rk directly to consumers. And with the dramatic rise in homewares spending during Covid-19, what was once a side hustle for some is becoming big business.
Dominique Gauci launched her online store DG Designs four years ago after fielding several requests from people wanting to buy the illustrations of celebrities she was posting on Instagram as part of a ‘drawing-a-day’ challenge.
Today, she’s best known for her graphic renderings of iconic pop culture moments, from Kim Kardashian balancing a glass of champagne on her butt, to Michael Jordan smoking a cigar after winning his third-straight NBA championship, to Anna Wintour in her trademark sunglasses.
Starting at $49 for an A4 print and no frame, the portraits are popular with customers who want something that packs a punch design-wise without breaking the bank. Besides her own website, Gauci’s work is also available on Temple & Webster.
While she continues to offer some hand drawings and custom pieces, Gauci creates the bulk of her artwork digitally, making it easy to scale. A third-party printer in Sydney prints, frames and ships orders as they come in.
“You can create really beautiful things online without having to be a painter or drawer, and people love it. It’s trending at the moment,” Gauci told Inside Retail.
She is on track to do $1.5 million in sales this financial year, more than triple her turnover last year.
Kanye, Biggie and Mike
One of the major turning points in the business came in 2019 when Gauci started offering portraits of male rappers and professional athletes.
Until then, most of her prints featured women like Kate Moss and Anna Wintour, which were selling “OK”. But the response to the artwork featuring male celebrities was on a whole different level. Gauci realised that modern, colourful portraits of rappers and athletes gave couples with different aesthetics a way to compromise on interior design.
Her take on the iconic photo of Kanye West with his arms above his head at a Yeezy launch in 2016 has been DG Design’s best-selling artwork for the last three years. Portraits of Biggie Smalls counting cash and Michael Jordan in his ‘three-peat’ pose are also hugely popular.
“It’s still women buying, but women buying for their men,” Gauci said. “They’d rather have a print of Michael Jordan from DG Designs in their home as opposed to some sports memorabilia photo.”
She is currently in the process of cementing a partnership with a major Australian sports league that will see her double down on this space. The partnership is a big part of why she expects to triple her sales this year.
But while DG Designs will continue to offer “what the guys want”, Gauci, who is 27, is also looking to enter an entirely new category: artwork for nurseries and kids’ rooms.
“People love to decorate nurseries,” she said, noting that many of her friends have either gotten married or had babies in the last year.
And she’s betting that when it comes time to choose art for the walls, many of them will be looking for the same unique yet affordable designs she specialises in.
