If you grew up in the 1980s or ’90s, it’s very likely that you came of age with Lisa Frank-branded school supplies, party favors, stickers, beach towels, and all manner of rainbow-splashed products. The company, which at one point brought in an estimated $66 million, was immediately recognizable for its bright pops of color and cuddly, big-eyed animal characters, with fantastical illustrations featuring dolphins, unicorns, puppies, and kittens.
But the storied brand has also seen its share of troubles, which are laid out in a new four-part docuseries, Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story, premiering on Prime on Dec. 5. Executive produced by Mary Robertson, Lisa Kalikow, Eli Holzman, and Aaron Saidman, and directed by Arianna LaPenne (who is also co-executive producer), Glitter and Greed features never-before-seen footage and more than 20 interviews with former Lisa Frank, Inc. employees, journalists, and even Frank’s ex-husband and the company’s former president and CEO, James Green. (Frank herself was not interviewed for Glitter and Greed.)
Tracing the rise, fall, and attempts at the rebranding of Lisa Frank, Inc., Glitter and Greed works to understand the woman at the center of it all—the notoriously private Lisa Frank—whom the docuseries outlines as an extreme figure prone to emotional highs and lows and as a toxic, little-seen manager capable of making threats and outbursts. And yet, as former senior designer and product development lead (1987-2002) Rondi Kutz told filmmakers, working for Frank was like having “a parent you wanted to please.”
Below, we break down the allegations of a “grueling work environment” where anyone could be fired at any time, lawsuits, and controversies behind Lisa Frank and Lisa Frank, Inc., a brand that defined the look and feel of late 20th century childhood.
Who is Lisa Frank?
Behind the multicolored, whimsical designs is a real person: The titular artist graduated from the Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1972 and later attended the University of Arizona, where she studied art. Also in the 1970s, when she was in her mid-20s, Frank founded the children’s jewelry company Sticky Fingers. Later, Sticky Fingers became Lisa Frank Inc. and jumped on the burgeoning 1980s sticker collecting craze.
In 2015, an artist and fashion designer named Carly Mark (who is interviewed for the series) emailed Frank, hoping to interview her. Much to her surprise, Frank responded, telling Mark about her upbringing in the Detroit suburbs and how in college she’d visit the Native American reservations to purchase kachina dolls, then resell them at a profit. Meanwhile, a former college friend of Lisa’s named Evan Eglin describes Frank as someone who knew how to “wheel and deal.”
After the ‘80s sticker collecting trend wore down, Lisa Frank, Inc. began to place a focus on the back-to-school market, placing their characters and designs on folders, trapper keepers, pens, pencils, and stationery. By the 1990s, Lisa Frank, Inc. landed deals with big box retailers like WalMart and Target.
However, with market success came massive pressure to produce more. Former employees interviewed for the series describe working 12-hour days at $8.25/hr, just over minimum wage. While Frank lived in a large house with a staff and flew a 12-seat private jet, employees said they were “scrounging” to get by.
Who is James Green?
James Green is Lisa Frank’s ex-husband and former president and CEO of Lisa Frank, Inc. Green began working for Lisa Frank in 1982 as the company’s first full-time artist and became Frank’s right hand, assuming a leadership role in the company. As a highly decorated airbrush artist, Green was deeply involved in the company’s art direction and had a lot to do with building the brand.
In 1992, James Green was promoted to the company’s president and CEO. Also in 1992, Green and Frank got married, and Frank gifted Green 49% of the company in shares. The couple had two sons: Hunter and Forrest Green.
What was James Green like as a boss?
Former Lisa Frank, Inc. employees tell filmmakers that in terms of management, they mainly answered to Green—especially after the couple had children. They say Green’s management style could be erratic; he could be friendly and upbeat one day and highly critical the next.
