Pretty Useful Co.
Pretty Useful Co. was founded in 2016 as a small goods collaboration between Allie Mounce and Clare Freeman that has grown into a creative studio serving brands large and small. The team excels at designing brands bursting with personality and creating illustrations and animations that delight and inspire. Pretty Useful has a deep toolbox of skills and they care deeply about what the do.
Pretty Useful: Allie Mounce, Katie Mars, and Clare Freeman
Co-Founder Allie Mounce grew up in Memphis and was always making something. From comics to forts, illustrated books, paintings and extremely ambitious home videos starring her pet hamsters, she focused on painting and fine art until college when she discovered she could move pixels on a computer instead of getting covered in turpentine. She prompty pivoted to graphic design, type, and web design, graduating with a BFA from the University of Tennessee. After ten years of creating award-winning work for non-profits and small agencies Allie felt the call of the wild and jumped in full-time self-employment in 2020. When Allie isn’t working she’s probably cooking something overly aspirational for a week night, redesigning her Animal Crossing island while watching a horror movie, or scouring vintage stores for midcentury furniture and CathrineHolm enamelware.
Co-Founder Clare Freeman found her humble beginnings in the online world of Neopets. Now, a couple decades later, Clare Freeman is an illustrator, animator, and web developer who focuses on elevating brands through clear and compelling visual communication. Since graduating from Memphis College of Art in 2013 with a BFA in Illustration, Clare has worked in the design industry at different small agencies while moonlighting as a freelance illustrator, and then a small business owner. In 2020 she took the leap and got Business Married, going full-time business owner just before the word "pandemic" became an every day part of her vocabulary. When Clare's not working, she's probably tending to her houseplants, attempting home improvement projects aided by the professional know-how of Youtube, or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Partner Katie Mars was born and raised in Memphis, and hopped across the state for a four year stint at the University of Tennessee in knoxville and walked away with a Public Relations degree and headache from all of the orange. Since then, she’s developed her skills in various branches of marketing in the music and advertising industries. Her skillset includes a little bit of everything, but mainly focuses on paid social media, account management, and making intricate spreadsheets. Katie has worked with national clients including Hampton Inn/Hilton and Bass Pro Shops, and local clients including Memphis in May, Graceland, Indie Memphis Film Festival, Memphis Food & Wine Festival, and Baptist Memorial Hospitals. She’s also proud to serve on the board of directors for both the Humane Society of Memphis & Shelby Co and AAF Memphis. When Katie isn’t working or volunteering she’s probably stress cleaning her oven, taking pictures of her four cats (Hall, Oates, Edie, and Lionel Richie) and rescue dog RuPaw, or building elaborate houses for her ungrateful Sims.
Tell us about yourselves, how did you get to where you are today?
Allie: I'd always been a fine artist and a big reader, and in college I realized that graphic design combined the two things I was most interested in - communicating ideas and making images. From there I got into type, lettering, and branding, and later illustration and web design. I've always learned by being thrown into situations I wasn't prepared for - my first job out of college I showed up for what I thought was an interview and it turned out it was my first day on the job! I worked at nonprofits and small creative agencies for about ten years while doing freelance at night before I decided I was ready to take the leap into self-employment. The timing ended up being kind of hilarious - Clare and I both put in our two weeks notice RIGHT before Covid really hit in March 2020, so it was like I quit my job and the world stopped. We took some time to reorient ourselves, but despite all the chaos we've managed to grow and do a ton of work we're proud of in the past two years.
Clare: Although I wear many hats at this point, my degree (and one true love) is in illustration. While most fine art tracks focus specifically on medium, illustration is a specific means of communication. I wanted to make things not just for display, but that served a purpose. My first job after graduating was at a design agency which is where I met Allie. I've worked a few different agency gigs plus freelance over the years which is where I picked up web development, product photography, and animation, some out of necessity, some out of pure interest. Allie and I jumped ship to go full-time together a few years ago and it's been somehow the most and least stressful job of my life.
