of a huge flea-market an hour bus ride away from home. But it was worth all the travel. I got to see the realities of being an entrepreneur. After I heard all the horrible stuff that happened to her business, I realized I’m not nearly as prepared for my crazy dream as I would have to be. After that I decided that maybe I’ll just start with something simple and learn the basics first. Then I’ll reach for the bigger things when I’m ready.

But still I had to start from the bottom. With almost no money, and in desperate need of therapy and structure that I can’t seem to get ahold of. So I did a little research and discovered ways that I could use my creativity and learn new things without having to drain all my energy and my bank account at once. I learned about print-on-demand, dropshipping and starting an online business.

Besides the skills I developed in school, I’ve had to learn pretty much everything by myself anyway. How to use different machines and programs, how to draw and paint, how to make a website, or manage social media (I’m not really good at that yet). Thankfully the internet was invented before I grew up. So random blog texts and video tutorials have been my teachers.

Anyway.. I got an idea. I wanted to start selling stickers with print on demand, and hand made bullet journals and helpful printables on my website so I could get started on my dream to make life easier and more magical especially for neurospicy people like me. I opened my Spreadshop and made a website with lots of promises but I couldn’t keep up with my own ideas. I was supposed to write a blog and have an email list and everything. But I realized that was still too much for me since I can’t concentrate whenever I would like to.

So I decided to just stick with my Spreadshop and sell my art on all those products they have. I’ve had a lot of problems with my website so I’ve been afraid to advertise it. But now it looks pretty good and I finally got some pictures with someone else as a model so it actually looks like a legitimate business. I hope.

What now?

Oh how am I doing now? Pretty well overall. I live with my lovely boyfriend of ten years and our adorable fluffy cat named Pilli in the awesome city of Tampere. We have a cute, old apartment that I love to decorate. I’m trying to gather some courage to ask our landlord if we could paint some walls. I want more color! My style is very maximalist. I like that my home looks like a lair of a crafty adventurer. Full of fun and beautiful things and materials to make such things. Most of my stuff and also clothes are from friends and family or flea-markets. Or self made. I go to a computer workshop four days a week. There I’ve been learning to use 3D modeling program called Blender and making my website on WordPress. The remaining days of the week I draw my designs and manage my Spreadshop and social media.

But I have to make time to also unwind. I do that by playing instruments (mostly guitar), singing and making all kinds of crafts and art. If I have the energy, I like to hang out with my friends and sometimes practice tattooing on them. And when it is a nice weather, I love taking adventures with my man. But since we live in Finland..well we play games and watch a lot series’ and movies on streaming sites. And of course we play with our adorable fluffball Pilli! We adopted him six years ago from a shelter and he is the best cat ever!

I need a lot of time on my own, but I’m very social when I choose to go out and about. I like to make people laugh with my weird humor and make them feel like they can be their authentic selves around me. I’m super curious. I want to know everything and I want to know how to do and make anything. Documentaries, scientific articles and conversations with different kinds of people help me understand a little how the universe works and how our interactions with each other and nature modify our reality. If I want to make something I’ve never made before, I’ll watch some tutorials or I’ll just learn by trial and error.

What does the future hold?

I would love if I could find some clients for my shop. With some extra money I could actually start making things with my hands and sell them. Bullet journal things, unique clothing, pretty and practical stuff. And if some day all my money troubles, mental health issues and stuff like that have been dealt with, I can start my dream business. I want to start a handicraft+recycling center. Where nothing goes to waste. I want to grow a community where creatives can do what they do best and earn their living from it. I want it to be flexible and fun for the workers because I don’t believe life is about using all your time and energy to just survive and make profit for someone else.

I still have a long way to any of that. I need to get my life in order and learn a lot of things and make connections.

But the biggest thing for me to learn is how to ask for help.

So if you want to help me you can tell me if there is something weird going on at my website. Also a really good way to support artists in general, for free, is liking, sharing, commenting and saving their posts on social media. Then the algorithm will push their content to more people 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to read all this. I hope I’ve given you some sense of who I am and what I do.