Interview: Sian Neary, the rebel wedding stationery and zine creator
Sian Neary is working to support not-for-profits and grassroots community projects in all corners of the north, whilst battling against mainstream trends in the wedding community.
Her bespoke invitation and stationery business, Don’t Dream It Print Co, is not yet one year old but Neary has positively fought her way through those first, notoriously difficult few months, while finding a place in the industry with her alternative wedding designs.
“The first few months have gone better than I thought I’d do in like, a year,” she said. “I set myself little goals for a year that would decide if I was to continue. After three months, I reached those goals. Now I just get excited, book events and worry about it later.”
Sipping a brew in Newcastle’s Flat Caps Coffee, Neary “planned everything meticulously” and “set realistic goals” for the first year, expecting to justify her business plan on its announcement, but instead was met with agreement and encouragement. Not after long, she was confident and swimming in the deep end.
Festival ticket for your wedding?
Neary was planning my her wedding, I thought, “I can do that better, and cheaper”.
“I don’t want to sound cocky,” she said. “But I hate normal wedding invitations and knew I could get more creative.”
With an eye for aesthetics, Neary was already freelancing as a graphic designer so had a full and up to day contact book featuring the best printers, as well as the experience to make Don’t Dream It Print It Co work.
Today, she creates bespoke stationery and invites that explore untraditional colours and designs — for example, a festival ticket.
“People respond well the festival pass design because it’s a little bit different. I don’t know why you’d want the same wedding as someone — that’s just boring,” she said.
But those people that do want a traditional wedding “obviously hate” some of of Neary’s designs. This can be problematic when establishing a presence on a platform like Instagram, often driven by “bows, frills and pastel colours”.
“They’re all having the same wedding but on different days and different colours. They obviously don’t love my designs because they are not bows, frills and pastel colours. People comparing me to traditional vendors just don’t get it,” Neary said.
Mainstream rebellion has been embedded in Neary’s company from the outset. The name — Don’t Dream It — comes from Rocky Horror, she explains while flaunting a related arm tattoo.
Starting a business is challenging enough, with so much of success revolving around social media followings, so having the cards stacked against you from day one can be daunting.
“If you don’t fit a particular ideal, you don’t get a big following quickly and lower the chances of return customers or word-of-mouth referrals,” Neary said. “But once you’re in with a network, you’re in with them. There’s still an alternative community in the wedding space which is great.”
Stocking vending machines and creating zines
Between Don’t Dream It Print Co and her day job, Neary rarely gets a moment to herself. She fills any gaps with freelance graphic design work, where her real passion lies. Luckily, the two do have slight overlap.
“I got involved in the magazine for the Not So Average Wedding fair after I emailed the organiser asking if she needed any help,” Neary explained. “Normally, I try to focus on community and not-for-profit projects with freelancing, but originally wanted to do indie businesses as well as editorial work, which is my specialty.”
She wants her work to make an impact because “that’s what graphic design is all about”.
Particularly keen to create zines for a small businesses or charities, Neary currently designs just one zine for Washington Mind, Tyne and Wear, mental health organisation.
“I want to get more involved in social change projects,” she said. “I think people need to pay more attention and not just listen to what they’re told. They need to find things out themselves and make their own decisions. Politicians rely on people staying ignorant, not getting organised and educating themselves.”
Zines, which intentionally break and bend traditional design rules, generally thrive “at times of political unrest,” as a way for communities to represent themselves.
“People give themselves their own platform because no one else has given it to them. That’s why I’m reluctant to approach someone — because its’ their platform to say what they want to say and I don’t want to take anything away from them.
“In the North East, we haven’t had the same opportunity or privilege that other people have had. People aren’t treat or appreciated the way they should be up here. If people came to me and asked for help with a zine I’d be so up for it, but I wouldn’t want to take over something because I don’t know the target audience and how to communicate with them effectively.”
Can you pick and choose?
When trying to make ends meet as a freelancer, picking and choosing projects can feel like a luxury. It can feel impossible to say no because that’s essentially throwing money away. It’s even more problematic when, like Neary, you’re offered something that fits with your freelance brand, ethos and is “potentially thousands of pounds worth of work”, but still have to say no.
“I was offered a job to do with conservation… in Africa,” she said. “I had to say no because I can’t do that half as well as someone could who is actually in the region, who understands its problems and socio-economic context.
“The messaging would have to be perfect and I don’t have the relevant knowledge. I’ve been in a situation before where something’s been marketed towards me and you can tell that it was an old, straight, white man that’s done it.
“But yeah, it’s hard to turn down work like that. I literally sent him an email saying no whilst putting Yorkies [the chocolate bar] into a vending machine at my day job.”
While turning down creative projects, Neary found herself taking on extra, unrelated work. “I took on extra hours at my day job a few weeks ago. I’ve only just realised that if I’m not there, I’m freelancing or doing invitations. I have no down time. But it’s nice to know my rent is going to get paid and I can keep my cat in cat treats.”
Nevertheless, as a one person band, the most important thing is to reach your goals. There is no point quitting an unfulfilling day job just start unfulfilling company, no matter the creative guise.
Still early in her journey, Neary offers lessons learned so far:
- Quit. Your. Job.
“If you are in a position to quit. Do it. I could have done so much more without my day job but it’s not feasible at the moment. The same goes for making sure you do the things you say you were going to do because you’re going to be upset about it otherwise.”
2. Be realistic — no, really
“Manage your own expectations and be realistic — I had an internship and for the past five years it’s been running and no one has been kept on, that’s just not how it works, but In my head I thought I might if I do enough of a good job.
“If I’d been honest with myself from the start I would have much more of what’s ‘mine’. I didn’t interact with anything in the industry for a long time, while I was doing that. It’s only now I’m trying to get to networking events and I worry people will just turn away when I say I’m a freelancer and I’ve just been doing it a few months and not take me seriously.”
3. No one likes a one trick pony
“Become a generalist so you have an understanding of everything; marketing, coding; illustration. Be a jack of all trades.”
4. Doing events? Bring a friend
“Always bring a friend to events. There’s always someone that’s struggling with something so offering a hand is a good way to break the ice. You will also need a drink, to pee, to have a nose at other stands. You need someone to man the stall, if you have one, when you leave it.”
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
“I messaged the organiser of my first fair to say I hadn’t done one before. She told me what I needed and not to worry. Another event I went to, the organiser said she’d put my name forward if anyone asked about stationary. She was so lovely — they did mentoring for free throughout the event too, which I received.”
For stationary and wedding invites, head over to @dontdreamitprintitco on Instagram, or @siannearydesign for graphic design.
