Less than one week after the launch of RISDMade, Andrew Molleur had already made a sale.
Andrew Molleur Studio is one of 115 Rhode Island School of Design alumni-owned businesses featured on the newly launched RISDMade – an online list of such businesses that sell their designs via e-commerce sites that links to the companies.
Molleur, a Kingston, N.Y.-based ceramics designer, sold a large, inlaid ceramic bowl to a fellow RISD alumnus living in Chicago.
A 2011 graduate, Molleur said he was contacted by the alumni relations department and, after viewing the RISDMade website in beta mode, gave permission for his 5-year-old company to be listed. He said: “RISD has a pretty good reputation, so it’s not a bad name to have associated with your [company].”
And that was the hope of the alumni relations department – RISDMade would provide a central collection of alumni-produced art, a platform on which to market these brands and create a broader community in which RISD alumni, business owners and customers alike could connect.
“RISDMade reinforces the RISD brand. If I’m successful, they’re successful,” said Molleur of the marketing tool.
Launched on Nov. 10 and managed by the alumni relations department, 115 alumni artists had signed up by mid-November. They include ceramicists, clothing designers, furniture crafters, paper-products illustrators, leather artisans and photographers.
When calling for alumni applicants last summer, the only stipulation for inclusion was the ability to purchase artists’ wares online via an e-commerce site. RISDMade only acts as convener – no commercial transactions take place on the site.
“We didn’t want to curate [RISDMade], other than the fact that they’ve graduated with a degree from RISD,” said Katrina Ellis, RISD alumni relations and special events coordinator and producer of RISDMade.
RISD supports alumni-owned business owners in many ways, explained Christina Hartley, RISD’s director of alumni relations. Marketing efforts include hosting annual craft sales in Providence; promoting alumni inclusion in international events such as design weeks in New York City, Miami and Milan, Italy; and involvement in an alumni group on Brooklyn-based e-commerce craft market Etsy.
But in these efforts, especially the Etsy group, “there were limitations and it was not representative of the broad range of our alumni,” said Hartley, whereas RISDMade represents the diversity among RISD graduates and the art they produce.
Herself a RISD alumna, Hartley said an online compendium of alumni-owned businesses, accessible not only to the RISD community but also the general public, would reach a larger audience and generate more awareness for these companies than some of the previous marketing efforts.
“We can feature international alumni on this site in a way we weren’t able to do with any other programming” previously, she added.
While she thinks the platform is a positive marketing tool developed by the university, Allison Cole, a Providence-based stationery designer and owner of 3-year-old company Handmade by Allison Cole, thinks it’s also a good way to introduce prospective students to what can come of a RISD education.
Because each alumni’s major is listed in the short bio on the site, Cole argued the platform also “shows the range of what you can do with a RISD education,” especially if the artist is no longer active in the industry in which they majored.
She hopes her alma mater’s new online marketing tool will push traffic to her site from the RISD community and beyond, but says in-person sales may still be her bread and butter.
“Stationary is sometimes a tough sell online because you either stock up on greeting cards or you need it right away,” said Cole.
She is, however, impressed by the inclusion of a note that reads “wholesale inquiries welcome” on the specific pages for artists who offer that type of transaction. When available, international shipping is also noted on each designer’s RISDMade page.
Cranston-based Elana Carello Sweaters’ owner Elana Carello is enthused by the opportunity created by of RISDMade.
“Any high-profile platform that can lead the customer to my direct online store is a good thing and RISD should have a wide reach,” said the 1984 alumna, whose sweaters were worn by Mindy Kaling in the hit television show, “The Mindy Project.”
Carello said she learned about RISDMade when inquiring about the annual RISD holiday fair and was invited by the alumni relations department to be included on the site.
Even though it was launched two weeks before Black Friday, the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, Hartley said the plan is to continue the site as a permanent marketing tool both for alumni-owned companies and prospective students.
