Meet Brianna Fox | Industrial Designer and Art Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brianna Fox and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brianna, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
I enjoy getting to know my customers on a deeper level. When an item resonates with them, it’s meaningful. If they feel comfortable with letting me in on a part of their world, I don’t take it for granted. I honor their confidentiality and want to be open and transparent with them especially about the quality of my products. I think we’ve all become numb to a lot of ills in this world by not knowing where most of what we consume is coming from. It seems many people are feeling this way and crave the feeling of intimacy we have when you know our vendors. I also believe we all have this deep connection to nature and the more we honor, protect and examine it, the better; through understanding nature and and creating art we can better ourselves, and appreciate our innate beauty. I like to help provide this to my clients with downloadable projects to stir their creativity. The projects often include foraging to help encourage getting exercise outside and thinking outside of the box to gather materials while minimizing cost. On a number of the downloadable projects I’m committed to giving back a large portion of the profits to a wide range of charitable causes in hopes to support them financially as well as raise awareness to spark conversations with consumers on various social and environmental issues. I do this by providing a Suggested Talk Topic at the end of the related art project directions. Reflecting after creating your own beautiful artwork is the ultimate therapy in my opinion.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Honestly my artwork is an enigma. It’s whimsical with the subject matter, color choices and painterly influences from my classic art training days, structured because of my Industrial Design schooling and understanding of 3D and perspective but also emotional and obsessive with the attention to detail, intense texture usage and deep underlying meaning. I think my passion to explore and understand as much as I can about Art, Design, Nature and Human Psychology since I was a young girl is what sets me apart. I remember by age eight I could work for weeks at a time on costumes and backdrops for rollerblading theatre productions of popular animated movies starring my sister, my cousins and I. Some of my first products I made from my own pattern in elementary school was a 3D rose using a twig for the stem. I would sell those and customized 3D paper rings for a quarter or fifty cents. Those roses with tweaks are now the Rose for a Cause downloadable templates I sell to help generate profits for charitable causes.

It seems that I knew the type of work I wanted to do early on but didn’t find a name for it until I learned about Industrial Design towards the end of college. Getting to that point wasn’t easy. By age nine I was a child of divorced parents, depressed with a severe eating disorder by age 13; creating art and a variety of designs in seclusion became part of my coping and therapy, but by the time I was in my late teens I had exhausted myself and barely graduated high school even though I usually had been an A or B student for the major duration of my primary school days. This took a toll on my self-esteem and by early September 2001 when I started my first semester at Montclair State University, I had become completely jaded to the world due to 911 and had to withdrawal from classes. My depression had taken over. I took small steps the following semester back and was able to handle a part-time job while taking a few courses. Then by the second year I started going back full-time and was thriving again. The stars really seemed to align when the Industrial Design program came to the University towards the end of my BFA studies and I committed to the extra classes so I could be more well-rounded particularly in understanding the Design Process, Business Practices and Modeling. Through the program I felt like I found my purpose and a community of like-minded individuals. I felt whole.

When I graduated I was proud to find a job at a tech toy and electronics company that over time gathered dozens of licenses so I was able to work on products for the same brands that I was designing for at age eight for those outdoor home productions. I considered my time at the toy company like it was the ultimate design boot camp. All of the brands design languages were so different and in most cases intricately and masterfully done. It was fun to be a design chameleon for a time, but after 12 years I knew it was time to dedicate my full time efforts to the dream goal and create my own brand and business (Fox Art Trail). I needed to have control over what I was putting out into the world and I had this deep, unfulfilled maternal instinct to pass down my thoughts and skills to other people. I’m most excited about this endless possibilities stage I’m in right now. I’m very new to owning my own business, but I have a fierce heart and wisdom from my past to help guide me. I’ve learned that to be successful you have to be accountable for yourself but also loving and forgiving. I can feel pride in having the courage to keep striving to go after what I want.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m from the East Coast but I had to go out to LA for work and I have a few friends and my grandma lived there for a time. I love to go hiking so I really enjoyed Runyon Canyon and the Tree of Life Trail. I would hit up one of the taco trucks or stands in West Hollywood, shop vintage at Hidden Treasures in Topanga for my artsy fix. Drive Route 1 to Santa Monica to see the beach and pier performers. For a fancy dinner or drinks I would go to the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica to their top floor restaurant, The Penthouse. The food was good and the view is spectacular. Then I would drive down to Redondo Beach and stay at the Portofino Hotel in one of the ocean view rooms for a relaxing time listening to the seals and sea lions. I love animals! Then I would take their bike and ride the coast up towards Manhattan beach for lunch. These have been my favorite spots when I visit.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Thank you Mina Grace Solis Ward @thegravesdiseasechef for believing in me and for the ShoutOut recommendation. Also, thank you to my loving and supportive family and friends. You mean the world to me.

Instagram: foxarttrail

Other: foxarttrail.etsy.com This is my store website until I have my own website finished.

Image Credits
Images by Brianna Fox