Southeastern alumna Elana Guillory started a business called “Elana’s Graphics” which has quickly gained popularity in the Hammond area. Guillory’s business sells a variety of sustainable, locally-based merchandise, including t-shirts, hats and tote bags with a focus on the Hammond and Ponchatoula area. “Elana’s Graphics” is a recent venture that takes inspiration from the community and has many aspirations for the future. 

Guillory is a Ponchatoula native who believes she has always had a love for art. This love for art grew from regular art lessons with her father and sister and has since impacted her life in many ways, including “Elana’s Graphics.”

Furthering her education, Guillory started at Southeastern with the mindset of majoring in psychology. After taking one drawing class, Guillory realized how fulfilling art was and decided to switch her major to visual arts with a concentration in graphic design. Guillory graduated in May 2023 with this degree. 

“I guess you could say I was born to be an artist, everything started to align when I made that choice,” she said.

Throughout her college career, Guillory worked at The Lion’s Roar and became the Le Souvenir editor-in-chief. This position allowed her to practice graphic design and gave her the confidence to take the leap to start “Elana’s Graphics.”

After Guillory’s graduation, she wanted to keep up her design skills while applying for jobs. This consisted of embarking on an Instagram challenge where she would post a new piece of media every day on social media and learn new Adobe skills to implement into her designs. 

This idea snowballed into Guillory making the original printed tote bags with her own designs, which would soon be highly requested. Guillory was sporting one of her designs when a few people approached her to ask where they could find one. This encouraged Guillory to print more and start selling them to people.

“My entire brain just lit up,” said Guillory, referencing the demand for her products. After a few rounds of production and increasing the amount of product being made, Guillory received a message from Kali Norton to sell her products in front of Norton’s studio on Hammond’s Starry Saturday in November. 

This resulted in Guillory completely selling out of all of her inventory and catapulting her business even further.

Guillory said, “I’ve realized there is a big lack of merchandise that represents southern Louisiana towns that aren’t school or organization-related that are actually stylish and something that I would want to wear.”

Another major factor Guillory contemplated while making her brand was the price point. All of the merchandise can be purchased on her website when in stock and is under $25, an attainable buy for young people. 

Guillory primarily sells her merchandise at different local markets, which are announced on her Instagram. However, there is limited inventory for in-person purchases at The Wooden Grove in Hammond. Elana’s Graphics Facebook page is another great way to find out further details regarding where to purchase merchandise in addition to her email.