ELLICE LOVELADY aka E.J TOBIN
People always ask, "How did you get into this business"?
As a cautionary tale to Liberal Arts majors everywhere, I graduated with an English degree from Rutgers, a fun major that left me unprepared for finding a good job in the real world. I floundered more than a few years working a variety of soul sapping jobs among them the thankless position of Program Representative for a non-profit health care agency.
During this tenure I spent countless lunch hours searching for an appropriate greeting card to give to the chapter's incompetent secretary. Finding none, I wrote one myself. Thus began a very long and successful career as a greeting card writer under the nom de plume of E.J. Tobin. Primarily a humor writer, several of my more somber cards were featured in Time Magazine and a Father's Day card written for Colors by Design was recipient of the prestigious Louie award.
As founder and Creative Director of The Imagination Association LLC, I collaborated with a hand picked pool of artists in developing greeting cards, tee-shirts, and other subsidiary products that have been licensed to other companies in the stationery, apparel, and giftware industries. These companies included Bad Habits, California Design Works, Carolyn Bean Publishing, Colors by Design, Design Design, Industrial Stress and Design, Lake Street Shirts, Marcel Schurman Fine Lines, Paper Moon Graphics, Recycled Paper Greetings, Renaissance Greetings, West Graphics, and more.
While pregnant with my daughter Terra Marine, I went from devout vegetarian to raging carnivore in the course of one week. After this extreme meat binge (where I was found in a gutter littered with crumpled Burger King wrappers) I decided I needed an apron picturing a bloody butcher knife with the slogan "Recovering Vegetarian". And thus, The Funny Apron Company was born.
Since then I've been producing apron designs that amuse, offend, or speak to a lot of folks out there who relate to my irrelevant sense of culinary humor.
Other nonessential info: Native of Chicago. Resided in or around Berkeley, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Santa Fe, and Dallas. Old enough to know better. Member of NARAS. Until the apron business took over my life, I taught workshops on breaking into the greeting card industry. I harbor fantasies of touring the country in an RV with my husband Charles in search of The World's Largest Frying Pan.