Torie Partridge, a former Army counterterrorism analyst and Arabic language analyst at BAE Systems, is founder of Brookland’s Terratorie, which produces and sells custom city maps, stationary and gift boxes. It was formerly known as Cherry Blossom Creative
At what point did you realize that your map art was a scalable business opportunity? When I launched the company in 2012, my focus was working on design services for clients. The first map I created was a mural for a local hardware store. The moment it went up people were begging me for prints that they could hang in their homes. The prints sold so well and I was completely caught off guard. I’d never even considered having a product as part of my design services business. I referred to the maps as the business’s “side hustle.” Five years into scaling a bona fide design agency, I took a hard look at the numbers and got honest about what parts of the business caused me stress. The maps were bringing in almost half the revenue,…
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