Viktoria Jean

As much as the following designers were excited to share their works of art, I’m excited to share their story of how these creations came to be! These are amongst the most exciting travel paraphernalia I’ve seen in a long time: (i) LAGO DESIGN’s scratch off post-cards from Seoul, Korea – scratch off however you want to make your own unique photos; and (ii) TRAVELEGE’s designer travel journals from Hong Kong. Bon Voyage!

⚓️ LAGO DESIGN

Who: Sung-Yong Ha and Team (S.Korea)
What: Unique design products inspired by travelling the world
Where: ETSY! | Lago Design KR | instagram @lago.design
How to locate them:
2F 446-59 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea | +82 10 9101 6855
What we love: Scratch Nightview Postcard Series!

LAGO DESIGN’s tagline captures the essence of their creations:”‘Life is a great adventure.” We hope you have a great adventurous day!”.
Artfully re-creating notable landmarks from the most high-profile cities in the world and turning them into remarkable gift ideas, the designers at Lago have outdone simple notions of ‘postcards’ by making them an outlet for creativity.

For a limited time, Lago Design is offering FREE worldwide shipping for all Scratch Night View and Scratch Landmarks Postcard series!
Take a first-hand look at these beauties:

(i) SCRATCH LANDMARKS POSTCARD SERIES

(ii) SCRATCH NIGHTVIEW POSTCARD SERIES

5 QUESTIONS WITH HWANG WON @ LAGO DESIGN

VJ: Why ETSY?
It’s easy to make well-organized listings in Etsy compared to others. (amazon, ebay)
Most of all, we like how we can decorate and create our own shop page.

VJ: How did you come up this idea for a business. Is this an interest/hobby?
The idea of the Scratch series came from our CEO & Creative director, Sung-Yong Ha.
He said he was inspired by scratch drawings he used to make with crayons in childhood.

VJ: What are some of the biggest challenges in setting up a business on Etsy.
To overcome fear of failure (about being unsuccessful or getting consumers’ attention), and to be fully confident about our products were the biggest challenges for us.

VJ: How did you overcome these challenges.
As you know, design is a very subjective.
Therefore we believe a design should be for all (not for few) in order to be competitive.
We try to listen to others as much as we can, so that we won’t be too one-sided.
We think these kind of mind helped us get over the challenges, and led us where we are now.

VJ: We’ll like to know more about the person behind your business! Tell us more about yourself 🙂
We are a group of 8 (young, active, and enthusiastic!) people.
Although we have gathered not so long ago, all of us have been put a lot of effort to make this community one-of-a-kind.
Our ultimate goal is to become a community where every member can grow together, and where everyone can really be a part of.

With such beautiful creations, it won’t take long for LAGO’s design community to grow. Check out other lovely creations from the LAGO Team at their homepage, Lago Designs.

⚓️TRAVELEGE

Who: Kin Tse, Frances Que and Team (Hong Kong)
What: Travel Journals & Maps for Passionate Travelers
Where: ETSY! | TRAVELEGE | Facebook

How to locate them:
134A, InnoCentre, 72 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Words from the Owners:
“From designing every page to sourcing all the materials all over the world, I spent more than a year on getting my idea realized and perfecting everything in it. The perfect travel journal was finally born, with all my passion and sweat!”

Logging down those travel inspirations ultimately enhances your travel experience and what better way than to use these beautiful travel maps and intricate travel journals. Travelege is definitely a companion to help you make your journeys alive. Never stop exploring!

5 QUESTIONS WITH FRANCES @ TRAVELEGE

VJ: Why ETSY?

Simply because those people value the start-up’s stuff and it’s easier to reach the customers who like to try new things and have the travel spirit at the same time. And We also got a lot of encouragements from them about our travel journal and travel world map. It’s all worthwhile afterwards.

VJ: How did you come up this idea for a business. Is this an interest/hobby?

It’s Kin’s idea that he wanna make a perfect travel journal after traveling for a year. And actually, at the very beginning, he just wanna have a try and see how it goes.

VJ: What are some of the biggest challenges in setting up a business on Etsy.

Dealing with the travelers all over the world. They would have different questions to ask about our travel journal. And at the same time, it’s nice to exchange ideas with all the global citizens who love traveling (most of them are indie travelers). Sometimes they will give some useful comments about how we can improve our travel journal or what they want to add in the travel journal and travel map.

VJ: How did you overcome these challenges.

Time can solve all these challenges. We don’t really have to overcome it, it just takes some time to handle it. : )

VJ: We’ll like to know more about the person behind your business! Tell us more about yourself 🙂

The Travelege crew includes me (Frances), handling the travelers’ matters and logistics (and of course, I am a travel addict too.), Kin who deals with the production, and several other members who assists for the design work, marketing stuff and updating of the travel journal.
Check out more photographs of Travelege at their homepage Travelege.com.

You’ve seen their products, but do you know their story? Follow more stories of gutsy, artsy-fartsy Etsy Entrepreneurs by following my updates! Discount codes are coming your way.

xoxo,
Viktoria Jean