Women Work: Ceci Johnson of Ceci New York

Women Work—No. 4

An Interview with Ceci Johnson

An industry leader and trend setter, Ceci New York started creating invitations from her New York apartment long before luxury invitations were commonplace in our industry. A talented artist, designer and daring entrepreneur Ceci Johnson, the founder and designer, continues to push the envelope (no pun intended!) in the world of design and luxury paper. Her brand has continued to evolve and grow expanding to product and partner collaborations. She is a true pioneer and I was grateful to catch up with her in New York to hear more about her background and journey… 

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Ceci Johnson | @cecinewyork
Creator of Ceci New York

How many years have you been in business?

I launched my company in early 2004, all by myself out of my apartment in NYC with nothing but a passion and big dreams. It’s been a wild roller coaster ride, full of ups and downs, amazing exhilarating experiences and the hardest challenges you can imagine, but I am still dreaming big 16 years later and counting!

Tell us about what you do and why it’s important.

We create designs that represent our clients in a very personal way that commemorates their life’s most memorable moments. We’re a team of creatives, artists, and designers who push ourselves daily to beautify your world. To make beautiful products that inspire surprise and delight our clients worldwide. We have moved into institutions like fashion and entertainment. It’s important because, in today’s super technology-driven world, we’re bringing back the importance and luxury of a handwritten note or invitation. Receiving something special that makes you stop to pay attention in a world of technology, whether it’s social media or your inbox, it’s overflowing. We give a personal connection to our current clients. Nothing can replace that.

Your life’s moments and images must be celebrated beautifully and commemorated. I think there’s something about the keepsake concept to frame your invitations. You see it every day, and it brings happiness to you.

Tell me when you had the first ah-ha that you realized this was more than a passion but a viable business that could grow?

I was designing invitations during my off hours for coworkers and friends when, before I knew it, my name was being passed around and people were suddenly reaching out to me to design for them! It was a reassuring feeling to know that people loved my work enough that they wanted me to design for their life’s biggest occasions. I knew it was what I was meant to be doing because the passion was there for me from the very beginning and still is to this day.

The demand for my work was overwhelming in the best way possible. I kept hearing over and over again that people were really looking for the specialized design that I could offer, so I studied the industry and realized I was offering something no one else was. A personal and exclusive design experience for each client. That confirmation gave me the courage to follow my dreams and take the leap in forming my own design studio!

Less than a year into it, I was awarded the “Top Trendsetter” award and “Expert Invitation Designer” by New York Magazine, which further fueled demand and helped put me on the map. Press started calling and so did celebrities and royalty around the world! Definitely pinch me moments throughout my career.

What is one habit that has helped lead to you running your successful business?

Cross one more thing off your to-do list today versus tomorrow. But more importantly, take the emotions out of it. I’m not saying your passion but rather taking things too personally. No matter the situation, never let your emotions overpower your intelligence.

One trend in our industry that we should pay attention to?

Whenever someone asks me about trends, I say that you don’t have to follow trends, especially regarding your wedding. It is all about the art. Our philosophy is that we create new trends or innovations and are inspired by our clients to create something new that’s never been done before. So how much better is it to find something that’s not on Pinterest? If it’s not on Pinterest and not already done, tap into someone who’s, you know, a talented creative mind to create something extraordinary for you.

What’s the best investment you’ve made in your business in the last 12 months?

My team. We made it through the unimaginable, and I have an incredible team. We have worked hard to cultivate such incredible strong, intelligent, talented people. I am not me without them. I could never do all that we do without the team. So it’s important that I invest back in them to create great morale and take care of them and us as a whole team so we can be in a great place and have a great foundation. To be able to design and do the best work for our clients.

You’re starting your business again at the beginning, you’d definitely do these three things first…

Pricing and the math. Calculating the right amount of time I spend on a project because, as designers, you quickly are just like, this will take me five minutes, and then it takes five hours. My mistake was that I didn’t take the time to figure out the proper rates and costs. Especially the cost of my goods and time. So I was giving my work away for free a lot. If I could rewind the clock, I would make sure that I knew my numbers right away and stood up for what I was worth. So it’s hard initially, but love doesn’t pay the bills.

