Sara McCarthy, owner of Ink Revival: full service bespoke invitations, fine art, design and calligraphy for weddings, events and brands worldwide.
Sara’s resume includes Goop, Martha Stewart, Net-a-Porter & Oscar de la Renta. Her work has been featured locally & nationally by brands such as Elario Photography, and Ruffled, Style Me Pretty, & Refinery 29. Sara’s work ethic and clear boundaries has led to her accomplishments and today she shares with us her success story.
Tell our audience about yourself and a little bit about your business:
My name is Sara McCarthy and I own a company called Ink Revival that I created in 2013. I created it at the desk of my second job out of college- a financial firm in Manhattan, 30 Rock, a pretty cool location- I used it as kind of my home base for clients to come and meet me. Ink Revival is a design and hand lettering, branding, specialized stationary, wedding invitations, little bit of everything company where I do all the artwork and design myself.
What were you like as a kid? What did you want to be when you grew up and what did you study in college?
As a kid I handled projects the same way as I do now, maybe a little more refined now. I always was creative, always drawing, doodling, making bubble letters, writing anything I could in some sort of unique form. I knew I wanted to do something creative, just not sure what that was. I always loved NYC and thought it was an amazing place to be if you’re in the arts.
Did you grow up in the capital region?
I grew up at the northern end of Lake George, in Ticonderoga. Very small town. I graduated with probably 82 people, but art was my favorite subject. I did a few murals in my high school. I went to college in Boston at Emmanuel College, a small liberal arts school. I went for graphic design and my minor was English. Art all the way, I knew something had to be done with art and it worked out.
When you were studying in college did you ever think of starting your own business? How did you come up with your business?
When I was in college I was aiming to be in publishing on the design side of magazines. I ended up working at a media group as an intern and then as a junior designer where we did advertorials for Vogue, GQ, and I actually ended up working there after cold email everyone I could find. I also worked for Self in the accessories closet as an intern, where I met someone who introduced me to someone else and I was able to work there in my major after I graduated.
Can you explain how you turned what some may call a hobby in hand lettering into a business?
A lot of my friend and family at that time were engaged, having babies, and I myself ended up getting engaged, I ended up doing a lot of their hand lettering and invitation design just for fun and realized I loved it so when it came time for my wedding that was actually the year I started Ink Revival.
I was very scared at first, I never put anything on Instagram- that was still a new platform- I was terrified to post any of my work on my person page because I was scared what people would thank so I made a page called Ink Revival. I spent probably 2-3 months coming up with the name
How did you come up with the name?
I kind of had a group session of sorts with 3 of my closest girlfriends and I had a bunch of words in front of me that I thought could work together and when Ink Revival came up one of my friends said you’re breathing life back, and I said OK done! Breathing life back into each line, so that’s now my slogan.
So Revival Ink was started, and I posted small things done in marker, nothing in pen or ink yet. I started using hashtags, which I didn’t really understand could be like a search engine for people. I was in NY so I used my location and hashtags like #weddingcalligraphy or anything I could think of.
A wedding planner in Brooklyn found me and I still work with her to this day. She kind of set me off and let me think that this was something I could do professionally. I try my hardest to introduce myself, send out samples and it kind of grew organically from there.
What kind of challenges have you had with your business?
Growing pains. Trying to figure out how to maneuver, work with as many people as I can but also maintain the quality of the design that I want to be able to give, I’ve set boundaries and minimums for myself. As far as challenges, it’s everyday challenges of growing a business. I’m not just designing, I’m invoicing, billing, and scheduling, shipping, production calendars, working with my own vendors. For one project for example, I do wedding invitations mainly, and it’ll be my printer, my laser cutter, my wax sealmaker, the ribbon vendor, paper maker.
Are you a one stop shop?
