Going it alone with a love of bright design

It sounds like the start to a Hollywood movie. Sara Miller was 29 and working as a greeting card designer when she realised her marriage was failing, and she flew to India “for soul searching to try to work out my best way forward”.

It was her first solo trip abroad: “I remember walking through the airport apprehensively. But I was bowled over by the beauty of India, and weaving through the chaotic roads of Delhi in a tuk-tuk, I realised I had to take charge of my life and break free from an unhappy marriage.”

Back in London, Miller says, “my friends were all married and having children, but I got divorced from my 10-year relationship and started a new business”. After a decade working for Hallmark and other greeting card firms, she launched Sara Miller London, an Indian-inspired accessory brand “for a woman who loves colour and print”.

Her decision was initially met with scepticism: “A friend in the [design] industry said, ‘There is more chance of you being struck by lightning than creating a brand through surface pattern design like Orla Kiely or Cath Kidston have done’.”

Miller, now 39, proved them wrong: the designs of her brand Sara Miller London are now licensed to 1000 products spanning bedding, wallpaper, cushions, stationery, gifts, and luggage; they brought in sales of £20 million last year and can be found in shops including John Lewis, Next, M&S and Harrods, and in 60 countries.

“But at the beginning,” Miller admits, “it was hard to know where to start.” She had experience in designing greeting cards, but little else. “I was aware of an exhibition called Surtex in New York where designers present their work to manufacturers and retailers for licensing, so in April 2015 I contacted them and to my amazement there was one stand left at the show.”

“I maxed out my overdraft and quickly booked it for $5000, using my savings to get the business off the ground. I had three weeks to design my first ever stand, and work out the logistics of getting it all to New York.”

Miller worked from 7am until 3am for three weeks on a green bird print design that still sells well today, plus stand designs, and a presentation to buyers, then flew to the US “with 100 kg of luggage and lots of excess baggage charges”. It was another apprehensive airport stroll: “To create a series of designs, put it on a wall and know your future depends on it is so personal and exposing and quite frankly terrifying.”

It paid off though: work came in including a £10,000 design project which enabled Miller to employ her first member of staff. Her first HQ was a friend’s spare bedroom in Primrose Hill; Miller’s own spare room was rented out on Airbnb to raise cash. “Once royalty payments started coming in I ploughed these back into the business to grow our small team.”

Greeting cards and wrapping paper designs took off; a licensing deal saw John Lewis stock Miller’s designs, with a million cards sold in the firm’s first year. The relationship grew: “When John Lewis asked if we’d design a window for the Oxford Street and Peter Jones stores, I felt like I was being pranked on one of those TV shows!”