NEED TO KNOW
- Lisa Frank launched her namesake firm in 1979
- After years of success, the model declined following her divorce from former CEO James Inexperienced
- In 2024, Prime Video launched a four-part docuseries concerning the rise and fall of Lisa Frank known as Glitter & Greed: The Lisa Frank Story
As Glitter & Greed: The Lisa Frank Story revealed, even a technicolor stationery model can have a darkish facet.
Prime Video launched the four-part docuseries in December 2024, detailing the beginning of Lisa Frank’s namesake firm in 1979 and the way she dominated the notebooks, stickers and backpacks marketplace for many years.
Her model turned the unofficial image of the ’90s till — like choker necklaces and jelly sandals — it pale into obscurity. Lisa Frank noticed a resurgence in recognition within the early 2020s because of collaborations with massive names like Crocs and celebrities like John Mayer.
However, it wasn’t all rainbow pandas and browsing dolphins at Lisa Frank. Glitter & Greed unpacks the divorce, divided family and demanding work atmosphere that some former staff and relations declare had been answerable for the corporate’s downfall.
“There’s this unbelievable irony and distinction between the rainbows and the unicorns and the comfortable cheerful designs that you just see on the within of the complicated actuality that was occurring behind closed doorways,” government producer Mary Robertson instructed ipromiseyoumedia in December 2024.
So, what occurred to Lisa Frank? Right here’s the whole lot to know concerning the CEO behind the ’90s model and the place she is at present.
Who’s Lisa Frank?
Lisa Frank based her namesake firm, Lisa Frank, Inc., in 1979, and as of 2021, she continues to be the CEO.
In line with Jezebel’s 2013 investigation into the model, the artist was born and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Her father ran an automotive firm and her mother and father inspired her to discover her inventive pursuits.
“I feel from about age 5 on, they despatched me to artwork lessons, and I used to be an enormous colorer,” Lisa stated in a now-deleted interview on City Clothing store’s weblog. “I feel to maintain me quiet, they might deliver the coloring books and crayons, and I might replenish the books.”
She moved to Arizona for faculty and finally settled down in Tucson the place she began designing and promoting stickers.
When did Lisa Frank begin her firm?
In 1979, Lisa renamed Sticky Fingers — the plastic jewellery line she began when she was 20 — to Lisa Frank, Inc. In 1984, she landed her first million-dollar order from Spencer Items.
Lisa then shifted her firm’s focus from stickers to high school provides and stationery and employed the corporate’s first in-house illustrator, James Inexperienced. The 2 finally began courting and tied the knot on Oct. 22, 1994, in Tucson. He took over the title as CEO of Lisa Frank within the early ’90s, and the couple welcomed two sons, Hunter Inexperienced and Forrest Inexperienced.
In Glitter & Greed, James stated their relationship was “a pure development,” and he felt stress to get married due to his age. He claimed, “Working collectively for 15 years, we turned excellent associates and one factor led to a different … there was some love concerned. However the curiosity positively got here from her.”
What occurred to Lisa Frank?
Lisa’s firm remained profitable all through the ’90s and the early 2000s, bringing in over $60 million a yr, based on the Tucson Voice. Nevertheless, when the Arizona Day by day Star reported that James filed for divorce in 2005, gross sales had already begun to wane. Lisa filed a swimsuit to take away her ex-husband from his CEO place, and he resigned.
In Glitter & Greed, James claimed that their marriage ended as a result of Lisa was satisfied that he had been untrue. Hunter instructed filmmakers that he remembered his mother believing that his dad was having an affair with the corporate’s government vp Rhonda Rowlette, who additionally appeared within the docuseries and denied the alleged dishonest.
Former Lisa Frank staff interviewed within the docuseries cite each the divorce and Lisa’s alleged hesitancy to evolve the empire as the reason why the model seemingly pale into obscurity.
“She simply needed to fall again on a few of her earlier legacy characters,” stated James, an artwork director who was employed in 2015 to create new characters. “I feel it’s as a result of she felt ‘It was profitable as soon as, let’s strive it once more.’ I say it with some regret too as a result of I noticed the potential. However I feel Lisa stood in her personal manner, actually.”
Why was Lisa Frank not interviewed for Glitter & Greed?
It’s not clear why Lisa was not interviewed for Glitter & Greed. An organization official instructed The New York Occasions Scholar Journalism Institute in 2013 that the CEO doesn’t grant interviews and Lisa even requested City Outfitters to not present her face throughout a video interview the yr prior.
Although she didn’t seem on digicam, each episode of Glitter & Greed ends with an announcement from the artist that reads, “I’ve liked artwork and have been an artist ever since childhood. Lisa Frank is the results of that zeal. I’m extremely grateful for the wonderful artists and group members who helped deliver my imaginative and prescient to life. I’m so excited concerning the future, as the subsequent technology takes the helm. Keep tuned — one of the best has but to return!”
The place is Lisa Frank now?
Although she’s continued to remain out of the highlight, as of 2021, Lisa continues to be the CEO of Lisa Frank — which continues to function. The Lisa Frank web site gives equipment, magnificence and tech merchandise and collaborates with manufacturers like ORLY nail polish and CASETiFY telephone circumstances.
In 2018, Enterprise Insider reported that the enduring 300,000-square-foot Lisa Frank manufacturing facility in Tucson was deserted and on the market for $17 million. The warehouse had been inbuilt 1996 and closed in 2013, based on KGUN-9. Although nothing official from the corporate has been reported concerning the constructing, Lisa Frank posted a TikTok video in November 2023 of two rainbow-colored mascots embracing in entrance of the manufacturing facility with a caption that learn, “We’re baaaack! 🤭🌈🏠.”
Forrest instructed Bustle in 2021 that nation singer Kacey Musgraves satisfied his mom to launch an Instagram account for Lisa Frank. The model shared its first publish in 2018 — which reveals Lisa holding arms and waving with Musgraves whereas sporting mascot heads of her well-known characters — and the account has almost 900,000 followers as of December 2025.
What occurred to Lisa Frank’s sons?
As of 2021, Forrest serves because the director of enterprise growth and partnerships for Lisa Frank. He instructed Bustle that although he began formally working for the corporate in 2015, his mom would excuse him from faculty to sit down in on conferences when he was simply 8 years previous.
“My mother has allowed me to fight her time and time once more, from a [young] age,” he instructed the outlet. “I at all times thought I used to be proper [about the business]. I might at all times struggle for my opinion and attempt to show it to my mother.”
Hunter claimed in Glitter & Greed that the household is actually cut up and that he doesn’t have a relationship together with his sibling.
“It was me and my dad and my mother and Forrest,” he stated. “We love Forrest. My mother handled Forrest a little bit in a different way than me, a little bit bit softer. She handled him extra like her baby than me.”
Forrest didn’t seem within the docuseries.