After studying photography and getting her dual MBA in management and marketing, photographer Anastasia Petukhova hit the ground running. Actually, after an hour-long chat with her, it seems she’s always running. It may sound like a cliché, but her passion is contagious.
Anastasia has several ongoing black and white photography series, she's part of the Sony Artisans of Imagery Program, she does marketing and content management for a large motorcycle company, and she sells her own line of pins and patches. She said some people have even taken to calling her the Patch Queen. She kind of laughs off the title, but she can pinpoint three major letdowns in her career that lead to her fast success in the popular world of patches and pins.
After moving from Russia to Los Angeles five years ago, Anastasia pursued photography full-time for about a year, shooting mostly surf, ballet and street photography. She was shooting constantly and still believes that was her best work.
“The thing is, I'm not a wedding shooter. I'm not a portrait shooter ... I always like shooting something for myself and then trying to sell that — so that was my approach.”
She first tried selling her work by getting a gallery show, but was met with rejection after rejection. Still, she was really persistent in asking for feedback. One gallery owner finally told her she needed to narrow in on a more unique style and build a following. She said, “that put things in perspective."
Anastasia's prints look best on a large scale, so she got the idea to send about 5,000 cold emails over two months to a long list of interior designers. Her strategy was meticulous and intricate and led to a few sales, but she still wasn't selling the amount of work she wanted to.
While trying to sell her photography and build her own brand, she was also working on a project at her day job. The company wanted to start selling pins and patches, so Anastasia did a lot of research on the design, manufacturing and sourcing processes.
This is enough to get anyone excited about warehouses and production — well, we are — but, after her big presentation, they didn’t want to move forward with the project and she was frustrated. That was strike three.
“It was just like, 'Okay, I’m gonna do something of my own. I'm going to do three designs for people who are like me. Who love film cameras, and are super pumped about it.' It takes a special kind to like all this stuff.”
It's been one year, and now she has over 35 products in her store and a team of designers and manufacturers around the world. From the width of the stitching needs to the size of the gold lines in her enamel pins, she’s had to tailor her process to the minute details of how each item is made.
The briefs she sends to her designers include much more than her message and a few color options. They’re intensive studies on the kinds of people who will buy that design and what kind of gear they will put it on. She’s selling a lifestyle and sharing her own philosophy through each of her products.
“The idea behind the store was to create something tangible that you can carry around as a reminder of what it's all about. The products in the store are meant to become daily bits of inspiration, to be something that will make you stop, slow down, pause, think, reflect, make smarter decisions, and appreciate the time a little more.”
Even with a full-time job and weekends spent shooting her various photo series, she still makes time to ship each day’s orders every night. She said, "It's recognition, so I like it." Each envelope she ships out gets stamped with her Lumi stamp, and patches get an extra “Your Patch Inside” stamp, reminiscent of the stacked stamps that packages used to get on a long journey.
To keep up with Anastasia's journeys through photography, pins and patches, follow her on Instagram and visit her shop.