Creating A Brand Identity…
Creating my brand was such a fun process for me. From taking a collection of photographs at my favourite National Trust spot (Quarry Bank Mill by the way) to pulling colours from those photographs and creating illustrations. I also decided to explore calligraphy for the first time in quite a while too, which lead to my hand lettered element within the logo of ‘Nicola Wilson’. It took time and a lot of thought on how I wanted it to look and how I wanted everything to match the art style I had started to see develop from countless drawings.
Each of my brand colours were pulled from this peony and rose garden photograph I had captured, with colours taken from the petals, leaves and soil, as well as from the brick wall back drop for the burnt orange tones. I always love to pull colours from my photographs and enjoy seeing what new tones appear from simply clicking around a particular petal and getting so many varieties of pink. It makes each design, for me, more unique and special, knowing that the colours are my own from a moment I captured on my wanders in the British countryside. I love how you can find the perfect colour for a flower petal from something completely different, like the brick wall backdrop. You may be illustrating natural elements but the colours don’t have to come from this. That is all part of the fun with this process!
The floral elements within my logo and across my branding are inspired by one of my favourite cow parsley photographs I captured while walking around Styal village at Quarry Bank Mill. Filling the fence line and looking into the fields they looked so beautiful that I couldn’t help but capture them. I took my own twist on them by using the tones from my brand colours instead of keeping with the traditional colour tones of the cow parsley. I think it is a wonderful thing to be able to have a story behind the branding, and the fact that mine comes from my favourite place and encompasses the British countryside and gardens, it is the perfect fit. I am most inspired by my travels throughout the UK and each of my products are also manufactured right here in the UK too. It is part of the core of my brand - championing British made.
It has taken time and a lot of illustrations to create my brand and person style, which has very much become simple, clean art and neat line drawing using almost solely my brand colours with the occasional additional pop of colour (like the red petals in the pot image). This has enabled me to develop a consistent style that is becoming more recognised as time goes on - I love when someone messages me and says they recognised my art before noticing my name on their Instagram feed! This has only developed from creating many drawings over the years and finding that this style is what I gravitated towards and how I find myself illustrating each piece, feeling natural to me when drawing. Take your own time in this process and find what feels natural to you and what you are pulled towards, and your style will begin to show as you continue to draw.