Budding artist sets up own merch store

Oliver Tierney (11) has used his time in lockdown to put his love for doodling to good use by creating his own kids’ online merchandise store as a summer enterprise project.

The St Nicholas Primary pupil decided to call his venture ‘Monstrosity’ and has enlisted help from his mum and German e-commerce print-on-demand company, Spreadshirt.

During lockdown Oliver has been converting his paper doodles and drawings into digital format which are then uploaded onto products ranging from T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and trucker caps.

He has also been learning about the power of social media and created an Instagram account @monstrositymerch to promote his new enterprise.

Oliver said: “I’ve been drawing and painting since I was about one-year-old and I have about 12 sketch books full of doodles and characters that I’ve made up.

“Most of the youtubers that I watch have merch stores, so I decided to create my own store. I’ve called it Monstrosity cause some of the characters are a bit of a monstrosity or monstrous.

“My mum has been helping me with the technical stuff and Instagram. I really didn’t think that anyone would follow me or buy anything, but over the past two weeks I’ve had 28 sales and I now have 110 followers on Instagram. Everyone has been really, supportive.

“My target was to make £300 and then I’d see where it goes. I have about five designs now and some in production which will be launched soon.

“I was a bit nervous at first as I’m only 11 and I wasn’t sure what people would think of that but I’m learning lots and its fun to see people wearing my products.

“Customers are now sending me pictures of themselves in my T-shirts and I’ve created a #Monstrositysquad to feature them on Instagram.

“Who knows where it will go but I’ll keep drawing things I like and hope people like them too.”

To find out more you can follow Oliver the entrepreneur on Instagram @Monstrositymerch or visit his shop at https://shop.spreadshirt.co.uk/monstrosity.