Willo O'Brien

For as long as I can remember, I have drawn & doodled characters and had big ideas for them. Long lists of ideas, most of which felt almost impossible to create for a myriad of reasons.

Fast forward to the present day, and I’d already taken the leap of venturing out on my own and have a very successful web & graphic design business. However, I realized that I still wasn’t focusing on my art & my ideas! I still maintained a growing list of creative ideas, but my clients would come first, or fear would hinder me and the next thing I’d know another year had gone by.

Over the last few years though, I really started to get more serious in my thinking regarding creating products using these ideas. Because so much of the design work I have done has been online in the virtual world, I really wanted something tangible that I could hand to someone. That, mixed in with all the funny quips & quotes my friends and I have been saying over the years and the countless times we said – ‘we need to make a tshirt out of this!’ – I decided to take matters into my own hands and say “You know what? This is it. It’s now or never!”

I must say that everything came together magically for me once the decision was made. I collaborated more during that time in creating the business. I felt so alive & awake orchestrating it all and bringing in the right people to help me along. It was (and IS) amazing!

I realized that what I have loved about my web & graphic design business is the satisfaction of helping people. That I can provide them with my design skills and create something that makes them look great and feel confident in their product and my design. I have created many websites and brochures that celebrate a company or an organization, and now with WilloToons I am able to offer products that celebrate the individuals that wear them!

I love making people feel comfortable and amazing, and it’s my hope that you put my garments or jewelry on and feel awesome!

I also love sharing my story about how I got started, and think that there are so many people who have great talent & great ideas, but don’t know where to start. Honestly (and I know it’s been said many times before, but I can say it emphatically!) – if I can do it, anyone can do it…and it really isn’t as hard as you think! If you make yourself a priority and envision what you want, you can do it, you can create it!

My mission is to:

• inspire creativity
• bring a smile to the faces of people who see my items
• wrap people in cute, funny, quality items
• offer items that give joy & allow people to express their love of friends and family
• celebrate & empower the inner geek… whether it’s rock, code, design, or just the web & all its super-glory!

Here’s my working mission statement:

WilloToons is one designer’s mission to take her love for the web, rock ‘n roll and cartoon illustration, and turn it into a unique line of products for other geekyfantastic music lovers. Check out the WilloToons shop for high quality tees for guys & girls, super cute onesies & bibs for baby, fun jewelry and more!

See related post: the shop is live! yay!