“I’m a big believer in the law of attraction, especially combined with focused actions”. Debra Cortese
Noblivity Spotlights Emerging Designer Debra Cortese
Company/Designer Name: Cortese Designs / Debra Cortese
Designer Background Summary:
I’ve been a gardner, nature lover for as long as I can recall. By the time I was 8, I realized how much I loved art and design so my life has been a natural progression of combining the things I love with skills and opportunities. I started a design business in 1980, the same year that my first daughter was born. That grew to a full service advertisiting/design agency which I ran for 18 years in northern Vermont. Then, after a major life changing event, I started migrating south and focusing more on art and photography, always featuring the nature and wildlife subjects that give me a sense of balance and energy.
I’m entranced by the harmony and patterns, symmetry, geometry, vibrant and soothing colors, the protective camoflage for flora and fauna, healing energies, medicinal properties, the intricate beauty. Everything on our planet shares a core energy, a vital life force that animates and supports all growth and renewal. In nature, when this energy is balanced and uninhibited by human interference, the flow is smooth, perfection exists.? When I am truly in touch with nature, the feelings I experience and the images I see are incredibly magical, full of wonder and joy!
How did you get started?
I was photographing, painting, and reproducing the nature images on canvas and paper and showing at galleries, juried art shows, and selling online, but it still wasn’t enough to support us. I’d always been interested in using my art on products and, I wanted to create a product with an everyday use so people could experience the delightful energy of the nature art in an affordable and functional product. So, after researching many possibilities, I decided the fashion accessory market had the most appeal and handbags provided an ideal format to share my designs!
What inspires your designs?
Nature, especially the play of light and shadows on even the tiniest leaf as it gently waves through the air creating energy ripples that you can see and feel and they can be incredibly energizing and healing. It’s a meditation, a connection to everything.
How would you describe your design style, design signatures and who is your targeted customer?
For me, it’s all about nature and the feelings you can get when you truly observe and connect with plants, trees, flowers, sunlight, the energies of our environment.
My audience is everyone who appreciates nature on any level and especially people who love gardening, flowers, being outdoors, feeling the air, the warmth of the sun on your face, how you feel. Oh and of course, anyone who needs a durable, beautiful totebag, backpack, purse, laptop bag or evening clutch to carry their stuff!
What designers inspire you?
Every day, I observe something that I haven’t noticed before – new ideas, colors, gardens, wildlife, landscapes, designers, artists, architecture, science, technology – design in any and all forms.
What obstacles did you have to overcome?
As of this writing, I still have limited financial resources to create and grow in the way I would ideally like to, but it will happen soon. I’m a big believer in the law of attraction, especially combined with focused actions.
How did you overcome them?
I have a positive, optimistic attitude and the belief that you get what you focus on. My biggest challenge is staying focused.
What has been your greatest moment on your journey so far?
Being able to create work that gives me joy on all levels and then seeing how it has a similar effect on others. Sharing nature’s energy as art and design on functional, fashionable bags!
What has been the biggest change in your designs so far?
Last year (2009) I started adding designs that are suitable for both men and women. This is especially focused on the laptop bags because so many men commented that if there was a more masculine (or less feminine) design, they would carry the laptop bags!
If money were no object what would you do right now?
Create the studio of my dreams, hire a full staff and PR firm to take not only Cortese Design Bags, but a line of fashion scarves and accessories worldwide! I would also love to set up a manufacturing facility to bring the entire process together, and add other artists/designers, plus, set up a business or foundation to help other people start businesses where they can support themselves by doing work they love. One more thing, encourage everyone to pass it on, help each other and find safe, loving homes for all the orphaned and abandoned children and pets of the world.
What are the best and worst things about being a designer?
Doing work I love. Explaining that I am ‘working’.
Describe your typical day?
In studio by 8 with coffee and email. Marketing currently about 60 percent of my time, always several new designs in my head and partially created. Lots of networking, follow up calls, writing, budgeting, working on new line sheets, catalogs, updating web pages. Looking for partners/agents/sales reps. Can not do all of this alone!
What?s your philosophy of life?
Find the best in everything, everyone and keep focused on what I’d most like to accomplish next. Oh and take care of myself so I can do all that I want to in one lifetime 
If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?
I’d learn a lot more about business and investing early on. I’d play more and take real vacations!
When will you know you have made it?
When Michelle Obama and her daughters are photographed carrying the custom designed Nature’s Energy Cortese Bags (that are on my drawing board right now!).
