An Interview with Dollbite, July 2025

Tell me about yourself as a creator! What got you interested in starting a business/making your products?

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember, and being an artist as a profession has been a lifelong goal. After some years of selling my work through the occasional commission or one-off item, I decided in 2019 to take it more seriously and started making my own stickers at home. A few months later, in 2020, I lost my job at the time due to the lockdown and decided to use the opportunity to kick things into a higher gear—thus my business was born, under its original name Owlskulls.

You have a very strong style throughout all of your work! What intrigued you about this style/how was it formed? (was it conscious or did it happen over time?)

Thank you! My artistic inspiration comes from a wide variety of sources (to name just a few: vintage Halloween illustrations, 90s/early-2000s-era Hot Topic, and 80s punk flyers), which in turn has led me to experiment with many different styles, techniques, and mediums over the years. I take my favorite parts from each experiment and apply it to later art, which has gradually led to the style you see today. Even now, I still try lots of new things near-constantly, and so I’m really looking forward to seeing how my style evolves further!

Tell me about your zine/print work! What got you interested in making print products? (zines, cards, stickers, etc.)

I mentioned 80s punk flyers in my answer to the previous question, which carries over to this one! My father was active in the NYC punk rock scene from about the mid-70s into the early-80s, so I grew up very familiar with its aesthetics and the overall subculture; this is where I first learned about and became interested in zines as a medium.

As for stickers, I happen to really love collecting them from different artists and just thought one day that it would be fun to make some of my own! My general art prints and greeting cards started through an effort to make my work accessible to more people, since not everyone is into stickers and pins.

Tell me a bit about your process! How do your designs go from an idea to reality?

When I initially get struck by an idea, I usually start by writing it down and get to sketching, but the process can actually vary wildly from one project to the next, depending on what it is. Sometimes it only takes a few hours between getting the idea to having a completed design ready to go, and sometimes it can take weeks. It’s not just depending on my inspiration and the art itself either—with certain items, I also have to go searching for a reliable manufacturing partner that suits my needs.

In short: It depends! For the most part, though, it’s really all about drawing and working the idea through in my head until I get a result that I like. I try not to force anything.

What keeps you motivated to continue creating?

Maybe this sounds cliche, but my biggest drive out of everything is honestly the act of creating itself. Making art and being an artist is where I feel most genuinely like myself, and it’s basically all I want to do with my life. I think it’s really amazing how we as humans can just take things from our heads and bring it into reality.

What do you hope to accomplish with your business overall?

One of the main taglines I use for Dollbite is ‘Be Yourself Always’. I grew up as one of the “weird kids”, constantly being ostracized for it, and constantly attempting to tamp down my personality to better fit in before I eventually realized how useless that is. After all of that, it’s become incredibly important to me to encourage people to stay true to who they are regardless of what society tells us to be. I like dead things and think they can be beautiful—so what? If I can make even one person feel a little more confident in expressing themself, I feel like I’ve accomplished something wonderful.

I would also really love to build Dollbite into something that can support not only just myself, but my loved ones as well. It would be nothing short of incredible to be able to take care of the ones who have loved and supported me through so much.

Do you have any advice for people just starting out with either owning a business or developing their style?

Don’t worry so much about developing a specific style, because that will come naturally over time. Work with your chosen medium over and over. Try something that feels beyond your current skill level just to try it. Pay a little closer attention to what inspires you and try to pick out why it does.

As far as starting a business goes, I would encourage you to have at least a basic outline of what it is exactly you want to sell and what you want out of it. With that being said, be careful that you don’t fall into the trap of never starting at all because of wanting it to be ‘perfect’! There’s no rule that says it has to be this professional-level brand right off the bat, or that you have to have a certain amount of items, or that you need to check off specific boxes, but it definitely helps to at least have a vague direction to walk in. I would also recommend finding and visiting your local markets to see for yourself different examples of what a small business can look like and be.

Lots of people (like me) start out by using Etsy because of its ease-of-use, but it’s not the only option you have by far. A neat thing about living in 2025 is that we have access to so much information and so many different people online—there’s a treasure trove of free resources to be found with a simple search, graciously provided by those who have walked the path before. If it's something you're genuinely interested in doing, you should just go for it; you never know until you try!

dollbite.com