Hello and welcome to Herstoy the show about things that women did but are often not recognized
for.
In 1991 Time Magazine called my guest the queen of stickers.
Ladies and ladies, welcome Lisa Frank to Herstory.
Oh, it's a camera, ahhh!
You are here, you are an actual honest to goddess woman.
How do you describe Lisa Frank?
Objects that really embody my vivacious character such as rainbows and--I don't mean to interject
Lisa Frank but I am a little surprised that you have not complimented me on this zebra
shirt--ooh I'm sorry.
I wanted to make you feel right at home even though clearly your personal style is not
quite in line with your artistic style.
Hmm.
C'est la vie as they say in German.
I wasn't going to say zebra to describe myself, now I'll say zebra.
Lisa Frank I would have worn a Lisa Frank shirt but Lisa Frank you do not have a storefront
and I have a feeling if you did it might not be up to the cache of fashion that I am used
to which is pretty high.
There is actually a zebra's eye nestled between my breasts.
Which means that it's nose is well burrowed where you can't see it.
I'm wearing a horse on my shirt too.
It's a unicorn.
My favorite kind of horse.
You take the artistic genius of Picasso and interject it with a little bit of feminine
sensibility and there you go you have Lisa Frank.
I see things like the Mona Lisa and I say to myself boring.
She wouldn't be able to get a date to the prom, she's not that attractive, but I tell
you what we do.
We jazz her up a little bit, put some of your iconic little jewels on her, little doodads
give her a little unicorn friend and I think you would have a real masterpiece.
Tell us where your imagination really took off.
As a child my parents would give me coloring books to uh, to get me to quiet down.
I would go through probably in a week about 72 coloring books every week.
Uh-huh.
And I've always been obsessed with candy and color.
I've always been obsessed with getting my parents to like me.
Anywhohow, you took that coloring book creativity and you turned it into a business in college.
When I was in uh, a senior in high school I had a art, art, art show, an art exhibit
of all of my pieces and it sold out completely.
Well!
A real success.
I bet your parents bought all of those.
My father did not--no he did not buy any.
Probably did.
I forget that the camera is there and then I look at it and, and it startles me.
But back to my business, that high school show gave me seed money, for um, for buying
and selling Native American goods.
I was in Arizona.
Still am in Arizona, based in Tuscon.
Silent 'c' in Tuscon not Tuckson.
You know there's an out of towner who comes in if they say Tuckson.
And I'm like hello.
It's Tuscon.
Oh.
I would go onto Native American reservations, this is true.
I mentioned this in a 2012 Urban Outfitters interview, I would buy hand goods from there,
take it and sell it for a profit--oh!--and then I started doing more art things related
to unicorns and rainbows, so I started Lisa Frank in 1979.
Huh!
I guess that might date me.
Why won't anyone date me?
Just kidding, I've done fine in the romantic department.
One side business Lisa Frank that a lot of people probably don't know about is a little
thing called 'Sticky Fingers'.
The closest that I get to sticky fingers is when I eat an Ambien and then wake up in the
middle of the night and eat a whole thing of pancake syrup and then wake up with you
guessed it, sticky fingers.
I would take a glue gun and I would glue together plastic pieces and make bracelets, necklaces,
earrings--uh-huh.
Because I would often get the glue from the glue gun on my fingers, I called it sticky
fingers.
Now Lisa Frank I am a little bit surprised that you are here because this is the first
time that anybody has publicly seen your face knowing that it was yours although I'm assuming
that you have friends.
Judging from this conversation I honestly don't know.
Probably not as many friends as I have.
I do have a number of friends and you know what I think it is.
I think it's because I'm a natural conversationalist.
Well, okay.
Lisa Frank, why do you never give public interviews because your face isn't all that unappealing.
It's not tip-top, but it's not bottom of the barrel either.
Well to be honest I am a tad insecure about my eye patch even though with the sticker
it is a clever bit of marketing.
I lost my eye to a unicorn horn.
Come again Lisa Frank, tell my good ear because I think you just said you got stabbed in the
eye in the unicorn horn.
In the eighties I ran into this unicorn and I thought he was beautiful.
And so I started drawing him.
The unicorn thing really took off.
He came back around in the early nineties and he said that he wasn't getting paid for
his likeness which his likeness was on many trapper-keepers at the time, it's true.
But I said sorry, I don't, I don't know how I would pay you because I don't know what
unicorn currency is.
I wouldn't even know how to tax that.
I think it would be confusing for the IRS.
You can have some of the free candy on my desk.
And so he rammed me with his horn.
Does this trigger a flashback?
Oh my god.
Oh watch out Lisa Frank I'm coming for you.
Ahhh.
Going to get that other eye.
I'm not actually a unicorn.
Ahhhh.
Of all the Lisa Frank characters, I'd like to be one of those little bedazzled cats.
You know the ones that wear the big hats and the pearls.
Meow.
Now Lisa Frank in 2012 speaking to Urban Outfitters about a partnership that you two did you said
to the camera, and I quote, "I'm crazy."
After spending a little bit of time with you I'm starting to realize that that probably
was not a euphemism.
Yes I'm crazy.
Crazy enough to say to the world I'm going to build a sticker empire.
And then actually do it.
Times have been tough of late for Lisa Frank Inc.
I mean you had the deal with Urban Outfitters in 2012, but before that in 2005 you were
suing your ex-husband for stealing--do not, my ex--trade secrets, you sued your own company
Lisa Frank Inc.
The number of people working in your Tuscon, Arizona factory has dropped to 8.
The unicorn bubble has burst.
The unicorn bubble may have burst.
Trend forecasters think that it could comeback.
You know maybe it's time to explore new avenues.
Maybe expand your horizons beyond unicorns and into real horses?
Well Lisa Frank I hope that my business advice has been helpful for you.
I hope you tweet about this because you are on Twitter actively at Lisa Frank Inc.
Thank you for having me.
I can't wait to see you all on Twitter, where dreams come true.
And so with that we close our show.
Sorry friends but we've got to go.
I'm going to ride a unicorn off in the snow.