In one issue of the company newsletter Frankly Speaking, Green railed against employee disloyalty, writing: “Being optimistic is simply a choice. Be positive. Negative people make positive people sick. If you want the relationship to make your career, allow this advice. Be loyal. Bosses will forgive carelessness, stupidity, tardiness, and a temper tantrum. These can be corrected. But disloyalty is a true character flaw. You cannot and will not be trusted. Respect the boss’ time… and do not tread on his turf. Keep the boss informed. The boss should be informed about what you are doing, where you are, whom you are talking to and why… These principles will serve you well.”
Former employees also tell filmmakers how the company ran like a “rainbow gulag,” with workers being admonished or even fired for leaving the premises early. In response, Green tells filmmakers that these allegations are “a crock of sh-t.” He adds: “I’m telling you, I wasn’t some kind of tyrant. The tyrant was on the other side,” meaning Frank.
Green continued to deny having a temper in the workplace. Responding to an allegation that he once flipped the critique table, where designers would put their work for review, he said: “I hope to god I did” flip the table. “Probably because there was a bunch of horsesh-t on it.”
Then, he backtracked: “I was young. I was under an enormous amount of pressure. When you have a business worth $200 million or more, you have to keep it alive and flowing.”
In much of the series, Green takes responsibility for nearly all of Lisa Frank, Inc.’s success, telling filmmakers how he designed the company’s famous rainbow logo. “I am the real Lisa Frank. I’m the man behind the Lisa Frank brand. It was a huge lie, and I created it. I created the monster,” he says. Anything visual or marketing-oriented, Green claims to have designed it. “I built the brand around this persona of Lisa Frank… Everything I wrote was about her. That was just part of the marketing strategy to get people to love Lisa Frank.”
Green also claims that Frank’s only role was to “sell the product… That was her main focus. Sales. Then she would work in product development.” He also calls their marriage “a bad business decision.”
Who is Rhonda “The Enforcer” Rowlette?
Rhonda Rowlette was an Executive Vice President at LFI from 1984 to the mid-2000s. Around the office she was known as “the enforcer,” due to her literal enforcement of Green’s workplace rules. “I’d say it’s probably pretty accurate,” she tells filmmakers in response to her nickname.
Rowlette was also known for how many people she fired over the years, a number she estimates to be in the hundreds. One former employee alleged to filmmakers that he’d been fired from LFI because he was a diabetic, and therefore couldn’t stay late at the office because he needed to stick to a specific eating schedule. Rowlette responded to the allegation, telling filmmakers that she didn’t remember that firing. “That’s illegal. We didn’t do anything illegal that I knew of.” Rowlette, however, did admit to firing people for “their attitude” or “not working when we asked them to work.”
Rowlette herself was eventually fired by Frank, who was convinced she was having an affair with Green. (Both Green and Rowlette firmly denied ever having had an affair with each other.) After she was fired by Frank, Rowlette sued for $2 million plus damages, claiming it was what she had been promised as a severance were she ever to retire or be fired. Frank and Rowlette settled, but the contents were sealed.
Likewise, the docuseries reveals how a 51-year-old LFI accountant in the finance dept had a heart attack and died at his desk. “The perfect Lisa Frank employee would go above and beyond in any way. I think they like to push people to see how far they could push them,” says Rondi Kutz, who also says employees thought their phones might be tapped.
Kutz, who worked for LFI for 15 years, told filmmakers her final straw came after her husband got into a horrific accident the same day she was supposed to attend the New York Toy Fair with Frank. When she called Frank to tell her she couldn’t attend, Frank allegedly “screamed” at her, telling her it was her husband’s fault for getting in the accident. After Kutz’s husband came home in a wheelchair, Kutz, who needed to spend less time in the office, would repeatedly be told that her work at LFI was suffering.
What happened after Frank and Green divorced?
By 2005, Green and Frank were not getting along. Frank was publicly criticizing her husband and one day, ran out of the office crying. No one knew what was wrong.
