When Bill Killen IV left Providence for the bright lights and opportunity of New York City after graduating from Rhode Island School of Design in 1993, he was an example of the “brain drain” of local talent Ocean State leaders lament.
But a decade later, Killen returned to Rhode Island to start an acrylic paint-making company, Killen Studios Inc. His return shows that some who leave do come back and that Providence can attract young entrepreneurs as well as college students.
For three years Killen has produced the private-label, RISD-brand paint on sale at his alma mater’s store on North Main Street. He now is looking to grow the paint business, while expanding into nontoxic nail polish and furniture paint.
“I moved to New York City shortly after graduation simply because that’s where all young artists tend to gravitate to get their first work experience,” Killen said. “My decision to move back had a lot to do with wanting to open Killen Studios. There is no way I could afford the manufacturing space [in New York] to start the business.”
Killen Studios rents 1,500-square-feet of manufacturing space in the rehabilitated Butcher Block Mill on Eagle Street, which is run by the Partnership for Creative Industrial Space and serves as a low-cost home for art-related startups. The company mixes the paints, fills containers and refines the formulas for new products in the old mill in the city’s Valley neighborhood.
While inexpensive and art-friendly, urban industrial space is one benefit of Providence that helped draw Killen back from New York, family was another.
Killen’s father, also named Bill and also a RISD graduate, studied textile chemistry and formed his own company helping the fashion-jewelry industry designing resins and paints.
As an aspiring artist in New York, Killen found out how expensive paint can be and called on his father’s industrial chemistry knowledge to develop a recipe that would allow him to make his own student-grade paint. (Student grade being less expensive than artist grade.)
Early versions of the homemade paint were underwhelming, but Killen kept working on it and steadily the product improved until he thought it was at least as good as the student-grade, acrylic paints sold at art-supply stores.
He reached out to his alma mater with the idea of making a private-label paint for its store. When RISD agreed, he started producing early batches from the basement of his house before moving to Butcher Block Mill.
After three years of sales in the RISD store, with no returns, Killen wants to expand the business.
With RISD, Killen is exploring a licensing agreement that would allow him to sell the university-brand paint outside the school’s store. Because most university stores are run by large companies, Killen said his top target would be regular art stores.
But Killen Studios is making its biggest push right now in nontoxic nail polish, sold under the brand Sprout.
Sprout is marketed to children and pregnant women as a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional nail polishes, which contain potentially dangerous solvents and chemicals.
Killen has been selling Sprout nail polish on the craft website Etsy.com and the moms-and-babies website Zulily.com. The company now turns out about 1,000 four-bottle kits per month.
“The nail polish is really taking off,” Killen said. “We just developed a new formula to increase the time it stays on the finger, which is the toughest thing and the reason they use all the stuff that is bad for you.”
In addition to selling Sprout polish through online retailers, Killen is trying to get the brand on shelves in large retailers and exploring making a private-label brand for companies such as Warren-based Ava Anderson Non-Toxic.
As the nail polish business grows, Killen is preparing to make the company’s first foray into producing antique-furniture paint.
The furniture paint is designed to look old even when first applied and can be treated with wax to give it a cracked, weathered look.
Geared to hobbyists, the paint is intended to spruce up inexpensive antique-store or attic finds easily, without sanding, while retaining a vintage look.
Killen intends to sell the furniture paint under the Butcher Block label, in honor of the building. •COMPANY PROFILE
Killen Studios Inc.
Owner: Bill Killen
Type of Business: Paint manufacturer
Location: 25 Eagle St., Providence
Employees: 8 (4 full time)
Year Established: 2009
Annual Sales: NA