I would also tell myself that success doesn’t happen overnight. I thought it would just be so easy. I thought it would be a straight line to the top. But, really, it’s just a wild roller coaster full of ups and downs, intense moments, heavy moments, and challenging moments, and it’s not that easy. So I would have much more patience knowing that it takes time to build a brand. I would delegate more. Oh, it was hard to delegate. I was wearing all the hats in the beginning and doing everything myself. And I had a hard time letting go and delegating to my employees, which was the point I had employees doing the work for them. So I would push myself to get out of that comfort zone, trust more, let go, and if they fail, support them and be more understanding than critical.

When was the last time you were frustrated with your business and what did you do to get un-stuck?

I think the obvious answer here is frustration with COVID, that it pulled the rug out of my feet, and we had no business overnight. And I didn’t know how to get unstuck. I fell into a deep dark place. I was scared and depressed. I worried and feared all these things that haunted me for a while. We had no idea if we could party again. But I realized I didn’t work so hard for nearly 20 years to let this pandemic or this virus take everything from me. So I had to learn. I had to think about the other things I’ve always dreamed about and wanted to achieve but never really had the time. And so I started doing two things. One is to help others because I love helping people. So we decided to launch more of our branding for businesses, where we could discuss the brand with them. We helped other small businesses who were stuck and had this time to then help them market themselves and create their branding.

Not only their logo but their branding standards and new strategy and vision for their company so they could come out of it a stronger and more focused place. And that, in turn, helped me realize I need to do the same for myself. Not from a logo design point of view, but from what my business dreams are about and how I should dedicate some time to chase after them even though things are super unclear. And then that’s where I want to talk about the lifestyle brand. We had just started some collaborations with Nuage and launched them right before the pandemic. So I needed to focus on the lifestyle brand I’ve always dreamed about and challenge myself and my team to put our creative energies towards creating more product collaborations. I wanted to extend the brand and beautify our client’s worlds in more ways than just the invitation.

A book or article that we should all read?

My honest answer is I can’t pick just one because everyone’s at a different point in their business or entrepreneurial path. And so there are business books that I read at the beginning that were amazingly helpful. Now that I’ve grown and my business has grown, I am reading different ones. The one I’m reading now is called Traction, which is great because it helps organize teams and your company if you have more than one employee. I actually get this question a lot, so I made a list on my Amazon Storefront so people can see all of them.

What’s your mantra lately?

I have two. Work smarter, not harder, and your hardest day only lasts 24 hours. To me, both of them say what my mindset these days is like. The pandemic has given us this new sense of priority and focus. The desire to take care of yourself to where, especially as a New Yorker, we are so go go go go, we drive ourselves into the ground and completely deplete ourselves of everything. I’m definitely that overachiever kind of person. So I like the mantra, work smarter, not harder. But it has a new meaning now, so I’m trying to embrace that better and extend it to my team. So we are more efficient during the day to enjoy that work-life balance.

How does your business do good?

We design for good. We partner with The Birthday Party Project, which brings joy to children experiencing homelessness through the magic of a birthday celebration. We go the whole nine yards with invitations and party favors. We also find that we can impact by working with other non-profits like amfAR, who are bravely trying to find the cure for AIDS. We find that these fabulous organizations require fabulous design, and that’s where we come in.

How is your team navigating the 2022 wedding boom?

We are embracing and grateful for every opportunity. We love the new creative challenges because I think people are ready to party now after being unable to for two years. Our creative minds are excited to push themselves to do even more innovative or unique ideas and give our clients something new. They’re embracing that uniqueness, and they’re more ready than ever to have a good time and impress and go all out, rather than feeling reserved and worried about what kind of statement they’re making. We’re designing for our clientele around the world. We’re so happy that the borders are open because we have an international following. Our team is loving the wedding boom.

Drink of choice?

White wine!

One thing that’s on your bucket list?

Go to the Maldives.

A word to describe the season you’re in.

Perseverance.

Keep up with the brand @cecinewyork and for a deeper look into her life, follow @cecijohnson.

Click below to read the previous Women Work installment, where I interviewed the iconic Joy Proctor of Joy Proctor Design.