BirdSwell featured in The Somerville Newspaper!

The online version is MIA, but here is the article that Julia Fairclough wrote for the The Somerville Newspaper (images of newspaper article below)

Taking a new business venture to the tee
By Julia Fairclough

As they say, gifts come in surprising packages; which is why the story of Julie-Ann Burkhart’s tee-shirt business brings to mind that a losing a job can mean the opening of a new door.

Burkhart, 26, was laid off from her job as a graphic designer for a Somerville marketing agency in October 2009. Just a couple months later, she created her own business that combines the things she loves best, working with art and surfing.

BirdSwell (ww.birdswell.com) touts surf-inspired tee shirts (or “wearable art”) featuring Burkhart’s original designs. While going from graphic designer to tee shirt designer happened rather quickly, it was a process that was perking on the back burner for a while.

“I was having some doubts about doing Web design, and wasn’t sure whether I wanted to try something new, like teaching.” she said. At the same time, “I was talking about doing something like BirdSwell.…I’d see a plant and think, how cool would that look as a design.”

Burkhart sat down to brainstorm with a friend who is a creative director. “He asked what my passion was, and I thought, surfing and art.”

Always an industrious woman, Burkhart researched tee shirt forums on the Internet, and spent hours brainstorming with her husband, Jacob. It didn’t take too long to create a few prototypes, and then an initial tee shirt line. Her work embodies delicately gentle waves, curlicued flowers, and diaphanous jelly fish.

“There was a point where I’d come home from work and she’d have a new design every day,” Jacob laughed.

“It has become almost routine to hear stories about job loss and the economy. However, there is one demographic whose story is untold. The “twenty-somethings” out there whose positions are being cut and the ingenuity and tenacity they are showing in wake of job loss," said friend Marcus Andrews.

“I was amazed at the tenacity Julie-Ann displayed,” he said. “I was shocked when we met for coffee two or three weeks after our last day and she already had a dozen design comps for surf inspired tee shirts. In a couple of months she had screen printed shirts, a new website and a business plan.”

Thus far, Burkhart has traveled to surf shops on both the East and West coast. She learned how to make cold calls and show up with a suitcase full of tee shirts by bravely marching through it.

“I heard so many stories that this was a bad economy, but once people looked at my designs they loved them,” she said.

Several stores in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts carry her designs, and she does a good business on line.

Burkhart grew up in Hampton, NH and went to the beach often as a child. She would watch the surfers riding the waves and was fascinated. When she was 14 years old, she decided to give surfing a try and was hooked. She surfs up in Nahant, and takes surfing trips to Costa Rica and Mexico. She has been creating art since she was 5.

She gets inspirations for her designs while surfing. She will see a piece of seaweed and move it around before taking a few photos for design ideas.

Burkhart, who lives in Arlington, wants to keep her business local. She works with Hemlock Inc. in Somerville to print her designs. She also wants to collaborate with local artists for group shows to accompany her tee shirt sales.

“I finally found my niche, a true outlet for my graphic design,” she said. “I am excited now to get out of bed in the morning and to think of new designs.”

Join Burkhart for a BirdSwell launch party at the Landsdowne Pub, 9 Landsdowne Street, Boston on April 13 from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.

Thank you to Marcus and Julia for this story and spreading the swell!

We found the online version of the article. Here it is – The Sommerville News Article