Customer Spotlight: Gravelly Art

Gravelly Art:

Meet Jud Guitteau. Even while he was running a crazy landscaping company, Jud knew he’d much rather be drawing. So he put down his hedge clippers, picked up a pencil, some pastels and acrylics and before he could say “give me a client” Jud was mixing it up with AT&T, MCI, Wall St. Journal, Miami Herald, the US Postal Service, JC Penney, British Music Group, Adobe Systems, IBM, and Microsoft. The Gravelly card collection is quickly growing into a fun greeting line for many noteworthy occasions.”

Gravelly Pet Project:

“Located in ridiculously hip Portland, Oregon, Gravelly Art has designed and sold greeting cards and other illustrated products nationwide since 2010.  We are a family business. Jud is the illustrator extraordinaire, Lynn (married to Jud) is the art-director-in-chief, and Nancy (Jud’s sister) has an MBA, so we guess that means she looks after the business.”

 

How did you get the name Gravelly Art?

“Picture Jud with two brothers, a sister, and dachshund Gus, all piled in the back of the family station wagon for the annual summer pilgrimage from Eugene, OR to their grandparent’s lake house up in Washington. This lake, Gravelly Lake, was the scene of so many idyllic summer days and high jinx adventures that it has become the stuff of Guitteau family legend. Jud’s wife Lynn, who has no doubt spent her entire married life listening to Gravelly Lake lore, had the idea. If everyone has so many happy memories of this place in time, why not just name the family card business for the lake with the goofy name and be done with it? That‘s how Gravelly Art came to be.”

What advice would you give an aspiring card artist?

“Our advice to someone just starting out would be to decide what you are as a company and then don’t waver from that as you grow. Stay true to who you are. You won’t be perfect for everyone. Also think big from the very start and learn the business inside and out. Jud and I new illustration and printing and marketing but we knew nothing about the card business so we had to learn and learn fast. It has been really fun!”