Katie: I actually started out as a concert promotor, when on a tour and worked some festivals for a bit, and then decided I needed something more stable and less demanding. So I worked at a local agency and acted as their entire social media department for 6 years. They sold the company, and I moved to another agency in town, this time shifting gears to more of an account executive role. Having experience on the client side of things while also having a skill that could bring in project fees was pretty key for us when the three of us started working together.
Clare, Allie, and Katie
What was the catalyst that led you to join forces and create Pretty Useful?
Allie: Clare and I wanted to make some physical objects that were pretty pricey to get produced - enamel pins, fabric banners, screen prints - so we figured it would be fun for us to combine forces (and wallets) and get some things made. Pretty Useful Co. was born!
Clare: At the time, Allie and I had just gone our separate ways to work at different agencies. We missed collaborating and also were looking for a creative outlet. My new job was mostly web development and I was itching to ~make~ something.
Katie: My story is a little different since Allie and Clare were already full time with Pretty Useful when me joining even became a discussion. I was burned out at the agency I was in after performing two different roles at the same time within a small team. I had barely gotten the hang of things when the pandemic started, and the clients assigned to me all had high demands. I had also started to feel like I had reached a cap in our industry in general, and the only way I could keep growing was to go out on my own. Allie had been a good friend of mine for several years, and when I started talking about freelancing it just all kinda clicked that Pretty Useful had a void that my skills could fill. So after a few months of planning on both ends, and one elopement to Vegas so I could get on my husband's insurance fast, I quit and haven't looked back.
How would you describe your design style and how has it changed over time?
Allie: I would describe my style as colorful, clean, and fun. I've always been drawn to geometric shapes, clean lines, bright colors, and funky hand lettering. I would say the main way my style has changed has been adding more skills and improving on those skills, I'm always trying to learn new programs and methods to add to my go-tos like Illustrator. Also, one of the benefits of working in branding is you get to try on a lot of different styles and variations on your style to fit other people's goals, so I never feel really constrained by one style.
Clare: My personal design style I might describe as colorful maximalism, but as far how that gets translated into work, it varies greatly depending on the client. My personal work tends to be more realistic and painterly, while work that's done for clients (often also because it's collaborative, so it's a meshing of both mine and Allie's styles) will often be cleaner and rendered in illustrator. (vs. my other go-tos of Adobe Fresco)
You’ve worked with some incredible clients across a range of industries and mediums, from murals to postcards and more. What’s your creative process like and how do you approach creative collaboration with your clients?
Allie: It depends on the project, but Clare and I have a pretty unique process on the projects we collaborate on - for the Exandria postcards for Critical Role we passed it back and forth quite a bit. We discussed the ideas up front, Clare sketched, I simplified, Clare added, I colored, Clare tweaked, and so on. Basically one of us works on it until it they can't look at it anymore, then pass it off to the other until it gets where we want it to go. For clients, especially branding and illustration clients, we start with written ideas first. What are the goals? Who are we talking to? What do the deliverables need to accomplish? How will we define success for this project? Design can be so subjective, and starting with a clear written brief makes everything else go much more smoothly. Branding is especially collaborative with clients, and it's important to get their buy in at multiple points before they even see the initial concepts. It's important to trust the client's expertise in their industry, and for them to trust that we have expertise in our industry also. Collaboration is a two way street!
In addition to your studio, you have a shop full of delightfully clever products like enamel pins, candles, and more. Tell us more about the shop - how do you choose which products to create and why did you add the shop to your site?
It's basically whatever makes us laugh and that we're excited to make. Half of our products start out as jokes that we end up taking too far and then suddenly we've created a whole line of products about it - the candles came about because at the time we were designing a very feminine and trendy candle brand and thought it would be so funny to have an opposite line of candles called Abyss that were all named after the deepest darkest places in the world. Making products is a great outlet for us to let off steam with no client pushback, just "yes and" ing each other and making weird stuff for fun.
