The most important part of any small business is the products, they're what your customers are visiting your shop for and hopefully purchasing. For me, this is the most stressful part, you can't predict what will be the most popular piece and 8/10 times the product that you don't like so much proves to be the favourite. At Darwin & Gray I make everything to order at the moment, this avoids space in the studio and my time being taken up for no profit.
L E T T E R S
A forever staple within the Darwin & Gray family, they are what started this venture and continue to be our front runner with regards to sales. They're super simple and don't require much publicity to sell. Also, the fact that I've made them for that long now means that I can whip them out in half the time that it took me originally.
B A N N E R S
My favourite piece to test the boundaries with are our banners, having seen similar banners popping up in the likes of Primark & BHS I decided to take matters into my own hands and test new ways of creating them, changing the string to faux suede and the wooden dowel to much better quality wood. Also, the backgrounds....rather than being plain all of the time and simple I took to marbled, dip-dyeing and hand painted different patterns before overlaying the design on top. They're also my favourite piece to customise for people.
T O T H E M O O N
On the 17th January 2016, I launched our first capsule collection called 'To The Moon' and it featured cushions, prints and banners that reflected patterns and quotes that revolved around the idea of the moon. It was incredibly small but super popular and it appeared that small exclusive ranges were the way forward for us.
& W H A T I S N E X T ?
Following on from 'To The Moon' I tried to think of something that was in keeping with where I currently was in life, being incredibly overwhelmed with work I take to the outdoors to breathe and just not think for a moment, introducing....
I N T O . T H E . W I L D E R N E S S
A capsule collection based on the natural world and the stillness that it can create within us all.
Initially I brought together a bunch of images myself and my boyfriend had taken at Derwent, they captured the beauty of the outdoors perfectly but were far too dark for the branding of Darwin & Gray. The plan in the future is to create a sideline blog within the website that I have created to really show off what Derbyshire & Yorkshire have to offer so these photos are perfect to take forward into that but for this collection they just didn't work.
