As an art director, Debby worked on advertising campaigns for luxury brands such as Jaguar, Lexus and De Beers. She took time off several years ago to raise her children, as her husband was a successful general contractor and real estate investor. She had no plans to get into business on her own.

However, one day Debby was teaching her five-year-old son, Aidan, how to spell.  She was playing with his name on a computer screen. Using a graphics program, she flipped each of the letters in his name to look like a dinosaur.  Further experiments allowed her to convert just about any name into various animal shapes.  Aidan loved it, and so did his friends-and their mothers.  A new business idea was born: graphic designs on clothes that would teach kids to spell while entertaining them.

Debby acquired a small manual silkscreen machine with two stations to allow one- or two- color printing.  With the help of husband Gal, she began to print kids' and babies' shirts with various designs. The shirts were an instant success in her town, which is located about an hour from Boston. Local papers wrote stories about them, and the children' shirts became a hit. Town fairs, school programs, fund-raising events and holiday fairs proved to be excellent markets. When Debby had to recruit Gal to take over production, they realized they had something big on their hands.

Lit'l Desi9s Kiosk

However, as her business grew, Debby became concerned about the effects of plastisol screen printing ink on the health of Aidan and her other tiny customers. She experimented with water-based screen printing inks, but the wash-fastness was not satisfactory. Gal’s research led them to direct-to-garment inkjet printing. It would solve both their production and inventory problems. They could now print on demand. Debby could now also use a full-color palette.

A Baby's Onesie with Name

They decided on an AnaJet Digital Apparel Printer, since it offered every feature they could ask for.  It was a "green" system because of its water-based inks, it was compact and it provided the color vibrancy Debby had long sought.  About this time, Debby also launched her Web site, www.LitlDesi9s.com.  After that, the business truly took off.  Soon, they decided to go to a mall to receive better exposure. Debby signed up for a kiosk in the Prudential Center in downtown Boston, across from Saks Fifth Avenue. The mall attracts a great deal of traffic from locals and tourists alike. The kiosk was a small cart, about 4 x 8 feet, and it was just big enough to hold the printer, a heat press and a small inventory of her garments.

Debby currently has over 1,500 names in various animal designs and is adding new ones every week.  Recently, she broadened her product line beyond basic shirts and introduced organic clothing.

Between Debby and Gal, who eventually joined Lit'l Desi9s full-time, their Prudential Center kiosk is open seven days a week. Her wholesale operation signed up some retail stores that now market her clothing line as far away as California and New Mexico. Web site reorders by her kiosk customers are gradually increasing, and thus far, she has received orders from over 30 countries. Their first licensed store is set to open in the summer of 2008 at an upstate New York location, and more are planned.