The Creative Career of Gem Leslie
What is Creative Careers on Massive Orange Book?
In the Creative Careers series here on Massive Orange Book, we are going to be shining the spotlight on clever, talented and ambitious individuals who have crafted their own perfect space in the creative world.
We’re going to look at their work, how they have turned their creativity and skill into a successful career, and what others can learn from their practice. This will be a space for tell-all interviews, detailed features and juicy stories, to offer unique ideas and inspiration to those wanting to take their own project to the next level.
The Creative Career of Gem Leslie
This week, in Creative Careers, we’re going to be shining the spotlight on Gemma Leslie, or Gem Leslie as she calls herself on Instagram. Gemma Leslie is a multi-disciplined artist and designer based in Melbourne, specialising in illustration, art direction, graphic design, creative research, branding and social media.
Below are some recent paintings Gem shared on her Instagram, which I’m completely obsessed with. These are all available to buy via her website, so I’d recommend following her on Instagram to keep up to date with her latest pieces. They sell out pretty quickly, so you need to be on it!
A graphic designer by trade, Gem is also the fabulous foodie poster artist behind Food For Everyone, a not for profit culinary poster shop that donates all profits to Fareshare Australia, who provide healthy meals for those going through hardship. The limited-edition posters are so gorgeous and will easily brighten up any kitchen or dining space, and the money goes to an amazing cause.
The summery, bright posters feature recipes from Australian chefs, such as a rendition of Pidapipo’s strawberry sorbetto by Lisa Valmorbida; Cumulus Inc’s tuna tartare with crushed peas by Andrew McConnell; Firedoor’s pipis, karkalla and native citrus by Lennox Hastie; and Tonka’s halwa carrot cake by Kay-Lene Tan.
Following the sell-out success of the first collection which raised $41,585.33 for FareShare. Leslie has recently done her second run of limited-edition prints, which feature each chefs’ recipes translated into artworks that embody organic forms, imperfections and bright colours and raised another $26,211.37.
On the 5th March, Gem shared a post on the Food For Everyone Instagram showing the donation of $26,211.37 that she has made to @fareshare_australia, from the profits of her posters. For other aspiring artists who are looking to do a similar type of project for a cause they care about, this transparency is a great way to use social media in this instance, so everyone who bought a poster can get a sense of achievement when they see what they have been part of. Please feel free to leave a comment below to any links of similar projects you’ve done for a good cause!
“Food For Everyone is my way of bringing a touch of happiness into people’s homes during an extremely difficult time,” said Leslie in a press release. “For me, this project was born out of my love for sharing food with family and friends. Coming together and sharing a meal is a communal and binding act—an act that is understood globally. I wanted the posters to capture that spirit.”
“By collaborating with some of the country’s best chefs and cooks, Food For Everyone honours those who have made a lasting impact on Australia’s food scene, while allowing people to own a small piece of culinary history. Most importantly, it puts food on the table for those in need through the work of our friends at FareShare.”
I love everything about this project, and one thing I think works well is the exclusivity placed around the posters, by making each series a limited edition. If a potential customer is told a product will soon be unavailable to purchase, many people will buy there and then, or at least set themselves a timely reminder to purchase.
For a project such as this, with a charity initiative involved, it’s also useful to make things current and create a demand, to ensure you raise funds promptly and create a buzz around a new product line.
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Gem is also the owner and founder of Scottie Store, a beautiful French linen bedding brand with equally stunning branding and website. All the products are cut from 100% French flax linen that has been carefully selected to deliver the best sleeping experience possible. As if any of us needed an excuse to get back into bed?
The brand is minimalistic, elegant and simple, and I’d like to kit out my whole house with every product, tbh. Interestingly, contrary to the belief that the quality of a sheet can be determined solely by its thread count, flax linen has a very low count due to the thickness of the fibres. This gives the fabric its distinctive loose weave, making it far more breathable and durable than finer cottons. It also means the fabric becomes softer and more comfortable the more you wash it. Yes, you read that correctly. Sheets that get softer with each wash, what a dream! Grown and woven in France from the sustainable flax plant, the fabric is recyclable and biodegradable. If you fancy getting lost in a cosy Instagram-hole, I’d recommend the Scottie Store Instagram page…
She also designed a wine label
Gem has done a number of other wonderful projects during her design career, including designing a wine label for Solar Wines. So sick!
To sum up, this article can basically be considered a piece of fan-art; because I just had to spell out how obsessed I am with all the different elements of Gem’s creative ventures. I love that each of these incredible brands go perfectly hand in hand when it comes to aesthetics, and I think Gem sets an incredible example of how to do it right when trying to build an online presence for your different creative ventures.
4 Things Gem Does Extremely Well:
- Glowing online portfolio – Gemma has excellent websites with professional layouts and large images to showcase her design work and products visually as possible. Everything is clear and easy to understand, and there’s no fluff or jargon anywhere to be seen.
- Social media is on point – She also has well managed Instagram profiles, both personal and for each brand, with clear themes and a nice crossover that allows people to delve into the brand story a little bit more.
- Good ideas and quality products – Both the linen sheets and the culinary posters are things I’d love to have in my home. The linen sheets are sustainable and fantastic quality, coming in a variety of shades and tones to suit any home, and the posters are for an amazing cause, with ALL the profits going to Fareshare Australia. I like that Gem has been transparent in sharing how much she’s donated to the charity through sharing screenshots in her Instagram posts. People are grasped by this transparency when it comes to money and encourages people to buy as they can feel confident seeing where their money is going.
- The power of collaboration – By collaborating with celebrated chefs with their own respective following and loyal audience, Gem will have been able to utilise this in the promotion of Food For Everyone. It’s a great idea to launch an artistic collection that celebrates the work of others in a niche. Posters to celebrate chef’s dishes, sculptures to celebrate an fiction author’s main characters, paintings of homeware designers latest collections – anything that those individuals would be proud to share with their own networks gets a big thumbs up.
I hope you enjoyed this ep of Creative Careers. We can all take some inspiration of a portfolio this well put together, and products that are easy to market and build an audience for. Big fan!
I’m constantly looking for creatives to feature on Massive Orange Book, whether you do your gig full time or as a side project. Please feel free to drop me an email at polly@massiveorangebook.com, with a short bio about you and your work, links to your portfolio and Instagram accounts and we can go from there.
P x