Later that year, Frank filed for divorce from Green and fired him from the company. During the divorce, Frank allegedly urged company employees to pick a side, leading workers to fret over the status of their jobs if they chose wrong. “She turned everybody against me,” Green told filmmakers, which Frank denied in a lawsuit against Green.
In that lawsuit, Frank provided affidavits to make the case that Green was mismanaging the company and that he should be removed as CEO. Frank also claimed that Green and Rowlette were colluding behind her back to sell the company and that they had given instructions to leave Frank out of the loop.
Green denied any collusion on camera. “Collusion? There’s no collusion. Lisa knew this was all going down, so how could there be collusion?” Meanwhile, Rowlette tells filmmakers Frank wanted to sell the company. “She was aware of every step we took.” Ultimately, Green was pushed out, forced to sell his 49% back to Frank, and lost all ownership of the art he’d created while at the company. “I lost my titles, I lost my business, I lost my building, I lost everything else… She owns everything. She owns my life’s work,” he told filmmakers.
The couple’s oldest son, Hunter, also spoke to filmmakers, and stood up in defense of his father, recalling how theirs was never a happy home and that he is currently estranged from Frank, whom he described as kind and generous to strangers but cruel to those closest to her. “I felt like my mom was making it impossible for me to see my dad,” Hunter said of the divorce and custody process. “It seemed like she was trying to get him thrown in jail. She said he would abuse me. None of that happened. My dad never abused me.” Green also denied ever hurting his children, saying “I only loved them. I took the best care I could of them.”
Hunter also backed up Green’s claim that he was the creative director and primary artist on everything Lisa Frank, Inc. “I love my dad more than I love myself. I would take a bullet for my dad. I don’t talk to my mom… There is no Lisa Frank without James Green.”
What happened to Lisa Frank, Inc. following Green’s exit?
Employees describe LFI as “directionless” following Green’s removal, with Frank heavily criticizing designs she’d claimed to like only days prior. The company laid off numerous workers and failed to replace them.
By 2015, a new art director named James (who did not provide his last name to filmmakers) was brought in to revitalize the brand. He only stayed at LFI for about six months. James told filmmakers how deserted the once-thriving Tucson office looked, comparing it to a “zombie apocalypse” full of “dusty, creepy characters.” He also called the office environment “old-school” and a place where you “don’t talk until you’re talked to.”
He added, “Everything was closely guarded by Lisa… There wasn’t a lot of creative freedom at all. I believe Lisa just wanted to fall back on some of her previous legacy characters… I believe Lisa stood in her own way.”
Licensing controversies and lawsuits
By the mid 2010s, LFI had ceased manufacturing (the factory closed in 2013), though they were still licensing out the art to other producers. In 2016, a small, New Jersey-based vegan makeup company called Glamour Dolls reached out to LFI to do a collaboration; the two companies signed a licensing agreement and launched a Kickstarter campaign, which immediately went viral. Even though LFI was no longer manufacturing, the 2010s saw a massive wave of ‘90s nostalgia, which Glamour Dolls planned on leaning into.
Glamour Dolls’ two co-founders, Peter Georgotas and Jessica Romano, spoke to filmmakers about how the deal ultimately ruined their reputations and company, with Romano eventually having to file for bankruptcy.
Initially, everything seemed great between the two brands. Frank herself joined Romano and Georgotas at Kickstarter’s headquarters. However, Romano said “the tone changed” as soon as she started showing Frank some decorative ideas for a leopard-print makeup brush. From then on, Frank allegedly demanded that she only be in touch with Georgotas.
Upon launching the Kickstarter campaign, Glamour Dolls hired influencer Kandee Johnson to announce the collaboration, which was set to feature products like an eyeshadow palette trapper keeper and unicorn-top nail polishes.
Because campaign donors were promised a certain timeline delivery, Georgotas and Romano wanted to start producing products ASAP in order to get orders out. But they claimed to filmmakers that Frank micromanaged every aspect of the process, to the point where customers started to complain and harass Romano, who was the face of Glamour Dolls. “We felt like if we didn’t do what Lisa wanted, we were going to lose everything,” Georgotas said.
