Hi, I'm Marie.
I make sublimation designs for mugs and tumblers. And I'm trying something a little different here.
Let me back up.
I've been a graphic designer for a long time. I’m self-taught. I learned Photoshop back when it came on a disk and never looked back. I wasn’t seeking a degree or a credential. I just loved making things. I still do. I can lose hours scrolling through fonts, admiring color palettes, and adjusting a layout until it feels right. It’s not work for me. That's the part I never want to stop doing.
For most of my projects, I designed for print. Things like marketing materials, business collateral, the usual. It paid the bills but at some point I wanted to try something centered around the thing I actually love about design. The moment someone sees it and feels something.
It’s a big part of my shift to sublimation.
What I love about this community
The thing about designing for sublimation that’s different from designing a brochure or an ad is that it’s personal.
When I make a design for a mug or tumbler, I’m not thinking about conversion rates or click-throughs. I’m thinking about colors and typography. Whether the layout will wrap nicely. I’m thinking about how someone will feel when they look at the piece that they’ve just created.
The makers in this community are some of the most thoughtful people I've encountered in a creative space. You think carefully about the gift you're making for a friend. You consider what fits in your home. You put real attention into the things you create for your customers. That kind of care isn’t as common as it should be, and I respect it.
My favorite moments have been when someone messages me to say their project came out perfect or tells me the story behind the surprise they're putting together for someone they love. The craft is all theirs. I just made a file. But getting invited into that little corner of someone's gift planning is like being let in on the loveliest surprise.
That feeling is why I keep doing this.
"It's like being let in on the loveliest surprise."
What started bothering me
I really wish I could say everything about this space is great. But if you've spent any time buying sublimation designs from the big marketplaces, you already know what I'm going to say.
There are a lot of bad quality files out there. Marketplaces are oversaturated. And the whole ecosystem has turned into a race to the bottom. We’re taught to slash prices, game algorithms, competing for visibility in a system that wasn't really built for people like us.
What bothers me most isn't the competition. It's that it feels like humanity has been slowly swapped out for corporate tactics and strategies. The marketplaces make it hard to even connect with the community you're helping to build. It's transactional. It's cold. And honestly? It started to feel like running on a hamster wheel.
I was making things I was proud of, but the way I was delivering them didn't match why I was making them in the first place.
So, here's what I'm doing instead
I came across a book called Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein, and one idea stuck with me. It’s the idea that we can support ourselves and our communities without manipulative marketing tactics. Without the constant pressure to extract more, sell harder, compete louder. Without feeling slimy about how we do business.
That resonated with me deeply. Because when I sit down to create a design, I'm never thinking about a price tag. I'm thinking about the colors. Whether the fonts work together. How someone will feel when they receive it. The price is always an afterthought, but the entire marketplace model feels built around price being the only thought.
So, I'm building this studio on a different model. The designs here are offered as gifts. You take what you need. And if this work supports you, if it helps you make something beautiful for someone you care about, or helps you build your small business, then you're invited to give back in whatever way feels right and sustainable for you.
That's it. No upsells. No manipulative countdown timers. No algorithm to chase.
I want to be honest with you
This terrifies me.
What if nobody shows up? What if I pour my time and creativity into this and it doesn't work? The idea that I can support this community and be supported in return in ways that actually work for both of us isn’t something I've experienced in this field. It's always been transactional. Every platform, every marketplace, every model I've worked within has operated on the same basic assumption: you set a price, someone pays it, and that's the relationship.
This is a leap of faith. I know that.
I don't have wild ideas about changing the world. I definitely don't have all the answers to what's broken about the way we buy and sell creative work. But I believe, like Eisenstein writes, that a more beautiful world is possible. And that belief is enough to make me want to at least try.
How these designs come to life
I'm a graphic designer, not a hand illustrator and I think that distinction matters. My process involves intentional use of AI as a generative tool, alongside human created assets, Photoshop, Illustrator, and years of learning what makes a design actually work. I direct the vision, curate what actually makes it through, prep every file to sublimation-specific specs, and take responsibility for the final product. The tool doesn't replace the craft, it expands what's possible.
How this actually works
I design sublimation files for mugs and tumblers; made with the same care I'd put into something for someone I care about.
You browse. You download what speaks to you. You make something wonderful with it.
And if you want to support this studio so I can keep creating, you give what feels right. That might be a financial contribution. It might be sharing this space with another maker. It might be sending me a photo of your finished project so I can see what you made. All of it matters. All of it keeps this going.
I'll share in the newsletter how the studio is doing as we grow. Not in dollar amounts, but in the ways that actually tell the story: how many makers are here, what's being created, whether this community is taking root.
This is small. This is an experiment. And you're invited to be part of it.
Something worth returning to
If you'd like to know when new designs arrive, I'd be glad to have you on the list.
No noise. Just a quiet note when new collections arrive.