Art and gift store | Growing prairie client base allows graphic designer to let creativity go wild
ALEXANDER, Man. — Two well-dressed women stepped out of a car on a breezy, blue sky afternoon in late May and pulled open the door of a square building on Alexander’s main street.
Wall art, jewelry, purses and a wide array of home décor surrounded the women, who appeared to be in their sixties, as they entered the retail store.
A few steps had taken them away from a typical main street scene in a prairie town: a café, grocery store, railway line, grain elevator across the tracks and a half a dozen cars parked along the street. Seemingly, they were now inside a stylish shop on Bloor Street in Toronto or Kensington Market in Calgary.
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“We get that all the time,” said Kelly Crosson, who co-owns Dundee Designs with his wife, Shirley Lloyd-Davies.
“People come out here and they go, ‘I didn’t know this place was here. This is a beautiful store. It’s like something you would see in Toronto.’… They just find it totally surprising that it’s in a little 300 population town.”
Dundee Designs is described as an art and gift store on the company’s website, but it might be more accurate to describe it as graphic design for the general public.
Lloyd Davies, who worked as a graphic designer for years in Brandon before starting Dundee Designs, creates distinct and customized art to commemorate special occasions, such as weddings, births, anniversaries, graduation and retirement.
For example, Lloyd-Davies and her staff of three create wall art that features a photo of the bride and groom with a background of layered, abstract images and an aluminum design mounted on a plaque.
In addition to wall art, which is the main part of the business, she creates magnets, cushion covers, greeting cards and other decorative objects in a work area in the rear of the store. Lloyd-Davies and Crosson also sell items made by other artisans, including purses, sculpture and jewelry.
It may seem odd to operate a gift shop and design business in such a small town, but Dundee Designs has become a success story in Alexander.
“We are central to so many rural communities and we’re right on the Trans-Canada,” said Lloyd-Davies, who sat in a chair in Dundee Design’s cramped office.
Customers browsed in the gift shop a few metres away while Tyco, a Bichon Terrier and official store greeter, wandered by hoping for attention.
“I’d be a little worried if it was just the gift shop alone, but we do so much custom work for people that helps bridge the gaps.”
Lloyd-Davies and Crosson have established a wide customer base for their art and gifts since founding Dundee Designs in 2000 and opening the store in 2004.
“People are willing to drive out because our shop, it’s kind of an experience,” said Crosson, who takes care of the business’s paperwork and is also a homebuilder.
“It’s a day out for the ladies to check out what’s new in the store.”
The internet and word of mouth have also helped Lloyd-Davies and Crosson establish a clientele outside of Manitoba.
“It’s moving more west. Lots of Sask-atchewan and more and more into Alberta,” Lloyd-Davies said.
Lloyd-Davies got her start as an artist early in life.
She was born in Willkie, Sask., to a father who was an Anglican minister and a mother who was an amateur artist. She grew up in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, England and eventually Brandon as the family moved from parish to parish.
She enjoyed drawing and painting as a teenager and experimented with many forms of art, such as stained glass and sculpture.
After graduating from high school in Brandon, where she studied graphic design, Lloyd-Davies worked for a print shop and then started a graphic design business with two other women. She left that enterprise to form Dundee Designs.
Lloyd-Davis initially operated the business as a road show, marketing her designs at craft shows across North America.
“For several years we worked out of our home, doing the craft shows all over the place: Philadelphia, Toronto, Vancouver Island.”
As business expanded, Crosson convinced Lloyd-Davies that they needed to buy a building because their home in Alexander, a former Anglican Church, didn’t have sufficient space to manufacture wall art and other décor.
Lloyd-Davies said buying the former community hall in Alexander was a difficult decision because she was unsure of the demand for customized art in the region. She no longer has those concerns.
“From our fall sale till Christmas, it’s insane,” Lloyd-Davies said.
It’s reassuring that people like her designs and are willing to pay for it, but Lloyd-Davies does struggle with the roles of running a business and creating art. Mass producing the same design isn’t particularly satisfying but she accepts the repetition is part of the business.
“I have to make a line that’s going to keep the (business) rolling and keeps my staff employed.”
Fortunately, she gets to create unique pieces.
“I love dealing with people,” she said. “The customized stuff — you can do a commemorative piece that is important to a person…. You put all the elements they need into it to be a personal piece…. That’s rewarding.”
It’s also satisfying that the couple’s son, Cody, is now part of the business. He is skilled at cutting metal into intricate shapes. However, they recently purchased a CNC routing machine, so Cody won’t have to spend his days cutting aluminum with a scroll saw.
“He is amazing at cutting. He can probably cut more detailed than (the) machine,” his mother said. “But the poor kid was standing there eight hours a day in aluminum dust.”
The couple recently bought a former welding shop in Alexander, where they plan to move their production facility so that they can expand the gift shop and offer customers hot beverages.
“We’ve been talking about that since Day 1,” Crosson said.
“They (customers) can relax and have a good time…. and hopefully do some shopping as well.”
