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Happy Birthday to DE!

Yes! Today is our 8th birthday!
Can you believe it has been fully 8 years since the doors of Delux Designs (DE), LLC opened to the public?

Timeline of DE Facts:

• DE was founded on Wednesday, December 21, 2010.
• DE was founded by Chester County, South Carolina native Keara Douglas at just 18 years old as a freshman at the University of South Carolina – Upstate.
• The first design software used to begin DE was Corel Paintshop Pro.
• DE’s home state is South Carolina.
• DE is owned and operated by females, we represent the ladies over here.
• DE is owned and operated by a black female.
• DeluxEdition was added in 2011.
• DE became an LLC in February of 2013.
• DeluxHair was added in 2013.
• Our non-profit The DE Foundation was founded in 2013.
• DEArTour was added in 2014.

Wow, time really does fly. Often times, I sit and think back to that Wednesday night when I made the decision that I was going to be a entrepreneur. I don’t know what it was but I knew I wanted to work for myself….while also providing other artists a platform on down the line and here we are today. I have been interested in art itself since the very beginning of my life. I knew I wanted to create one day after I won my first juried art exhibition in the first grade of elementary school. Once I got to college, I began to really map out what I wanted to do in the art field. Since then, I have been building and building on what I started 8 years ago, keeping everything consistent and not losing focus on the prize I’m trying to obtain (#DEARTgallery). Don’t get me wrong, however, things have not always been easy. Things have not always come as I wanted or expected them to, but I have never just flat out given up on DE and my goals set.

Since our beginning, we have added on so much to the DE brand that have just taken off on their own. The first thing that was added to DE was DeluxEdition back in 2011. Many don’t know about this part of DE because it is not art related even though we often incorporate art with it. DeluxEdition is a segment of DE where movie and television show reviews are often posted. You can check it out by clicking here. More posts are coming soon for 2019.

Second thing that was added to DE would be DeluxHair. If you’re subscribed to our blog, you already know how much DeluxHair has grown on it’s own since we began it back in 2013. With DeluxHair, I turned my natural hair journey into a full blog segment and business. I found that as I went along my own hair journey, I could not find resources at the time for women with naturally kinky hair. I don’t mean that pretty natural hair with slick edges and slick curls. I mean the natural hair types of the 4A through 4C categories. That natural hair you have to maintain that’s thick and what the world refers to as nappy. When I realized that I couldn’t find resources online for myself, it hit me that this was the reason most women of color couldn’t embrace their own hair — we didn’t have the resources and education available for us to do so. We’ve always been taught to straighten and straighten and straighten our hair that there were pretty much no reliable resources available to teach us how to wear our own natural curls. After that realization, DeluxHair was formed. Here I am able to not only document my hair progress, but I am also able to give first hand experiences with product reviews, styling tutorials and so much more for women looking for help with their hair, especially the teen girls between the ages of 13-16 years old who often come to the internet for answers during those puberty stages of life. I know I’ve been there, now we have one of many platforms to help those same young ladies looking for answers online through DeluxHair. Check it out here.

Third thing that was added to DE is our non-profit The DE Foundation during the year of 2013. With our non-profit we focus on a number of different things pertaining to giving back to our community through service and fundraisers including back to school supply drives with Education Expo and bringing awareness to domestic violence against women with The Purple Crown Project. Check it out here.

Fourth thing added to the DE brand would be the DEArTour, our traveling segment for artists and designers that was added in 2014. Here I highlight any art events, art exhibitions, art trips and gallery visits I may attend throughout the year. Here artists can find reviews of hotel stays and events that may happen throughout the year, or that I have traveled to on my many vacations throughout each year. Check it out here, more posts for this part of our brand are coming soon in 2019.

Fifth thing added to the DE brand is our Call For Artists blog segment, DEArTalk. With this segment we highlight other artists and designers with blog posts. These are sort of like interviews but in blog form that artists can place on their resumes, CVs and in their portfolios for jobs and project applications. Again, just like DeluxHair, this is a platform for artists to use in order to gain traction in their own entrepreneurship and art endeavors. Check out which artists we have featured so far by clicking here.

Last but definitely not least is our DE Directory, which was added this year (2018) to provide a space where business owners, entrepreneurs, artists, designers and other freelancers can post their products and services on our blog for our readers. This is an annually paid membership for DE, consider joining by clicking here and check out what our members have to offer right now in our directory.

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Special thank you to Taqiyyah Francis for joining the DE Team this year as one of our Brand Ambassadors (BAs)! We appreciate your hard work and everything you’ve done for us! Show her some love by clicking here.

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Big thank you to our sponsors and affiliate partners shown below!

AirBnb
Booking.com
Borrow Lense
Creative Market
Buisnessese
Girls’ Night In
Horkey Handbook
House of Brazen
Jade&Oak
Minimal Capsule
Pixistock
Shutterfly
Society6
Sofy Decor
Storenvy
Styled Stock Society
Target
theSkimm
VIDA
Virtual Boss Babe

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Ways You Can Help Keep Us Going For 8 More Years:

1. Share our posts on your social media pages. You never know our next big client, commissioner or even investor may be in your friend list ready to connect and help us grow even bigger than we already are.
2. Donate towards our physical art gallery by clicking here. No amount is too small, we appreciate any amount that you’re able to give from $1.00 to $1,000 we do thank you for your monetary support.
3. Follow our social media pages: Instagram – Twitter – Facebook for updates on all of our art endeavors including new artwork, events and much more!

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Photography provided by @K_DougDE

Thank you so much to everyone for your support! It never goes unnoticed and it is always appreciated! Without you, DE would not be here and we would not be making positive progress every year, much love!

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For continuous updates on all new art work, art events and much more follow our social media page links listed below. Thanks for your support everyone!
Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter