Ellie Snow is a graphic designer based out of Durham, North Carolina. Named in the 2009 “50 of the World’s Best Design Blogs” London Timeslisting, Ellie’s blog Mint is a goldmine of beautifully curated design inspiration, interviews, and roundup links. (She launched her online stationary shop, Hello Tenfold, that same year.) A catch-all for her lovely personality and design tastes, Mint is a go-to treat for inspiration and admiration.
Ellie was kind enough to answer some questions for Club Haus, and we’re thrilled to share a short interview with her. Enjoy!
How did you end up doing what you’re doing now?
A couple years after college I started working as a graphic designer, and since I was an art major in school (somewhat helpful, but not totally!), I spent a lot of time outside of work getting acquainted with the design world — reading magazines, blogs, books, etc. I started a design blog in 2008 as a way to store all this stuff I was gathering and learning from, and found that I really loved blogging. It became a pretty serious hobby, and my readership began to grow. That same year I got engaged and shared our wedding planning process and invitation design/printing process with my readers. I always wanted to be self employed, and when people started asking me to design their invitations, I decided to try to start an invitation business. Within a few months, I had cut back my hours at the design job and within about 6 months I was running Hello Tenfold and Mint full time. Now I can’t imagine doing anything else, it’s really a dream job.
How have you found a balance between creating, blogging, and maintaining a personal life?
Moving my studio out of the house was a big step toward having better balance in my life. I love what I do, so when I was working from a home office, I ended up working 24/7 and started to burn out. Now that I have a separate studio, it’s much easier to keep set business hours. This year, I’m bringing on some contributors for Mint and am excited to have some different voices there, sharing their expertise! I think the main thing is to have passion for what you do; it makes keeping on top of things easy!
Across your past and ongoing design work, is there a single piece or set that is specifically a favorite of yours?
I think my 1920s invitation set is probably my favorite; I love how changing the pattern and colors on the envelope liner can completely change the suite. I also loved working on the boho note card set, which started as individual hand drawn shapes and then became full patterns.
Favorite song of the moment for inspiration at the office or home?
First Aid Kit’s version of Fleet Foxes’s Tiger Mountain Peasant Song has been on repeat lately:
(Thanks, Ellie!)
