Interview with Creative Entrepreneurs Ghostly Ferns

by Margaret Penney | December 30, 2016

Ghostly Ferns is a team of creative entrepreneurs out of Brooklyn NYC who produce and sell hip, fun, and design-savvy wares. I was impressed by their business (and that they are all bffs to boot) and wanted to find out more about what it was like to run a super successful creative shop, so I decided to ask founder Meg Lewis some questions.

What inspired you to start Ghostly Ferns and how would you describe the project?

I started Ghostly Ferns as my own solo freelance practice! As the years went by, I got lonelier and lonelier as a freelancer working from home. Ghostly Ferns slowly started absorbing more members and forming a natural collective of friends. Today, Ghostly Ferns is a freelancer family of BFFs. We work separately as individual freelancers and collectively as a group as often as possible.

Can you tell me a little about the main creators behind Ghostly Ferns?

Ghostly Ferns is a partnership between myself, Laura Bohill and Jen Mussari. While we have other members who come in and out, our partnership is what keeps Ghostly Ferns running. We’re a group of badass, kind women who aren’t afraid to get weird and have fun.

The name of the project is really great, how did you come up with it?

When I was 18 I opened an online vintage shop where I struggled to come up with unique names for my 1,000+ products. When I shut the vintage shop down to start my new business, I couldn’t bear the thought of naming another thing. I decided to pay homage to my old vintage shop by naming my new design business after my favorite vintage item, the Ghostly Ferns dress, which had the cutest little faded fern pattern.

How would you describe the aesthetic style of Ghostly Ferns designers and makers?

Ghostly Ferns aesthetic style is a perfect mix of the personalities of its members. Collectively, a new personality is born from our weird and unique tastes. Ghostly Ferns aesthetic is cute, tough, and always funny.

What are some fave products at the shop right now?

We’re absolutely loving playing with phrases that are encouraging yet set the standard for mediocracy. Our ribbons (we have trophies coming soon!) that say “Pretty Okay At Life”” and “World’s Greatest Okay Friend” are two of our favorites right now.

What’s coming up for Ghostly Ferns?

We’re not sure! We like to do whatever we want when the moment strikes. I’m sure we’ll be up to some weird stuff in 2017 including more games of Ghostly Ferns Bingo that we’ll host around the country, and a physical space we’re opening in Minneapolis! Loads of fun things in store for us.

Anything else you’d like us to know?

We’re always here to embrace the weirdness in everyone (we all have it!). Anything we can do in the coming weeks, months, years to inspire the world to be a little less curated and a little more unique is what we strive to do. If anyone has any tips or ideas for how we can spread our message, let us know! hello@ghostlyferns.com.

Margaret Penney is the Managing Editor of Notes on Design. Margaret is a teacher, designer, writer and new media artist and founder of Hello Creative Co.

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