Yes. From branding to wedding invitations. For wedding invitations, I’ll do the initial design, proofing, all my lettering, painting, illustration. Because of my graphic design I’m able to provide graphics if they’re not into hand lettering, which is totally fine, I’m open to many design elements. Then I’ll do all the assembly, sometimes I’ll get help for that part since thats more grunt work. I’ll mail assemble, ship. When you work with Ink Revival, you’re working directly with me.
You mentioned challenges and that you’ve set up boundaries. What are some of those boundaries you have set up?
I have set up minimums. For one job it doesn’t matter the quantity but I have a minimum dollar amount. It took about a year and a half but it has changed my business completely. I don’t want to turn away anybody but at the same time, it’s a business first and foremost.
Even though to a lot of people in this day and age like a hobby, it’s a craft. It’s my livelihood, I pay my bills and support my family with Ink Revival. Minimums were huge and boundaries. I work from home generally, and boundaries for me without having a boss to tell me leave at 5 and come in at 9. I was up until 2:30am the other night and then left at 6am to catch a train to Manhattan for an event, then I came back the next night at 11 and then I was up again to bring my kids to school. So I have to set boundaries for myself otherwise I would drive myself to really sick or I wouldn’t want to do it anymore.
Boundaries and minimums were huge for me and they took a while to implement. I don’t text clients, I email, everything is documented. Its trial and error. I get help from other professionals in my industry, but everyone handles their business so differently which is nice because you can find your niche for yourself. Lots of trial and error.
How do you practice writing and drawing? Can you explain the difference between writing your name and drawing your name?
I read this and I was trying to figure out how to answer this because I kind of intertwine everything in a way where I spot calligraphy- which is, in a magazine for example, you’ll see a headline written in cursive. That designer is clearly only writing one file and sending it to be printed. That’s like the names on a wedding invitation, I’ll make one file that goes to print. So to me that’s hand lettering and drawing, I’m fine tuning to meet my client’s needs.
Hand lettering to me is more doing envelope calligraphy, so the guest address on the front of an envelope. That’s not stopping and editing it, it’s more like writing a letter. Drawing is creating a monogram or a duogram. A Duogram is combining yours and your partner’s initials, a monogram is one person’s initials, first middle and last.
Do you do mostly letters or do you do images as well?
I do everything. I have one wedding right now where I hand painted trees and they have a golden retriever so I painted that, and she has a winery so a bottle of wine and cookies because they like cookies and tacos because they like tacos to create a wedding crest which would be the design around the text on a wedding invitation. I also drew their duogram which will be used on everything.
You’ve created a theme for them…
Exactly, it’s a brand. My goal is to create something they can use after the wedding but also something throughout.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
I suppose it’s from who I’m working with. I draw from everywhere. FOr my wedding clients, before coming to me if they haven’t already discovered their florals, their linens, if I ask them for inspiration I don’t want them to send me invitations. I want a photo of a sunset from where they’re getting married, florals, food, settings.
I have a wedding right now that’s at a yacht club in Connecticut, so I had them send me elements of what they’d want included. Cable knit sweaters- it’s in the fall- champagne cart, ropes the boats are tethered with. I like to draw texture, I want to create it for them from scratch. That’s what you get when you’re working with me.
As a creative, what happens if you find yourself in a creative rut?
A lot of the time when I’m working with couples for wedding invitations I get my inspiration from the elements I was just telling you about. However, if they don’t have that I try to do my due diligence to find it, and I know when I know. If I wake up and I’m trying to do a proof for them and its not doing it for me, I’ll table it and wait.
What’s nice is I have a lot of other clients that are brands where they’re bringing me things that are so off the wall to do that are very different from anything I’m doing in my wedding world. Having other projects to work on other than the big wedding invitation I’m doing at the moment will keep my other senses going.
Its photo shoots or brand events that i do or menus, and the styles are completely different. Its having all aspects of my mind on being able to surround myself with other creatives. The ideas will come to me. I’ll literally wake up in the middle of the night and write something down so the next day, it just happened with a bride.