Georgotas also alleged to filmmakers that Frank started asking him for personal favors, including organizing a two-week trip to Greece for Forrest Green’s high school graduation (Georgotas is of Greek descent). “Lisa told me it was also going to be a business trip, and this is how big companies did things,” he said.
During the trip, Georgotas said he waited on Frank hand and foot out of fear that she would terminate the licensing agreement if things didn’t go well, booking himself $100 AirBnBs while Frank stayed in a hotel suite costing about $5,000 per night.
Meanwhile, Romano theorized to the filmmakers that Frank might have been dragging her feet on production so that they’d have to renew the licensing agreement, the terms of which she changed “significantly.” “We kept finding money to give to her, but we were eating cereal for dinner,” Romano said.
In the end, LFI terminated the contract and denied stonewalling Glamour Dolls. LFI also sent emails to the Kickstarter backers blaming Glamour Dolls for the production delays.
In 2020, the makeup brand Morphe launched a collab with LFI using what appeared to be the original product designs ideated by Glamour Dolls, who filed a lawsuit in federal court for breach of contract, defamation, and fraud.
Frank filed a counterclaim, alleging repeated breaches of its licensing agreement with LFI. Frank also alleged that Glamour Dolls’ updates to Kickstarter backers resulted in customers believing that LFI had defrauded or cheated them. Frank also claimed in court documents that she was “very uncomfortable with the Kickstarter campaign” because she didn’t want Lisa Frank fans to think that LFI was in need of money. She also denied that she demanded Romano be removed from the project.
The case is currently ongoing.
In September 2024, a judge dismissed seven of Glamour Dolls’ counts against Lisa Frank, Inc. and some of its claims for breach of contract and defamation. Glamour Dolls’ claims that Lisa Frank, Inc. breached the contract by filing to provide artwork for one of the products, and defamed Glamour Dolls by saying it had “completely failed to live up to our agreement,” are set to move forward at trial.
Who is Amina “Tasselfairy” Mucciolo?
Amina “Tasselfairy” Mucciolo is an artist and influencer whom Lisa Frank started following on Instagram in 2018. At first, Mucciolo was delighted for the follow and ensuing positive interactions; as a child, they’d been heavily inspired by Frank’s neon-rainbow style. As an adult, Mucciolo gained a significant social media following for their own color-filled personal aesthetic and home design.
However, in September 2019, Mucciolo noticed the news about a forthcoming Lisa Frank pop-up in partnership with Hotels.com taking place in the building directly across from Mucciolo’s home. Speaking to producers, Mucciolo recounted how friends assumed they were involved because the color-splashed pop-up room looked so similar to Mucciolo’s home, which had been featured in magazines and websites.
Regarding whether LFI had stolen Mucciolo’s interior designs, Hotels.com told Insider, “Suggestions that our design was based on anything other than Lisa Frank and her artwork are simply not true.”
Where is James Green today?
Green currently lives in Mexico, where he owns a coffee shop and a bar. He has an art studio. He sells T-shirts. “My art is still my salvation,” he says.
Where is Lisa Frank, Inc. today?
Lisa Frank, Inc. has since collaborated with Crocs and Casetify, and they even did the art for an issue of PAPER Magazine with K-pop superstars BTS on the cover. As of November 2023, there have been news reports about the old Lisa Frank factory in Tucson reopening. Lisa Frank, Inc. even shared a TikTok captioned, “’We’re baaaack.”
Frank’s only statement to filmmakers is as follows: “I have loved art and have been an artist ever since childhood. Lisa Frank, Inc. is the result of that passion. I’m incredibly grateful for the amazing artists and team members who helped bring my vision to life. I’m so excited about the future, as the next generation takes the helm. Stay tuned — the best has yet to come!”
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