Amy Hastings is an artist, business owner and successful social media marketeer who, since graduating BA (Hons) Textiles & Surface Design in 2020, has developed her career incredibly over the last six years. Amy has an expanding product line that ranges from custom made rugs and throws to hair clips, clothing, original paintings and more. Through building a successful Etsy shop and thoughtfully developing two popular social media channels, stocking her work in shops world wide and working on collaborations with brands Skinny Dip, Kind Bag, Northern Monk brewery and many many more she has built a thriving career all on her own terms.

We caught up with her to find out more about how she developed her career, how she uses social media to support her business (she currently has around 127k followers on Instagram and 32K on TikTok) what her advice is for students, working with brands and facing the challenges of making creative work online. Read on to find out more! 

Since graduating you have created a successful business, can you tell us a little bit about starting out why you decided to make a brand? 

I’d realised in my final year of my degree that I wanted to go down the route of self employment rather than working for a company as I prefer to work on my own terms. I had started to develop my brand during professional studies at uni, I came up with my first logo and had some business cards made, but it wasn’t until I graduated that I actually set up an online shop to start selling my work. 

You have a very vibrant style tell us about how you developed it!

My style has been inspired by my personal collection of antiques & vintage/kitsch trinkets, my love for whimsical art and colour (especially pink). I particularly love Staffordshire dogs and have been painting / drawing them for years now. I even started to decorate old pairs of dogs to sell, and they’re probably the most popular thing I’ve ever made!

What have been the practical steps to growing your work, any challenges and meaningful moments during this time?

I think developing a range of products has helped me to grow my work, I started off with just prints and stickers in my shop. I was able to slowly invest the money I made into creating new, higher quality products. Over the last 6 years I’ve grown the range of products in my shop to include: risograph prints, vinyl stickers, suncatcher stickers, tea towels, woven throws, hair claws, pins & keyrings. It’s also really fun to see your designs come to life as different products. Something else that helped me grow was selling my prints via wholesale to shops, I do this through Faire Wholesale. I love being stocked in shops all over the world and it’s definitely helped me get my name out there! 

I’d say the main challenge I’ve faced is having my designs stolen and sold on places like Temu and Shein, it’s unfortunately one of the downsides of posting your art online. I’ve also had work copied by some large brands but I did manage to get a payout for those.

You have used social media really successfully to market yourself can you tell us a little about this? How you started out and the work that goes into maintaining and building a community online?

I started my Instagram account while I was at university and used it to document my final major project, I was making rugs at the time and would post videos of me working as well as progress photos. It was during the start of covid which definitely helped as I had plenty of extra time to create. After finishing my degree, I carried on posting and creating new work and my Instagram following grew quite rapidly – I think I gained around 50,000 followers in my first year. Unfortunately Instagram is a little more tricky to navigate these days, but it’s definitely still possible to gain a good audience from it! 

A lot of our students are looking to promote themselves on social media what would be your advice to them, do you have any tips?

I think it’s good to post a range of content: complete designs, process videos, behind the scenes, inspiration. I try and post several times a week and post over different social media e.g TikTok, threads etc. Interact with other artists and designers on social media. Don’t overthink what you’re posting, it doesn’t need to always be perfect! 

Can you tell us a little about your Skinny Dip and Kind Bag collaboration?

I reached out to Skinny Dip as I’d wanted to work with them for a while, I sent over a few examples of my work and they agreed to collaborate. They work with a few artists to sell print on demand phone cases with their designs on. I chose 5 of my existing designs that I thought would translate well on to phone cases, I’m really happy with how they turned out! 

Kind Bag reached out to me to ask if they could license a couple of my existing designs to use on their bags. They were lovely to work with and it’s cool when I see the bags out and about in shops!

What has been your favorite collaboration?

I think my favourite collaboration I’ve worked on is a collection of beers I’ve been releasing with Northern Monk brewery over the last few years. It’s something I never thought I’d do and it’s so fun! They also asked me to design the label for their Waitrose exclusive beer.

Do you feel like your course helped you prepare for your career?

Yes, definitely! It was great to have access to so many amazing facilities, the freedom to create what you wanted was so fun. The professional studies really helped me to understand what would be in store for me as a self employed artist too. There are some things that you can only learn through actually experiencing them (for example doing your taxes) but overall I was well equipped with knowledge after my course. I would do it all again in a heartbeat if I could! 

Keep up to date with Amy’s work and creative process on Instagram and TikTok @amyhastingstextiles. You can also browse her products on Etsy: AmyHastingsTextiles 

The Northern School of Art’s exciting and innovative degree BA (Hons) Textiles & Surface Design degree offers students exceptional studios, workshops and resources. Find out more HERE