I had an idea that was nothing like what we talked about and they loved it. It’s keeping yourself surrounded by other creatives, giving yourself other projects that aren’t solely one aspect of your job. Pedaling throughout different ways of being creative.
What would you say is the bulk of your business?
Time-wise its wedding invitations, that’s about a year. I’ll sign my clients on for save the dates all the way through the day of. We’re working together for a very long time. Quantity-wise, its menus and day-of tablescapes for brands. I’ve done a few installations but nothing digitized on a billboard, yet. But I’ve done a few installations for local businesses, painting on their walls, things like that.
Can you talk about your corporate clients?
I’ve been working with event designers a lot throughout my career, as opposed to event planners. The event designer is the one that their brain child is this event. They create tablescapes, set up, colorschemes. The logistics behind the scenes is the event planner. These events have both so one doesn’t get worn out. I come in and help them fulfill their vision with menus, place cards and any other collateral they’ll have me do.
Did you reach out to these brands or were you referred?
It’s all referral. I work closely with a few event designers in the city and these are their clients. Through them I am creating these pieces for the events. Goop, Martha Stewart were my photo shoots or weddings that were published. Net-a-Poter I’ve done a few. I was in the city I did a chalkboard for them.
There was a really cool event the other night, it was a screening of Thelma and Louise, the original cast was there and beautiful celebration for women’s rights, it’s been 100 years since women’s suffrage. It’s really cool to be in the moment and you always get creativity for that.
I’ve done onsite painting for Dolce & Gabbana– that was interesting, I had a newborn and she was at my sister in-law’s apartment, to all the mom’s listening I had to uber some stuff there for her to survive because I was there for so long. They’re all a lot of fun, there’s been a lot of different brands.
How have you been able to build your brand and your business in a world of Vistaprint, Moo and Shutterfly? How have you been able to stand out?
Everybody wants to have that one point person that they talk to. In these companies you’re not talking to the designer, the creative, the owner. I am it. Because of the time I’ve been in the industry, 11-12 years now, I’ve gotten to know the best vendors, the best quality product. I wouldn’t want my name attached to anything less than.
I feel like they’re getting to customize completely to their discretion and you can’t always do that. It’s the customization, personalization, one on one contact. If you want a sample, I’ll send a sample.If you want to meet in person, I’ll meet. I’ll come to your event. It’s the one on one contact, one on one everything working with me, creating what you want in a way you never thought you could create it.
Building a brand is tough when you’re up against bigger companies.
That’s where minimums and boundaries come in. To stand apart you have to look highly upon yourself, believe in yourself. Not be scared to show your work because that’s what clients what to see.
And don’t stop. It took me to get to this point it’s been a solid 4 ½ years of working at night. I had a day job, I had kids, I was up until 1 in the morning at my dining room table in my little apartment, doing anything I could to get my name out there. I sent samples to other stationers. I didn’t start as a stationer, I started as a calligrapher until I realized I could take my graphic design skills I had learned and the context I had from past careers. I was the custom print manager for about a year after college before I started at the financial firm.
I guess it’s just persistence and making yourself known.
I want our listeners to get value from the women I talk to and I feel like just from what I learned about you that you’ve been persistent about your brand and haven’t let obstacles define or get in your way.
It takes a while of being consistent. Just put it out there, someone will catch on at some point. It won’t be overnight. If you were to scroll all the way back to my first Instagram post, you can visually see my progress. That’s kind of my timeline of sorts.
If you weren’t doing Ink Revival what would you be doing?
My husband asked me this same question. I suppose I would have to be doing something creative. I could never actually see myself ever having Ink Revival disappear. I would pass it on to someone else or minimize my workload. But I would be a mom. I’d want to be with my kids, that’s a huge career in itself.
Ink Revival will always be in my life, it’s my 4th baby. I can never see myself giving it up, it’s been around longer than my children.
What do you typically do for lunch?
It Depends who I’m with that day. I’m usually eating leftovers with my kids. If I’m out with friends it’s make up, dressed up.
How can people contact you?
