Behind the Scenes of Gaspard
By, Shea Carzoli
October 15, 2021
My name is Shea and I am the in-house Graphic Designer at Gaspard. I wear many hats here at Gaspard just like any small company, we all help out where we can. Although, I cannot sew for the life of me so I am definitely no help in that department!
I was born and raised in the Chicagoland area (Go Bears!). The small town I grew up in has its claim to fame for the Groundhog Day movie being filmed there. If you're wondering if my town takes that seriously, the short answer is yes. Groundhog Day week is full of movie showings and tours of main filming spots! Something that was a lot of fun to do as a kid. I went to college at Concordia University Wisconsin. After graduation, I was hired at Gaspard and have been working here for just about 3 and a half years. I do all of the graphic designing from designing the catalogs to designing and creating the email campaigns. I also do a lot of the marketing efforts from coming up with new collections to running Gaspard’s social media accounts and doing some website updates. I have also recently started working in the embroidery department where I create all Gaspard’s custom orders!
Appliqués and drawings of a design
Working at Gaspard means something new everyday! Everything here is truly customizable so when a Church wants a custom banner or Chasuble I’m right here working on the design and working closely with the Church to choose fabric and embroidery colors. One of my favorite things I had my hand in making was 2 years ago we did a completely custom parament and stole set for a church in Grafton, Wisconsin. We met with the committee and pastor multiple times to figure out design, appliques, and fabric colors. We made a parament set and stole for every season and it was amazing to see the ideas come from a drawing to real life! In recent times my favorite thing to work on is the Saint chasubles Gaspard has been creating. Especially since I have been learning how to embroider designs I have a great time taking the Saint emblem and adding accent stitching to really bring them to life!
Preliminary drawings of designs
I also love working with marketing for Gaspard and coming up with new ways to stay ahead of the curve. It is always fun to brainstorm new collections or new ways to keep Gaspard up with current times. One of my favorite things we did was reinvent an old collection, The Lord Will Provide Collection used to be hand embroidered from a stencil that was drawn directly onto the fabric. We took those old stencils and created embroidery patterns so the design is embroidered directly onto the fabric. That collection had not been available for almost 20 years and it was amazing to give it new life and bring it back as an old favorite! In the age of technology things change everyday so it’s important to stay one step ahead!
Gaspard has some of the greatest people to work with. I have made lifelong friends with people who work here. It’s always fun when the production ladies bring in homemade Mexican food and share with the whole team! Everyone here is extremely hard working and puts the time and dedication into creating these beautiful garments. It's amazing to see pieces come to life from an idea and a roll of fabric to a stunning garment that will be worn and cherished for years to come!