HOW IT BEGAN Forestprints Design, started in August 2004 by Singapore based designer, Lynda Lye, was born from daydreams of escaping boredom, monotony, and constraints. She loves all design in general, and always knew deep inside that a conventional career path was not for her, and wanted to do something on her own that she could take pride in and truly love. Getting no such satisfaction slaving away in design firms, with a sheer need for more things quirky, odd and colorful with spunk and personality, she decided to break free. Through this outlet, she was able to bring her imagination and creations to life, her imaginary quirky little world of colors and wondrous possibilities. The need to break free, in more ways than one, motivated her. Many things in the world today tend to be too de rigueur, urban, slick and cold. Along with her bursts of colorful imagery and delightful plush toys, her main aim was, among others, to change the way the world looked! The website was launched in October 2004 and was followed up with the birth of her indie lifestyle label, littleoddforest, affectionately known as LOF by loyal friends and fans. With 4 mini collections yearly, LOF is not interested in becoming a fashion trend - it aims to be a lifestyle; one that is embraced by many, especially handmade lovers and crafty connoisseurs from all over the world who appreciate a little dose of fun in their everyday life!

WHY THE NAME AND INSPIRATION Since a child, she has been inspired by the wonderful childhood fantasies of bizarre fairytale adventure stories set in magical forests, resplendent with quirky images and wonderful illustrations of talking monsters, animals and trees. She still has the ton of these storybooks from childhood, thanks to her dad, an avid painter/artist, who began reading loads of incredible tales to her when she was still a fetus. She has always felt she belongs to another world of enchanted forests, filled with magical animals and imaginary creatures, and thus take inspiration from the world created in her head.

WHO IS SHE Lynda, the mastermind behind it all, has always been pretty much an artsy-craftsy kid, doodling, cutting, gluing, and sewing away as early as when she was just a wee-sized 4 year-old, who loved scaring adults around her by cutting up papers, fabric, even her own nails and hair, with a huge pair of scissors. She has always been pretty good with her hands and "agile fingers", and has always preferred to draw and cut things up freehand style. A Science major throughout most of her school years, she was even a one-time Economics degree dropout, and felt very lost during that period in her life. After much bumming around and persuasion, she managed to get her way and flew off alone to art college in the United States, spending 4 wonderful years in Chicago, where she earned her Bachelors in Fine Arts degree (BFA) from the arty-farty School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Although majored in Visual Communications, she got to dabble in a little bit of almost everything 'artistic', including painting and fashion - "thanks to an awesome flexible art/design curriculum, an experience I will truly treasure all my life."

THE PRODUCTS I make only what I like! We are the anti-orthodoxy of all big brands, slick shiny leather bags and all things flashy. Everything is produced only in very limited numbers, with many one-of-a-kind creations, all made with lots of love and sweatshop-labor free. I strongly believe in good quality and usable handmade goods and crafts, and am annoyed when people associate handmade only with flimsy arty impractical items that will not last. I love using vintage/ out-of-production fabrics and supplies, and adore playing with various combinations, even if it means using a different button to make each piece unique. I believe the world would be much more beautiful if everyone had something unique. Aside from being a staunch supporter of indie designers, artists and small businesses, my passion is in pervasive creativity and this unbridled passion is infused throughout my varied line of products. I do not wish to be tied down by mere labels or to be dictated by the degree/training that I have - my goal is to fuse my love for all things design, be it the graphic arts, product design, packaging and fashion, with my "unique and oftentimes kooky" sense of style. I will lay my hands on everything if I could!

DESIGN AND CREATIVE PROCESS I do not have any fixed creative regime. It is simply a free-flow process of sketching down of ideas and inspiration, lots of doodling, browsing through them, making changes, hunting for supplies, looking at materials, more sketch changes, finalising drafts on my computer, doing up prototypes, using it for myself, more changes if needed, and voila! Other than my dreams, imagination, and childhood influences mentioned above, nothing inspires me specifically. I don't purposely seek out inspiration. Instead, just by going out and about would do. I am subconsicously inspired by everything and anything I am and have been exposed to. Sometimes, the ideas and mood for creating just pop randomly in my system from nowhere in particular - I could be sleeping this minute and waking up the next just to scribble down something I've dreamt of. I am generally attracted to colors, oddities, great product designs, all things quirky and cute. And I love flipping through colorful and exciting graphic books. Flexibility is crucial in my work process, I do not like to meet a headblock and mull over it for the longest time or totally abandon the idea. I love to improvise. I have yet to experience much difficulty in getting ideas for new designs, but on the rare occasion that I do get a creative block, I go outside, simple as that.

WHO DOES WHAT Forestprints Design is essentially a one-woman business. I do it all, from managing the website to eeky paperwork. Creatively, it's just me, myself and I - I design everything that needs to be designed, from the products to graphics and marketing peripherels, including the entire website, which was coded from scratch by Brandon, my coding genius. As LOF grew, I have also managed to hire into the 2nd year of business - say hi to my precious little crew of both full and part-time worker fairies and elves, without whom all of these would not have been possible! All the plushies and brooches are sewn only by me, and my dearest mom, whom I have recently managed to hire to help out part-time after much persuasion! The workhoholic me also founded CRAFThings in 2006, an online handcrafted craft supplies shoppe to help support the craftsmen and small businesses of the South East Asia region, but I have sinced trimmed it down to join with this website as a craft supplies category. I also started a new mini label, or creative outlet, if you may, end-2008 - PeppyWanders, just so I can refresh my creative juices for all things forest-ty!

FAVORTIE DESIGN TOOLS MacBook Pro (my baby!), a handful of fine-tip black ink pens, sketch/note book, scrap doodling papers, a cuppa, and good music blasting away.

MOTIVATION When people tell me how much they genuinely love what I do, understand what LOF is all about, and when they keep buying and even helping me to spread the word to their friends to prove their point! And not forgetting the friends I've made from some of my customers. You have to really love what you do and have a clear idea what your goal is. Without strong passion and a clear goal in mind, the entire process of starting the business and having to see it through in the beginning will wear you out in no time. Being realistic, especially with your goal helps too - starting something you love on your own is not going to be a bed of roses for a long while, lots of obstacles will be met, and lots of sacrifices will have to be made. I constantly remind myself this from time to time. My mom's strength and belief in me has definitely played a huge part.

FUTURE PLANS Expansion of product range, new labels in different styles, more international stockists (littleoddforest desires to be available all over the world!), and my very own showroom/studio/retail loft. I hope to see more people being educated about independently-run labels and handmade goods, and appreciating and respecting their worth, whereby nothing is quickly mass factory produced at a large scale, and the designers and makers are paid what they deserve for the amount of work, care and love put into a product. SG$20 for a pretty decent handbag? I say you've just paid a very rich corporation and/or factory owner and not their poor robotic workers. The usual response i get, which is "Why do i care?" depresses me so. On a lighter note, I am always up to something and have a few surprises up my sleeves, am working hard on them so do stay tuned!

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