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A Day in the Life of Sara Selepouchin of Girls Can Tell

11.23.10 | By
A Day in the Life of Sara Selepouchin of Girls Can Tell

Sara Selepouchin is owner of Girls Can Tell, Philadelphia-based creative illustration and screenprinting business. Most of Sara’s illustrations feature everyday items dissected in diagram format, ranging from the downright silly: like a cheeseburger and unicorn to the more serious and educational, such as your lungs. Sara holds a degree in architecture so all those years of mechanical drawing experience are really paying off! Let’s follow her around, shall we?

My alarm goes off at 7:35 AM, and I let myself hit snooze once (okay, okay, but not more than twice) before I finally roll out of bed.

I throw on clothes and take my insane dog, Janie, for a little walk. Once she’s given the neighborhood a good sniff and finished her business, we head back to the house.

Into the kitchen to put on the coffee, which will brew while I hop into the shower and get dressed.

Back downstairs to fix coffee. Since I had a good bit of computer work to do this week, I decided to work from home this morning, which is one of my favorite perks about my job.

Around 9 AM, I try to check email, only to realize I need to call my Internet provider because my connection is incredibly wonky. This is my least favorite thing about my job — no IT person to whine to when things don’t work.

While I’m on hold with the internet people, I wonder if I could teach Janie to be my IT person, but she doesn’t seem very into this idea. I finally get a real, live person on the phone and we troubleshoot the issues and get things working again. Commence with email checking and online shop updates to start my day.

After lunch, a little after 1 PM, I pack it up and head into the studio. Since it’s a Wednesday, the farmer’s market is in full swing on my way to work. I say hello to a few friends I run into, and continue my walk up to the studio.

My house is about three miles from the warehouse where my business lives, and I really enjoy my commute through center city Philadelphia to get there, especially when the weather is lovely and I have time to walk.

I arrive in the building just before 2pm, to find, happily, that the elevator in the front lobby is actually working today. I do a little cheer in my head about not having to trek up the stairs.

My studio is, of course, exactly as I left it the previous evening, which means there are lots of projects + orders in varying stages of completion stacked around on tables and hanging on the drying racks.

Since my friend and studio-neighbor, Alex, is around today and it’s unseasonably nice out, I convince him to let me take some photos of him in the few tee shirts I have in stock right now. He’s a great sport about it, and we end up having some fun, of course.

Back to the computer to compile my printing list for the day from online sales that have come in.

And then over to the bins where I keep finished work, sorted by diagram design, to see what I already have printed up and hopefully trim down the long list of what I’ll need to print to order. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, so the bins are woefully bare. Looks like lots of printing to be done…

After a short printing session, I call it a day at 6:45 PM and walk over to the Broad Street line for a quick trip home. My totally awesome boyfriend has cooked dinner, so we eat, relax and watch a movie before heading to bed.

Thanks, Sara!

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Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.