Stacey Walker mostly goes by Stace (like ‘ace’). Her brand Adventures in Staceland is a unique blend of elegance, style and fandom! Her designs not only feature some of her favorite fandoms (Doctor Who and Harry Potter) but also her passion for photography. She sells her designs on Society6 and Redbubble. For this week’s Temple of Geek Chic feature we took a look at her designs on everything from dresses to pillows and we spoke to Stace about what it’s all about!
Tell us about your brand:
I’m a little bit all over the place, to be honest. I do fan art, photography, typography, digital collages… whatever strikes my fancy. The digital collages with flowers, or as I call them, digital bouquets, are probably my favorite thing to do, though.
How did you get started? How long have you been designing? What inspired you and what motivates you to do what you do?
It all originated with my photography. I’ve always loved to take pictures and have been told since I was young that I have a natural eye for composition. As I got older people kept telling me that I should sell prints of my work, but we’re all our own worst critics and I thought people were just saying that to be nice. I opened my Society6 shop in November, 2015 and was stunned when people started buying things. My Redbubble shop followed a few months later.
My digital bouquets started in September, 2016. I’m not sure what gave me the idea, but one day I started opening up a bunch of my photos of flowers in my editing software and I decided to “cut” them out and arrange them into a kind of bouquet. I had so much fun doing it and it was well received on social media so I made a couple more. Then I got an idea to spice them up by adding Shakespearean insults. After that I started adding Doctor Who quotes, and now I’m also doing Harry Potter themed bouquets.
Inspiration strikes at the most random times and from the most random things. I think that’s why my brand is so eclectic. It can actually be kind of hard to find the time and motivation to work on new designs, though, as it’s all really just a hobby for me right now. My real job, while fun, is very monotonous and involves zero creativity so designing for my shops helps keep me sane, but both can be quite mentally draining.
What have items have people reacted the best to or have been the most successful for you?
My Harry Potter designs are actually some of my most popular ones; Potterheads are everywhere! I’ve sold a lot of posters and pillows and stickers this summer, I like to imagine they’ll be decorating dorm rooms and such.
What are your hopes for your brand?
Personally, I’m happy with it just simply being a side hobby, though it wouldn’t be terrible if demand picked up a little and/or more people reached out for commissions. If some day I become super popular and I can turn it into a fulltime gig, so be it, but for now I’m enjoying creating just for the heck of
I like to call my brand Adventures in Staceland, but sometimes have to just cut it down to Staceland (I’m looking at you, Redbubble).
The 411
If you haven’t shopped at places like Society6 or Redbubble before, let me give you a little insight. These websites are online marketplaces for “print on demand products”. Their products are based on user-submitted artwork. Artists can upload their images onto these websites, consumers can then decide what products they would like to have the designs printed on. You can have them printed as artwork, coffee mugs, wall clocks, clothing, tote bags, phone cases and much more. Pro tip: When it comes to buying clothing on these websites, I recommend always going with the higher end fabrics. Sure they may be more expensive, but the comfort level you get with the higher end fabrics is well worth it. I even think the designs look better when printed on those.
Stationary & Home
People! These designs are killing me! I want to order a hundred notebooks. I love the designs! I love that you can order all these designs as postcards, note cards, posters, wall art, stickers and so much more! I want them all. That is all! Well that is not really all I want to say, but they are great designs. I struggle to incorporate geek into my home decor. I love interior design and I love trying to keep up with modern styles. But there isn’t much geek stuff that I can incorporate into my home decor. And a lot of what I find in stores, that is fandom based, always looks like it is made for kids or it is very masculine. I feel like large retailers are missing the mark when it comes to merchandising their geek products for home and stationary. Sometimes the designs feel overwhelming. Stace has found a way to bring a little more elegance into our geek home decor. And talk about being relevant! Stace knows what is up! Just in time for the premiere episode of Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor on Doctor who, this 13th Doctor Throw Pillow says “Oh, Brilliant!” in Gallifreyan! I really love the color blue she chose. It makes it easier to style! My patronus is this Cuppa Patronus Coffee Mug! Because the no coffee struggle is real!
Clothing
From Redbubble we tried on the “School Spirit – Faded” A-Line Dress. First and foremost I absolutely love the design. When you think of Harry Potter themed clothing, pastels and roses are not what immediately come to mind. But I love how this Hogwarts crest looks with the flowers! The design is elegant and soft. It is not overwhelming. It is subtle enough to wear to work. The design is truly lovely. This dress has the design on both the front and back of the dress. The dress itself is not very flattering. Redbubble makes their A line dresses in a simple triangle shape. That is done so that any design on their site can be easily printed onto the dress. But the triangle/A-Line shape design of the dress hides your figure. This is good is you want something comfortable to wear and don’t care about showing off your shape. The dress is definitely very comfortable. But the fact that it hides you shape makes it a little harder to style. We paired this dress with a long sweater, tights and boots. I think this dress would work great as a maternity dress. Like with everything we review, we recommend checking the size chart. This dress runs a little long, so it might be overwhelming if you are shorter than 5’4″. I would definitely recommended this design on the tanks or chiffon tops offered by Redbubble. I think this would pair nicely with a cute pair of dress slacks or a skirt. This design is available in everything from T-shirts to wall art.
From Society6 we took the Harry Quacker T-shirt and paired it with a checkered skirt and a black moto jacket. Honestly we are all about the monochrome look with just a tiny pop of color! And really… we love any opportunity to dress up a graphic tee! The white t-shirt displays a quote from the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where Arthur Weasley asks Harry Potter about muggle toys. “Tell me, what exactly is the function of a rubber duck?” It is a really fun design! I am low-key in love with the idea that they offer this design as leggings!
If you want to check out all the fun designs Stace has come up with, check out the links below and do some exploring on her sites.
Website & Social Media Links:
Society6.com/adventuresinstaceland
Redbubble.com/people/staceland
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