At Travel Patterns, we have a high value for celebrating, encouraging, and showcasing small businesses. Yes, we do this because we are a small business, but also because we believe in the importance of championing people who make the brave decisions to take heart and take flight with their dreams! Also, our team is also continuously inspired and encouraged by the courage & creativity, we have seen in entrepreneurs who are showing up every day, just like us! We know from experience that running a small business isn’t just about a product or a service, but it is also about the story of a person and their family, the legacy of a craft, and the furthering of a passion. This is why we decided that we were going to do our part to showcase some of the small business (both near and far!) that inspire us and tell the story of the people who created them.

Today we are introducing you to Levi & Jordan of Bendy Knees Designs, a Birmingham based creative team striving to transform public spaces into vibrant and meaningful experiences. We can’t wait for you to read more of their story and get the opportunity to see some of their amazing work!

Welcome Levi & Jordan! Tell us about yourself:

LEVI: For starters, my legal name is Rachel Levinson, but I go by Levi! I was born and raised in a small town in south central New Mexico. I started creating at a very young age, but my mural career started at the age of 6 with puff paint on my bedroom walls. Little did my parents know, I would be professionally painting on walls 20 years later. I am very privileged to have had parents who were so supportive of my artistic endeavors throughout life. Their support gave me the encouragement and confidence to know I was capable of doing this outside of what society perceived as just a hobby or craft. Before I took the leap to start my own business, I am grateful to have had numerous jobs that allowed me to expand and push my creative boundaries.

JORDAN: I was born and raised in Birmingham, and although I didn’t grow up believing I could be a creative full time, I was always dabbling in art. I have a set design background and love building things, sewing, making plush toys and wood working. Levi and I started dating almost 6 years ago, and on my off days I would spend time helping her set up her scaffolding and assisting with whatever I could on site. One day she handed me a paint brush and I hopped up on the scaffolding to help her, and this is where our business adventure began.

How did you get your idea or concept for your business?

LEVI: One of my last corporate jobs was a chalkboard / sign / mural artist for Trader Joe’s. I ended up taking what I had learned through my time at TJ’s and implemented my skills in local restaurants as menu / sign gigs around town. Each piece I would do, I would add a touch of art until the pieces went from menu’s / sign work to mini murals. I fell in love with how you could transform a space by adding a touch of creativity. It was also empowering to see not only how spaces could transform, but how through art we were able to plant seeds that had an impact on an individual’s thought process. We were able to witness conversations with families and random members of communities that stemmed from what we were doing. It was so powerful to see the rippling effect we were having at such a small scale. Ultimately knowing and witnessing the power of public art is where the idea for our mural business was born.

What is unique about you that is incorporated into your business?

LEVI & JORDAN: A lot of our style comes from how I break down looking at the world to students. I had a small art residency / teaching gig through our local museum for a couple of years. The majority of the schools we were working with did not have art funding or art programs, so this was often times the first exposure these students had to art. I didn’t have a teaching background and for some students, taking on art projects with no experience was intimidating. So I would start every class with a break down of our interaction and functionality with simple, everyday objects. I would explain how everything we interacted with was a creation of someone else’s ideas. For example, the chairs we sit in, someone came up with that idea and every chair is different. If we were going to draw a chair where would we start? Basically we would dissect everything we interacted with into simple shapes and how those simples shapes could come together to form objects that allow us to do something. This thought process has forced me to see life this way and how you can push and pull not only your eye, but the energy and movement of a room based on how shapes and color interact with one another. I think there is something so beautiful when we look at life through the eyes of students and children, so that is the background behind how we approach our style.

What is a risk you have taken in your business and was it worth it?

LEVI & JORDAN: Honestly the biggest risk we’ve taken in our business was to literally take the leap of faith to quit our jobs and start a business. We’ve been going 100 miles an hour since we made this move, but when we reflect, it really is insane to think we quit our part time jobs during a global pandemic and filed for a business license. We were also given so much business advice when considering taking this leap, and the majority of the advice was to not start a business with your romantic partner. However, I would hands down say both risks we took have been beyond worth it. There’s absolutely no one else I would rather have by my side in the business and creative end of our entrepreneur journey as well as life. Sure we are together almost all the time, but we’ve learned so much about ourselves and each other. It’s also a beautiful challenge to figure out how to balance our work and personal lives and to take time to really celebrate how far we’ve come, where we are and where we’re going.

How do you celebrate wins in your business?

LEVI & JORDAN: Celebrating wins is one thing we are really trying to spend more energy working on. Considering we are still so new to the business end of things, and because there always seems to be an overwhelming amount of things to be done or that we could be doing, we’re trying to implement more celebrations for any and all wins. I (Levi) am a bit of an over thinker / worker and often have unrealistic expectations for myself and the amount of work I should be able to accomplish. So it’s hard for me to take moments to celebrate because I am always thinking about what is next and not taking a moment to live in the now. However, with the help of Jordan, its a mix between supporting some of our favorite local sweet treats or restaurants, adding a new print or piece from other artists to our space, or getting a new plant from our fave local plant shop! We also love to camp and hike, so sometimes we celebrate with a day of full immersion into nature and away from technology.

What do you love about being female entrepreneurs?

LEVI & JORDAN: Honestly, being openly queer, female entrepreneurs has definitely been a challenge. We are doing everything we can to make our own waves in this historically male dominated industry and that means challenging ourselves daily to stand up and speak up. I would say the thing I love most is how much our local community has embraced us, and how empowered we feel in our art community. The other big thing for us is to pay it forward and help empower other women, and especially students, that they are fully capable of living and making their creative dreams a reality.

How do you engage your local community in your business?

LEVI & JORDAN: We do everything we can to make sure we approach every job and client with a community minded background. Whether that is creating an interactive piece, having the community involved in the concept, having the community assist with painting or passing the piece off to someone better fit within the community - this is the basis behind our thought process. Our motto is that we’re not in competition with anyone - we hope everyone is successful. There’s room for everyone at this table, so if we have the opportunity to share any knowledge, insight, or experience to further someone else’s dreams - we are more than excited to take part in that movement.

Take Heart. Take Flight.

Our motto - Take Heart. Take Flight. - calls us to courageously search for who we were meant to be, to break free of the fears holding us back, and to boldly pursue the daring adventure set before us. How are you living this motto in your business & life?

LEVI & JORDAN: We live out this incredible motto by simply waking up everyday and making the decision to make our passion our work. Making the active decision to challenge ourselves each and every day, receive inspiration, and ultimately DO something with it. Making the decision to make time for moments of reflection and to recognize how grateful we are to be pursuing our dreams in a world that doesn’t make it easy. It’s a constant work in progress, but waking up everyday, knowing we might be the inspiration for someone else to pursue their dreams is enough. This motto is the inspiration that gives us the motivation to continue pushing forward. Thank you guys for sharing these words and for all that you do for your communities.