What's been one of your favorite projects to work on so far? What would be a dream project?
Allie: We created the brand and packaging for a line of extra-hydrating water for dogs last year and it was SO much fun. It's called Rallie and it comes in regular water flavor and peanut butter, it's adorable and helps your dog stay hydrated on long walks in the heat. As for dream clients, we love working with other women-owned small businesses and I personally would really like to do something with Target (slide into my DMs please) or some kind of very spooky client like a ghost tour business or a horror movie. I'm a big horror fan, which always surprises people because I'm very bubbly and bright, but I'd love to do something that uses my VERY extensive horror movie knowledge.
Clare: I feel fortunate to say it's hard to choose, we've worked on some really cool stuff lately. I think my favorite project so far has been one that we haven't actually launched, but it involves a murder mystery. I've got a big ole' list of dream clients and projects, but I think right now what I'd love to do most is some sort of surface design like a line of fabrics.
Katie: I really enjoy using my organization skills and weird ADHD brain to do full promotional plans for live events. It brings me back to my roots and keeps me on my toes. I'd say a dream project would be getting to work on marketing strategies for a big National event or touring artist.
Where do you find inspiration?
Allie: Midcentury illustrators like Charley Harper, Hanna-Barbera cartoons and cartoon background designs in general, and vintage packaging always has really good references for logo design. I love poking around in ephemera in antique stores.
Clare: I'm generally obsessed with the paintings used as backgrounds in old Disney movies, I also love turn of the century illustrators like J. C. Leyendecker. Art books, googling -- it depends on the project!
Katie: Reddit and trash tv
Do you have any favorite design resources?
Allie: I’m a big fan of Typewolf and Brand New for design trends and news, and weirdly Twitter is probably the best place for design job leads these days. I've made some good connections on Dribbble and Instagram too. I'd recommend joining a Discord or Slack group for designers, and going to events in person if/when you can.
Clare: Dribbble, stackoverflow... I'm sure there's plenty more
Katie: I use Reddit a lot to talk to other professionals in social media about problems I'm facing. I love that I can get real solutions from real people who have run into similar issues in such an annoymous way.
What advice would you give to designers who are just starting out?
Allie: Ask questions, even if you're worried you'll look dumb. Ask for help, ask for feedback. Be respectful of people's time and energy, but most people are totally willing to help if you ask, especially if you pepper in some compliments. Share your work consistently, even if you think it's not worth sharing. Compare yourself to your past self, not your peers. Make the work you want to be making for yourself, don't wait for someone else to give you the opportunity.
Clare: If you use instagram as your hiring portfolio, make it work-related, not half-life, half-work. Don't be afraid to reach out and ask questions/make friends. Making work regularly and putting it out there, even if it's not that great, is going to do more for your career in the long run than sitting on a bunch of half-finished projects because they're not done to your level of perfection. Don't be afraid to say no.
Katie: Fake your worth until you know it. And don't ever work for free!
What are you working on now and what’s up next for you?
Allie: Working on some new products for our Halloween drop, a keynote for an event in September, a workshop for October, and the usual ongoing client stuff. The biggest thing we're working on right now is a future brick and mortar location for our office and shop, fingers crossed for moving in by the end of the year!
Clare: Got a couple of exciting website builds coming soon, one for another candle company that we also did some really cool photography for that I'm especially excited to launch.
Katie: It's my busy season right now when it comes to client work. I run the marketing campaigns for two different local festivals - one food & wine and one music. Both events will wrap up by end of October and then I'll jump right into the holiday season with our shop.
Thank you for sharing with us Allie, Clare, and Katie! To view more of Pretty Useful’s work, visit their website, follow them on Instagram, and check out all of the unique products available through their online shop.
Pretty Useful was nominated by Webflow. All art courtesy of Pretty Useful.