Making Her Mark: Ellen Daigle's Silkscreening Business Blossoms Over the Years
By Ryan Carter Staff Writer
Posted: 05/07/2010
SOUTH PASADENA - If Ellen Daigle could silk-screen her own shirt it would say, "There's no such thing as luck." But she'll admit that along with a lot of marketing and hard work, her business, Ellen's Silkscreening, also benefitted from some good timing. For 32 years, Daigle's business has designed and created messages on clothing for clients ranging from from museums to sports teams.
LADDER OF SUCCESS
WHAT: Ellen's Silkscreening
WHO: Ellen Daigle
WHERE: 1500 Mission St., South Pasadena
CONTACT: 626-441-4415
WEB: www.ellenssilkscreening.com
SECRET OF SUCCESS: Be passionate about what you do. be honest and honorable.
For Daigle, 68, the process of creating a design, a message, to put on a piece of clothing is nothing short of art. There's the shirt with the skeleton holding up the sign that says, "Bad to the Bone"; the minimalist-but-somehow-kind-of-cool "San Marino Security Systems" design; the South Pasadena Little League Softball shirt; or the simple pink heart - among many others.
It all started about 35 years ago, when Daigle, a single mom with three children, decided to take a class in sign-painting at Pasadena City College. Her goal was to work at home and be close to her children.
She admits she wasn't Picasso, but she had more than a passing interest in silkscreening, which at the time was seen mostly on T-shirts worn by sports teams and Marlon Brando, she said.
"I had an eye for it and a love for art and creativity," she said.
For the first four years, she was silkscreening out of her home, with her daughters helping her. But things started to happen. She met Joe Daigle, an art director at radio station KRLA. They got married and he came to work for and with her. And the business grew.
"I started off in an industry that was just starting to take off, and I was able to ride the wave," she said. That wave ultimately led to a much larger space in South Pasadena, where by the peak of the business about four years ago, she hit $2 million in annual sales, with a staff of 15 employees.
All along, society's interest in wearing T-shirts that said something on them grew. And so did Daigle's customer base. "We've got a loyal customer base," Sales Manager Andrea Damian said. "And we give our clients lots of attention."
That attention is part of what Daigle said has kept her in business. "To be successful in business, you really have to have people skills, not only with clients, but personnel," she said. "I still find this incredibly exciting."