Today we’d like to introduce you to Beka Vinogradov
Hi Beka, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m firmly in the creative world now, and spent a lot of time there growing up, but my professional background is actually in healthcare. While I did get to study graphic design and art in high school, it wasn’t a career path I could justify to my immigrant parents at the time. Instead I did what I was “supposed” to do and went to business school. I got my accounting degree, my master’s in health administration, and then spent the better part of a decade working in exactly that. I was running the billing department for an adolescent mental health and substance use facility in Portland, OR when I decided to leave that job to move to Texas — to be closer to my best friend, and the sunshine. The plan was to get here, get settled, and get a new role in healthcare. Unfortunately my timing was… well, I got to Austin about 10 weeks before COVID did.
With no work on the horizon, I started looking for creative outlets and after a few other experiments, on a bit of a whim, decided to start making stickers. Timing was a factor this time too — I was maybe three weeks into sticker designing when the 2021 freeze hit Austin. After most of a week without power, I made a snarky sticker to express my feelings about the whole situation, and it took off in a way I could not have anticipated. This one unapologetically snarky design turned into hundreds of sales and several freelance opportunities. There is no one right way to do this, but I felt like if I was actually going to be taking these freelance roles and designing for other people, for clients, I wanted to do it “right,” so I went back to school at ACC for dual degrees in graphic design and visual design.
That was four years ago now. Little Boat Stuff, my silly small business, turns four on January 23rd — and I can’t believe all that’s happened since then. I am still running my Etsy shop and frequently popping up at markets around Austin. Selling stickers, prints, and whatever else I am inspired to make, Little Boat Stuff is where I come to let loose all the silly and the snark. Everything is designed by me, lots of it is handmade, and most of it is expressing some kind of opinion whether bookish, political, or neurodivergent.
All that to say, I’m a UX designer by day (looking for my next big role!) trying to do some good in the world, and Captain of Little Boat Stuff the rest of the time. I’m just a neurodivergent millennial trying to survive under capitalism and love making art for the current flavors of our human condition.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have definitely been some struggles along the way, but mostly in the current job market being hellish. For me, Little Boat Stuff is a big source of joy, but it’s not really enough to pay the bills.
Everybody is struggling, so sales can fluctuate a lot throughout the year. In-person markets can be hit-or-miss; there isn’t always an identifiable reason for how successful the day will be and sometimes it has absolutely nothing to do with you or your art. Due to the logistics of it all, I mostly stick to the larger events now — and I’m definitely seeking new full-time opportunities too.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
While I definitely started as a sticker shop, I’ve learned so much since then and have added so many items and designs to the repertoire. I’m proud of how my typographic prints have evolved over the years — I like to say that they all have the general idea of “you can do hard things,” it just depends how aggressively you’d like for that message to be delivered. I think that’s probably true of a lot of my designs. I am mostly creating things I want to see — like a universal greeting card or a no-nonsense affirmation deck.
In the last two years, my neoprene can cozies have been a huge seller. They all tend to have pretty snarky and/or sarcastic sayings, and several of my designs regularly sell out at pop-up events.
Recently, I’ve started incorporating more book- and reading-related designs. While I’ve had a few bookish sticker designs from the beginning, I’m very excited about my brand new reading tracker notebook and new leather bookmarks, which are handmade from scrap leather.
Everything is designed by me, much of it is handmade, and generally it’s fairly small batch. My specialty lies primarily in the unapologetic snark. I’ve always got an opinion and I’m always thinking up new ways to translate that into something giftable that sparks joy, a laugh, and probably a message.
What were you like growing up?
Now that I know I’m neurodivergent, a lot of things about my childhood make a whole lot more sense. I think I was pretty snarky and curious even then, and I really like that those have stayed with me. I called my mom to ask her about this, and she said that I was very sharp, but bored at school. I got in trouble [at school], but was in a lot of extracurricular activities – mostly creative things like painting or ceramics or bass lessons, and I loved being in the dark room as a teenager. I had a lot of varied interests, but that also meant I never had one group of friends; it was one person here and one person over there and somebody else somewhere else, and I think that is pretty true now too. Fortunately, the things that were hard as a kid have made me hilarious, and I carry my opinions and my arsenal of shark facts into each new day.
Pricing:
- Most items range $5.00-$20.00
- Stickers range $3.50-$5.00
Contact Info:
- Website: https://littleboatstuff.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littleboatstuff/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bvinogradov/
- Other: https://www.bekabydesign.com/
