Hello and welcome to the Odd Orange family! I'm Morgan Grice, the company founder, and I thought I would use our first ever blog post to introduce myself, Odd Orange, and my plans for this blog. I'm really excited to have this small tucked-away part of the internet to get to know you all better, discuss tonnes of fun topics, and build a little community!

So First Of All, Who Am I?

I'm Morgan, a semi-hermit/artist/book lover/plant mum with an unwavering obsession with art supplies and stationery. Sometimes I believe that I started creating art just to give myself an excuse to buy more supplies. I've been professionally illustrating and bookbinding since 2019, and at the beginning of 2022, finally made the plunge and launched my own stationery business, Odd Orange. The company is basically a passion baby of mine, with the parents being illustration and bookbinding (and me the surrogate I guess??) To be honest, I love this business like a baby, and I'm so excited to raise and nurture it into adulthood.

Some of my accomplishments outside of Odd Orange include having a book published, being long-listed for the World Illustration Awards, and working with some brilliant clients, such as Little White Lies, Franco Manca, and Title Cards, amongst others. I also work part-time at Birmingham City University as a mentor in residence, providing workshops and lectures to final year illustration students.

My absolute favourite colour is orange (if that isn't obvious), especially when paired with blue - such a gorgeous combination! I love to read and I enjoy pretty much every genre, but magical realism, fantasy, and classic literature are my ultimate favourites. Give me a Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, Haruki Murakami, or Charlotte Brontë book and I'll be absorbed for hours. I also love true crime podcasts and K-dramas (I'm a sucker for some cliché romance), so if you have any recommendations please leave them in the comments below. I would be eternally grateful!

Now Let's Talk About Odd Orange!

Odd Orange technically began in the autumn of 2017, whilst I was in my first year at university, studying illustration and visual communication. Drawing from as early as I can remember, it's understandable that I was utterly obsessed with sketchbooks and the possibilities that they bring. Using them every day for my coursework and personal exploration, I became very particular about them: the paper, the binding, how they looked, how they felt to touch. I must have tried almost every single one on the market. And none of them quite fit me and my chaotic, multi-media art style. After years of searching, I eventually threw in the towel and decided to make my own - because that won't be too difficult, right? Wrong.

I spent the following years teaching myself to book bind, which is an art in itself. It took almost three years before I produced a book to the standard that I'd dreamed. And once I'd done that, everything changed. My artwork started to improve at an enormous rate. Using paper that made my materials sing and no longer hindered by poorly made sketchbooks, I found true joy in creating again.

And just as I was reaching my goal of creating the perfect sketchbook, I thought I might as well try and make the ultimate notebook too! Having always been an immense lover of stationery and organisation, I threw myself into this project with the same amount of enthusiasm and passion as I did my sketchbooks. People eventually started showing interest in the books that I was producing, and I realised that, just as they'd helped my practice and lifestyle, they could help others too. It was at this point that the idea for Odd Orange was born.

Blog Ideas??

I have lots of ideas for this blog. I'd like it to be a link between myself and all of you, to talk freely about various topics and to share work and ideas. I want it to be an educational resource that you can rely on when searching for information on different areas in art, productivity, and creativity, as well as a source of inspiration when you feel like creating, but have no idea what. Let me know in the comments below if there is anything in particular that you would like me to discuss, I'm open to all of your ideas!

That's all from me today folks. Make sure to sign up for the newsletter to get notified when new blog posts go live, and I hope you have a wonderful, inspiring day.

- Morgan