Ms. Pam - Drop 03: Jump in Early Preview and Interview

We recently caught up for a chat with Stella and Claire, founders of newly established Melbourne based brand Ms. Pam (@ms.pamgoods).

We discussed how the brand got started during the Melbourne lockdown, the brands approach to creating a new landscape for up and coming artists, where Ms. Pam sits in this market and we have a preview of their latest upcoming drop.

Thanks for catching up! We’re big fans of what you’ve developed since launching in November and are really keen to hear more about Ms. Pam!

You started the brand in our famous lockdown here in Melbourne, can you tell us about that experience?
 

The Melbourne lockdown was originally very challenging for the both of us as we had only just graduated from RMIT with our respective degrees at the end of 2019 (Claire- Bachelor of Arts (Photography), Stella- Bachelor of Communications (Advertising)). Like a lot of creatives in our position, we were under the impression that the first year out of uni was meant to be filled with potential and opportunity. We felt relatively trapped with the knowledge that any opportunity to exercise creative skills would become immensely more difficult because of the shutdown of the creative industry specifically. 

Deciding to start a business together didn’t seem like a huge step at the time, and in a lot of ways, we have the pandemic to thank for that. Originally this was a love project between two best friends with relatively different skill sets to find some daily purpose while establishing the framework of our brand, without the pressures of trying to juggle all the other things that life would otherwise throw at you if we weren’t in a pandemic. We wanted to create a platform for us to be able to develop our skill sets that we may need in future jobs - without the constraints that come along with many larger company's creative expectations.

Coordinating ourselves while adhering to the lockdown restrictions was somewhat of a challenging experience! During the thick of it, we would usually try and find a park which was within both of our 5km radiuses and walk for as long as we were allowed. During this time we would draft emails, demo samples, make phone calls and shortlist our constantly evolving logo ideas we had. 


The role Ms. Pam played in our lockdown experience framed the ethos of our brand and continues to inspire how we move forward. It helped us find some Purpose And Meaning (PAM) - evidently the meaning behind our name, and we hoped that we could do the same for others. Our tagline, ‘Jump In Early’ reflects the importance of taking that first step in starting your career regardless of your age, experience or ability, in order to build confidence in the sharing and collaborative process of this industry - everybody has to start somewhere. It also can be applied to many everyday situations much like; jumping in early and having a cheeky beer!

Catching up within shared 5km radiuses is such a Melbourne experience, really brings up some feelings haha. However difficult though, definitely a great time to get started and its awesome you were able to draw some purpose for the brand out of it all!

Could you tell us a little bit how Ms. Pam will operate? How do you see other creatives fitting into the brand and its future?

 
What has been a particularly powerful experience for us is understanding how collaboration has enhanced both of our personal skill sets no end. We want to extend this experience to creatives around us and give people a reason to create, and to be adequately rewarded for that. Ms. Pam is all about mutually beneficial collaboration and we’ve already implemented strategies to establish these relationships with creatives.

One example of this is our ‘Creative Directory’ on our website that provides each collaborator with a profile containing a short bio and relevant links to their socials in order to create future connections with site visitors. We have also just launched our ‘Ms. Pam’s Plates’ campaign, which involves teaming up with various up and coming creatives in Melbourne from different industries, and asking them to decorate a plate in their unique style which is then auctioned off. In this instance, the reward for the artist is increased exposure, networking and the earnings from the plate. Conversely, we benefit from expanding our creative network by connecting with different followings as well as creating exciting content for our socials. We have deliberately left our branding quite broad, as we hope that Ms. Pam becomes symbolic for its versatile collaboration, whilst giving artists who do work with us the freedom to be able to express their own stylistic tone of voice. 

 To feel supported, respected and acknowledged as an up and coming creative is something we feel really strongly about, and this is the framework we use for a lot of the decisions we make as business partners.