Amy Yang
Q What do you do?
“I’m the co-founder of Melbourne-based creative accessories brand FunkyFunYou.”
I also produce a lot of photography and video content for social media.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
I worked as a landscape designer in a design firm after graduating from uni. Working day to day in this role, I came to realise that it wasn't what I wanted to do in the long term. So, I decided to quit my job to study digital media.
I always knew that I had an eye for quirky, colourful and creative designs, especially fun accessories. While I was studying I met Simona, with whom I quickly bonded with over a mutual passion for all things design. We then decided to start our own accessories brand, FunkyFunYou. Our accessories are shiny, colourful and nostalgic. Each piece tells a story and is designed with materials such as figurines, toys, and flowers to evoke memories and emotions.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
We always aim to constantly learn new things, to help us form new ideas. As a small business owner, I always want to bring new ideas to keep fresh our audiences.
As well as this, I have learnt how to manage the aspects of running a business (not just the fun part of making jewelry and taking photos for social media).
There are lots of things to juggle, such as the website, marketing data, finance and so on. Some of these areas were a real struggle in the beginning, but this only pushed me to study and learn more.
Q What are you working on right now?
Since running FunkyFunYou with Simona, we have realised there is a gap in the market for crafty people who want to find excellent raw materials. So, we set up a raw material shop for handmade lovers, jewellery makers, and small business owners (like us!).
FKFY Studio is where handcraft meets fun materials. Creative people can shop the funky materials they've always searched for, to make the work they've always dreamt of!
In the future, we're aiming to provide even more services, like sourcing great packaging, product photography, promotional videos and more.
Q What’s your style?
I think FunkyFunYou perfectly represents my taste and style; I love colourful, fun and quirky designs.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I'm keen to focus more on analyzing data. Since we're living in a digital world, being able to understand data has become vital for business development. I have some self-taught skills when it comes to Facebook ads and Google Analytics, but there's still a long way to go for me to put what I've learnt into the practice.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
At the moment, I'm finding the training of interns quite challenging. Since we have had some applications from current uni students, I've needed to make a training guide for them, and I had no clue where to start! This will probably require quite a bit of time and effort from our team, but we know we want to make sure the interns can actually take some useful lessons away from working with us.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
I would love for them to help me with the fulfilling of online orders as well as some customer service, and managing the back-end of Shopify. This would allow me to save more time and focus on creating engaging visual content and develop new designs.
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Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
I was never confident enough when I was young, and I wasn't used to expressing myself. I was always very uncertain about what I was going to do while studying Landscape Design in uni.
However, the process of developing FunkyFunYou has given me a lot of confidence; not only in design and work, also my self-expression. If I could say something to my younger self, I would say: just trust yourself, and you'll do the best in the stuff you're really passionate about.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
I'm very interested to know more about the development of future technology, like AI and VR. I would love some insight into how these things will shape our lifestyle. Maybe we'll all be using VR devices to shop? Perhaps we will all be taking the Uber Air car to work?
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
For FunkyFunYou, I'm looking to collaborate with more like-minded artists and illustrators.
For FKFY Studio, I hope to connect with more creative small businesses to get an idea of their needs and demands (and maybe have the chance to work together in the future!)
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
I love to work with people, who are open to new ideas. Ideally, I want to be able to work with passionate creative people to develop ideas, and achieve something amazing that really jumps outside the box.
When collaborating with artists, we do a lot of value exchange. For example, if they are bloggers, we provide them with free products, and as in return, they feature us in their blog posts. When collaborating for a design, we share roughly 25-35% of the product sales as the commission, depending on the time and effort spent from both parties.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
I'd love to communicate via email or direct message on Instagram. If they have a website or some social media to show off their work, that would be lovely!
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Being self-motivated, always exploring and experimenting with new ideas.
This member profile was originally published in November 2020.