A JillyJilly.co.uk Update

It's been a while since we've made any major changes to the website but since we've been busy working on other things the list of ideas for improvements has been growing. This year we've updated our product photos and been improving our listings. Now we've finally found time to make the changes we wanted to our website!

If you head to JillyJilly.co.uk you'll notice our lovely lifestyle photos by Fairytale Asylum Photography dotted around. We've got a nice new page for Our Story and a brand new Studio page where you'll find some behind the scenes photos and a little more information about how we make our products.

A big new section is Collections where we'll be keeping a portfolio of part and present designs. We've also added Reviews which includes Etsy feedback and some customer photos. It's great to let potential customers see what existing customers have said about us but I love reading them too! There's also a fab new Friends of JillyJilly section with links to some of our favourite businesses. Finally, we've added Product Care and Gift Wrapping which have useful info for ordering. I hope you like the changes, we'd love to hear your feedback!

January WIP: Business Planning

This work in progress is almost a DIY post too so may have some useful ideas! Since leaving uni I really wanted to streamline my design process for dealing with clients. These projects can involve a lot of juggling so I want it to help from start to end of getting an enquiry and sending final artwork files. I've been busy adding to my website and designing matching, yet practical stationery and forms. I think it's important to make the most of all these contact points as this is the full experience that clients will remember from dealing with me, and who says forms can't be pretty? I've worked in an office before and know how dull and formal paperwork and stationery can be, so keeping that in mind it should be a lot more fun having organised my clients into washi tape covered folders and floral sketchbooks and seeing these things scattered about the studio! So far I have my website, business cards, client questionnaire, estimate and invoice templates, letterheads and project planners. Feeling much more organised and better get on with the actual design work now!

Bosie Boutique Branding

It's been quite a while since my last post, probably something to do with the amount of work I've been doing between uni and Bottled Treasures. Just over a week until assessment though and I've already made a huge list of things I want to do in my giant 4 month summer!

The last few days I've been working on the branding for Bosie Boutique. The website will be launched at 6pm tonight so keep a look out! In the meantime, here's a preview.

After creating a mood board we knew we wanted to create a vintage beach hut themed website. Bosie Boutique sells original handcrafted silver jewellery, with sea and vintage inspired collections being a big part of their product range. The jewellery is quite textural so I took this opportunity to attempt my first mixed media collage style website. This involved messy stuff! One of my favourite techniques from college came in use; layering chalks, pastels crayons, pencil etc with masking fluid then acrylic paint and peeling back the surface, this was then combined with scanned objects, digital illustrations and lace prints. Can't wait to see what everyone thinks once the website is live!

March Hare Market

This has been my latest and most exciting design project in a long time - the rebrand and web design for the March Hare Market. This is a monthly craft and vintage market in Aberdeen so it made sense to give it a crafty vintage feel. Here's a few sneaky peek images of the work in progress, lots of frames, line drawing and cute patterned fabric! Picture these mixed with watercolour collage illustrations and you might be close. The website will be launched on the 1st of February and will allow potential stallholders to apply to take part online. There's also going to be some quirky gallery pages featuring photographs from the 2012 events. Here's one last preview for you! Find March Hare Market on Facebook to make sure you don't miss the launch.

David Noble Music

I've been busy working on the website and brand of new local musician David Noble Music. The website is to showcase a portfolio of composition, tuition and performance. We decided on a vintage handmade watercolour and textured illustration theme with a limited colour palette and hand drawn typography. Here's a preview of the work in progress! I'll share more of the final images and website once they're finished and the website has been launched.