By Isabella Carrero-Baptista
Cow puns were stuck in Paul Leeds’ mind in high school, so much so that he started a list of them. That list eventually became a student-run retail business.
“It really is something that started with just a childhood, random fascination with [cows] and now we’re working together to turn that into something more,” said the University of Maryland alum and co-founder of Bovine Designs.
As the name suggests, Bovine Designs sells exclusively cow-themed stickers, t-shirts and tote bags.
Their most recent product line, “Back to School”, features four school subject-inspired designs. “Cowdominance”, a pun on codominance, has a Punnett square between a coral-colored cow and another cow with a heart on its forehead. Leeds said his inspiration for this cow-pun came from learning about genetics in high school. But besides punny designs, Bovine Designs strives to leave a positive environmental impact.
“The ultimate goal of Bovine Designs is to support awareness about climate change, sustainability,” Leeds said.
Leeds explained that the stickers and tote bags are hand-produced to minimize production waste. Bovine Designs also released an Earth Day design called “Moother Earth,” featuring a cow with wood grain on it hugging a globe and surrounded by leaves. All of their sales from products with this design between August 22-30 of 2023 were donated to Eden Reforestation Projects, a non-profit organization working to reduce deforestation.
Wren Poremba, a junior computer science major and one of the winners of a sticker bundle giveaway, supports Bovine Designs’ sustainability efforts by buying their stickers.
“I love how they use their work not only to spread joy, but to also spread awareness,” Poremba said.
Katherin Sandoval, co-founder of Bovine Designs and a junior studying accounting and finance, explained that one of the company’s biggest hurdles is reaching an audience outside of the UMD community, having them turn toward better advertising.
“We’re looking to expand our reach to other students… as well as to the general population, since a big part of our goal is awareness,” Sandoval said.
Bovine Designs is currently participating in the Fall 2023 Equity Incubator Program, which is an eight-week mentorship program hosted by The Universities of Shady Grove designed to establish and scale start-up businesses. After a series of several workshops, businesses have the opportunity to pitch themselves and compete for a cash prize, according to the website.
“We’re looking forward to increasing our marketing and conducting customer feedback forms during the incubator [program],” Sandoval said. “Then, hopefully [we will] gain more traction.”
Both Leeds and Sandoval are acutely aware of the challenges of running a business and being a full-time student. In Sandoval’s case, she must also balance a part-time job.
“The biggest challenge is time management,” Sandoval said. “It’s just a lot of time commitments… so I would say a lot of it comes down to discipline.”
Leeds tried to start Bovine Designs his freshman year of college, but quickly became overwhelmed.
“When I started working on it (Bovine Designs) again… I really made it a priority to get someone on board who could not only bring my vision to reality, but also incorporate their own vision into it,” Leeds said.
Sandoval and Leeds’ perseverance in spite of the challenges is a source of inspiration for Poremba.
“Seeing businesses succeed that are run by fellow students and alumni makes me proud to be a part of this student body and community,” Poremba said.
For now, the co-founders have plans to incorporate their lessons from the Equity Incubator Program to improve the efficiency of Bovine Designs.
“We’re looking to make major changes to our current business strategy,” Sandoval said. “So just be on the lookout for what’s to come.”
The number of cow puns that helped grow the business has reached 171 since Leeds started it in high school, and it’s still on the rise.
Featured Image: Bovine Designs “Hold my cup” line-up, courtesy of Bovine Designs Instagram.