We've been in the fandom for a long time, but we often find people don't know a lot about us because we are SHY! We want to make more of an effort to speak about ourselves in 2021.
These are lemonbrat's core values - the things we hold most important and strive to achieve in our business practices. Top priority is making sure customers are happy with what we make, and that we maintain a high level of quality - of course! We hope that's the standard at any business. These statements are more about our philosophies about how our business should operate, and why we chose to run the business the way we do.
To be Accessible
Lemonbrat branched into fursuits in 2015 because we saw a need in the market - wait times, and limited commission slots can be a hinderance to getting a fursuit! We realized we could be open all the time, with a short turn-around-time, and offer premades. This provides opportunity for customers unable to get into more exclusive queues. We will never exclude people based on body size, body type, or simplicity of design. We gladly make suits as full suits, partials, or parts because we understand that not everyone can afford a full suit upfront. Our items are reasonably priced at a rate that's affordable for the customer while allowing us artists to make a living wage.
To Continuously Improve & Evolve
We always want to improve our overall quality of work, and diversity of design capabilities. We listen to critiques of our work, within reason, and make changes accordingly. Lemonbrat has big seasonal meetings between our team to critique are own work, and are always having conversations about how to make our products better. We hope that you can see the amount of change we've made in two years since this became a major focus at our business - and we will continue to strive for improvement and evolution in our work this year and beyond, including the introduction of our Gen4 head style in the works.
To be Greater by Working Together
Many other makers are single-person businesses, or at most a couple people. Lemonbrat has a larger staff at 15+ people. Some craft fursuits, some fill etsy and shop orders, some make custom fleece commissions, some are illustrators, and others do sales and office work. When each team member has a specialty based on what they are best at we can do our best work as a team.
This way, for example, a crafter doesn't need to deal with keeping a budget, renting space, ordering materials, and providing customer service. Others with better communication skills, but who are not crafters, can still be an integral part of the fursuit making process by being a liaison to the commissioner and ensure they get just what they want.
It's important to us that we create a business where people in the fandom with a variety of skills can contribute. It's important too that they be able to make their passion a career; to make a living wage, and to get important benefits like PTO and health insurance. (Something many working on their own would struggle with by nature of the health system in America.)
To contribute to the Fandom
Creating a fursona/OC is a creative journey - and those that commission suits (or kigurumi or hoodies) are allowing us to help them in that journey by bringing their design into the tangible. We feel honored when people select us as their makers because we feel all humans deserve an outlet for creativity and self-expression. Ironically, by donning a character many people find they get closer to their true selves.
The creativity and self-driven nature of the community is amazing and inspirational, and we want to do more to contribute to the fandom. We want to expand on the charity work we've already done - donating proceeds to organizations that support animal rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and advocate for social equality. We hope to create enjoyable content with an aim towards unity and support between artists within the fandom.
Most of the team members - we are missing a Bitz, Roman, and Tai! It's hard to get together for a pic during a pandemic.
A delicious lemon cake made to celebrate our move to the new studio!
What else would you like to hear from us? Want to meet our team members? See a day in the life of lemonbrat studios? See some of our work processes? Leave a comment below!
