Meet Our FEETured Vendor: Visual Artist and Blue Q Sock Designer Martha Rich
Martha Rich is a Philadelphia-based visual artist and illustrator with a zany streak and a healthy distaste for the ordinary. In her previous life, Martha tried her hand at the corporate life – cubicles, countless meetings, sterile environments. Like many folks with a creative mindset, she felt stifled by the rigid constraints of the 9-5. While living in Los Angeles and going through a divorce, Martha took solace in art. She began taking night classes from painting brothers Rob and Christian Clayton, who encouraged her to quit the corporate world for good and pursue her art fulltime. Thankfully for us all, Martha took their advice to heart. She would go on to graduate with honors from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and then receive her MFA in Painting from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
With feet firmly planted in both the fine arts and commercial world, Martha’s distinct style is easily recognizable and tremendously compelling. Her art has appeared in print publications from coast to coast, such as the Portland Mercury, McSweeney’s, Penn Gazette, and Rolling Stone. Martha has also contributed to Beck’s music video ‘Girl’, been featured in countless galleries and shows across the country, and became a published author in 2019 with the release of The Furious Notebook. Somehow, she still finds time to design products for the offbeat brand Blue Q, which happens to be a personal favorite of ours here at Intrigue.
Blue Q has been around for thirty years, and for nearly ten of them Martha would send them postcards of her work with the hope of catching their eye. Her diligence paid off, as they contacted her to design a bag for them based off a piece on her Instagram page. Based on that success, she was asked to do a sock design, and they have been collaborating ever since. “I’m very lucky to be working with them,” she says, “I love the team, they’ve been really helpful all along the way.” Transitioning her visual art to textiles proved challenging at first. “It requires a whole different mindset. You have to think in terms of weaving and dimensions,” Martha reflects. To help, Blue Q invited her to their offices to learn the process firsthand, and the results speak for themselves. Martha is the designer of Blue Q’s number one selling sock of all time, the delightfully titled I’m a Delicate F***ing Flower.
Now Martha designs all sorts of items for Blue Q, from oven mitts and aprons to the aforementioned socks and bags, such as the Random Crap Bag. When Blue Q has a project in mind, they reach out to Martha and set up a meeting. These meetings are a novelty in themselves in that everyone seems to genuinely have fun – a far cry from the stuffy boardrooms of Martha’s previous life. And who wouldn’t have fun bantering about what an oven mitt that says ‘Smells Like Happy’ or a pair of socks that proudly asserts ‘I Never Fart’? The company’s goofy sense of humor is a perfect fit for Martha’s own bold-but-playful style. One piece that Martha is particularly proud of is a toothbrush she designed that declares ‘I’ve decided on cremation’, a sentiment that especially resonates when getting ready for work in the wee hours of a Monday morning.
Blue Q’s ever-expanding line of products do more than add a little chuckle to your day, a portion of the sales of their socks, kitchen goods, and toothbrushes help support Doctors Without Borders. Add it all together and you have a company that makes great products, supports worthy causes, and treats their artists well, which is exactly the type of business we like to champion. As Martha says, “If a store carries Blue Q stuff, it’s generally going to have some other pretty neat things.” We couldn’t agree more.
Many thanks to Martha Rich for sharing her time with us. Check out more of her work and see where you can spot one of her many murals, instillations, and shows on her Instagram and website. Also be sure to let us know if you spot anything on Blue Q’s site that you think would look great on our shelves!
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