MAKE YOUR MARK: Ian De Graff

IanDeGraff_Owner_Kafoury

What’s you name?

Ian De Graff

Where are you located?

Portland, OR

If you could describe what you do for a living on your own terms, what would you say?

I am an individual that designs or curates pieces and collections by personal style and liking for sale to the general masses. 

Aside from your given title, would you say there are any other titles or hats you wear in this position?

I would say my main title would be founder and designer. Aside from the multiple hats that come with just those positions, as a start-up, I am also wholesale/sales manager and shipping manager at the moment. When you start up a company you do end up wearing a lot of hats.

Is this what you always wanted to be when you grew up?

Not necessarily. I remember a few things I loved to do growing up: playing soccer, drawing & being creative and building legos. What stuck with me most was that I've always loved to build and create so it makes total sense in what I am doing today.

Can you put into words your career history to date?

My career began just about six years ago visiting an aunt who taught me how to sew. She gave me a few leather and canvas scrap pieces and access to her machine and I went away creating something I needed. At that time it was a wallet. From that point on I came home trying new materials, buying sewing machines, making hundreds of samples over the course of the years, learning sewing patterns and designs, as well as studying fashion. I found my heart in simplistic design and created my own brand a year ago.

If there was ever a time where you weren’t working for yourself, how did you make the leap from working for someone to working for yourself? Was it an easy transition?

First off, making the leap from working for someone else to working for yourself is a huge challenge that is not always easy. Throughout the years I've had great support from my wife, family and friends. If it wasn't for them I could have never made that jump.

Before the time of working fully for myself I went in and out of a few jobs. While I was working as a barista I hit a road block in my life where I was tired of working a dead-end job that I didn't love. From there I began to create my first collection of leather goods and pursued my own brand. My wife who worked for her family business was able to support us as we made the transition of me working as a barista to putting out a collection and working odd-jobs to fully working for myself.

Coming back to the present, (haha) what is your morning routine before you start the day?

Most mornings I try to rise as early as possible. A must-do to get the day started off right. I try to read the Bible and meditate on the day soon after. Think about what needs to be done and plan for execution of all that.

Describe what you do between stepping into your work space and then calling it a wrap at the end of the day (Basically, your average work day):

First thing I do when I get to work is check on emails. Once I am caught up I try to connect with a few new people each day. Whether that be an inspiring artist or photographer or a shop or boutique that could carry my products. From there I work on what needs to be done for production of the business then move towards marketing. Posting content on social media and connecting with people on there. Social Media tends to be a task that is managed throughout the day. From there I work on future collaborations or collections for the brand. Sketching, drawling, measuring and making samples. In the early days of a start-up there are no hour limits to your day. I may have a small break in between each part of the day but mostly work until I can't. Especially in this beginning season of the brand.

What is your favourite part of the day?

The best part of my day would be the work part of the day in general. Since I get to do what I love it doesn’t feel like it will be the death of me to put in extra hours. It's truly a joy to create in my mind, draw it down, make a sample, get it into production and market & sell it to the public.

How do you define internal and external success in all that you do?

I would define my internal successes primarily as working a full day. A part of that day is learning something new personally or something new to apply to the business, whether that be in design or business or a new strategy.

External success would be for an individual to love the product all the way to purchase and have them enjoy that piece for many years to come. Other external success could be getting press features from blogs, magazines, etc.

What has been the biggest success so far and why?

One of the biggest successes I've had within all of my work comes from a more personal stand point.To believe in doing what I love and that I can get it done. This has effected everything as a whole. When I came to a point in my life where I was fed up with working jobs that I never fully loved or was passionate about I searched for something that I did love and would do for a very long time. For a long time it was the worry of being able to get the job done right, to not fail. Also, largely to do something different than the normal 4-year degree and desk job. Personally I couldn't settle for that. Not to diminish any jobs like that or anything. I'm personally just wired differently. This lead me to believe in who God created me to be and honor that I am like I am.

This then lead me to jump over HUGE hurdles of fear and failures to come. It's known to be said around the industry that we are in the work of failures but the greatest thing is believing you can do what you love to the point of actually making it happen and never giving up. Failures will come and so will success but I truly believe you can't totally fail at all until you give up completely. That is the moment of failure.

This has affected how I approach everything I do. I continually learn and get better at what I do, but never ever believe that I should call it quits. Some days are hard but I just can't quit -  it's outside of my mind now. This has been the biggest success and has affected everything because I am working at my dream job and that gives me the will to keep getting better every day. When you do something you love things such as overtime, early mornings, late nights, education and learning new trades all start to seem natural. Which all lead to successes of the business.

With all that success there’s bound to be some overwhelming moments, how do you overcome the bumps along the way?

I've learned in my industry there are lots of moments of failures. Like I said before, we call it the industry of failure. If I were ever to advise someone coming into my position I would tell them to prepare to fail. We can't get hung up on the failures. They will always come here and there. I heard someone say once that the most successful business owners or entrepreneurs always have something in the oven in terms of ideas. Once they take something out of the oven they put something new in and if that thing they took out fails they continue on to the next idea and so on and so forth. It's all about learning from the failures and moving on to the next thing.

Ok, so you’re sitting at a cafe across the table from your biggest career inspiration, who is it and why?

Stephen from Stephen Kenn. Stephen is a designer based in Los Angeles who creates furniture and bags. Stephen is not only an amazing creator but a great guy in general. He pursues normal everyday life and relationships with intention and heart. I would sit down with him any day to learn more about life, career and doing what you love well.

Now, someone new to the career field is sitting across the table from you, what advice do you give them?

I would encourage them in who they are and in their creations. The biggest weapon we have is believing in who we are. Believing in what we can do and that we can do it. To search for their liking in style, design or creations and focus on that. Focus on originality and creating something they love.

Always have something in the oven. Don't hang onto failure, learn from it.

Would you go back and do any of it differently or just the same?

I learned a lot along the way. I wouldn't change it in any way but if I were to do it again I would remind myself to work on creating the best product I could and to work hard to get it out there into the public eye.

So if that little kid you used to be before looked at you now, do you think they’d be excited to grow up?

Absolutely. I would be excited to continue to explore creativity, working with my hands and working hard to make it my everyday job. I also would be excited to work along with other creative designers and people.

What do you want to do next?

I have goals to continue to create new and different things. Bags are great but I'd love to explore the world of apparel, architecture and create a one-for-one to give back to those in need.

What is your favourite saying/inspirational quote?

There are a lot of things we cannot control in life but one thing we can control is giving it our all.


TO SEE MORE OF Ian & his WORK, CHECK him OUT ONLINE:  WEBSITE | INSTAGRAMTWITTER