Designs On You

Jennifer Lagdameo, 36, Rockville

What: Ananas, her line of luxe leather handbags and belts, strikes the balance between urban and earthy.

Inspiration: Travels in Asia and a previous stint working at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery infuse Lagdameo's designs with a global feel. Inspiration usually hits while traveling, she says, and she keeps a sketchbook on hand to capture it. "I practically spent high school in thrift stores," she says. "So I'm very influenced by the vintage look, too."

How She Did It: Lagdameo started designing accessories from indigenous materials while living in Manila. She began studying design, learning from her husband's aunt, who had a dressmaking shop in the Philippines, and by ripping up old handbags to examine how they were made. In 2003, she put out her first collection of bags. Hitting trade shows in New York and developing relationships with buyers for stores have paid off: Retailers such as Anthropologie and Bloomingdale's have scooped up her designs, and for this fall's collection, she made her biggest delivery yet, of about 1,000 bags.

Advice: Stay true to what you do well, Lagdameo advises. As her business has grown, it could be tempting to branch out. "But I don't want to overextend myself," she says. "Shoes are just my hobby," she says, referring to her favorite shopping indulgence. So don't expect Ananas mules anytime soon.

Signature Style: The Emily leather bag, above, is one of Lagdameo's most popular. Its sleek geometric lines are softened by the organic feel of the polished wooden hardware. $375 at Muleh, 1831 14th St. NW, 202-667-3440, http://www.muleh.com/ or http://www.ananascollection.com/.

Kevin Sherry, 24, Baltimore

What: He's the artist behind the cartoonish squids and stags that slither and clop across the silkscreened Ts, totes and shoes of Baltimore company Squidfire.

Inspiration: Sherry's background as a comic book illustrator is evident in his quirky designs. Before he starts drawing, he says he rifles through his vast library, which includes old eighth-grade science textbooks, back issues of Zoobooks magazine and art books by illustrators such as Shel Silverstein and Quentin Blake.

How He Did It: Sherry had planned to land in New York after graduating from art school. But after contemplating the life of a struggling artist, he hatched a plan with his business partner, Jean-Baptiste Regnard, to merge commerce and art. "Instead of having to work 40 hours a week just to pay the rent on a crappy studio apartment in New York and save money to start a business, I realized I could stay put and get where I needed to be successful," he says. By living in Baltimore, where rents are artist-friendlier, they could secure a combination warehouse/studio space and buy the equipment they needed to turn out silkscreened T-shirts featuring Sherry's artwork. Today, they're selling to stores such as Up Against the Wall and Commander Salamander as well as smaller boutiques across the country.

Advice: Sherry says teaming up with a business-savvy partner makes sense for designers who aren't right-side-of-the-brain types. Regnard had experience in real estate, which helped the duo find the right space for the company. He also did lots of market research, Sherry says, freeing him to focus on his designs. "A lot of artists just don't have the business skills they'd need to be successful," he says. Thanks to the duo's combined prowess, Sherry says they plan to turn a profit for the first time this year.

Signature Style: A T-shirt depicting a cockfight between two fierce-but-still-cartoonish birds is very Sherry, while his offbeat rendering turns a formula for cute (a bunny-printed baby onesie) into a wry statement. Shirt, $25; onesie, $15. Both at left. Similar styles available at the American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Hwy., Baltimore. 410-244-1900, http://www.avam.org/ or http://www.squidfire.com/.