TOMS Blog

In trying to get to the bottom of what makes our Creative team tick, we tossed a simple, fun project at the designers and artists here at HQ. We asked them to show us how TOMS inspires each of them, and then to allow us to share those interpretations on our Facebook page. And so they did, and then we did (see them here!), and now we’re all back with more.  

Learn a little bit about Carly & Christine, two artists on the TOMS team and the ladies behind this week’s interpretive Facebook Cover Photos…

Say hola to: Carly
Hometown: ”I’m about to give three answers… half my life was in Chicago and the other half in Arizona, but strangely I identified with Texas, where I went to college, most. I spent the least amount of time there but it kind of stole my heart.”
At TOMS since: January of 2010, when she interned for the Creative team, but jumped on the opportunity to design whenever she could. 

“My first project in digital at TOMS was assisting with the One Day Without Shoes window displays with Joanna [Carly’s current manager], and I’ve kind of been her right-hand woman ever since!”

Current art project: “Last week I hand-painted my best friend’s wedding invitations! Her wedding is already a humble and sweet scenario (they’re getting married in a barn!), so I kind of just went for it. The text alone took me eight hours, but it was a labor of love. Oh! And I’m currently needlepointing my iPhone case!”



Wackiest art project to date: “One time as an intern I had to scan Blake’s pants in to the computer to catch all the fun, crazy patterns! So…that was silly.”




Hey, hi, hello to: Christine
At TOMS since: September of 2011
Hometown: “A really small town in southern Maryland, where I won ‘Most Unique’ in middle AND high school.”


Favorite art project: “I enter my Pomeranian Emma [an office favorite] into this dog costume contest every Halloween, and I get really into making our outfits. It’s kind of embarrassing but I LOVE it, and I even took a design and construction class at a local college on a Saturday, which helped me figure out how to make these get-ups work on my 4-pound dog.

The first year it was me, my boyfriend at the time and Emma, and we were “breakfast.” Emma was a piece of butter toast; and we got second place, but we should have gotten first. The next year I was Chef Boyardee and she was spaghetti & meatballs, which got us third place, and it was amazing! Then this year she was the Hunchback of Notre Pom (get it? She’s a Pomeranian). It was a little too conceptual, I think; no one really knew who she was. She had a tiny wig on and I thought it was so funny but everyone thought she looked like a monster. It didn’t place; I guess I have to stick with the cute route.” 



When she discovered art as her passion: “I think, from the beginning, art was something I really wanted to do. I’d make things to be featured in the county fairs, and since I wasn’t allowed to use scissors I would tear shapes out of paper to make whatever it is I had in mind. From there, my parents and grandparents were like, ‘Oh, you know, there’s art that’s like that!’ So they introduced me to Matisse and his paper cut outs. They would incorporate what I was doing into a lesson on what had already been established, so it’s no wonder I pursued art from an early age.”

See how these two quirky ladies channeled their personal creative visions in portraying their take on TOMS and the One for One movement in the Facebook Cover Photos this week…