Annie Dornan Smith: The Rebrand!

SO. I've been talking and talking about rebranding my business since the New Year, and showing you all the new bits and pieces as they arrived over on Instagram, but I thought it would be nice to collate them all here (and give me an excuse to do some fabulous *BRANDING FLATLAYS*, because who doesn't love a good flatlay?)

For the last year I have been using bits of this-and-that, which I designed as-and-when the need arose, which I guess is kind of normal for businesses in their very beginning. But after being blown away by the beautiful stands at Renegade this Christmas, I knew I wanted to really put some time and effort into making my brand something clear and cohesive, that reflected how special my designs are (even if i do say so myself!)

So, here I am, reintroducing you. 

My shiny new strapline is "creative home & giftware for artsy babes" and I wanted to reflect that playfulness, shininess and special-ness in my updated brand identity. 

THE LOGO
Here's what I updated first - my logo is now slick, tidy and tasteful, and easily sits alongside all my wild, weird and wonderful designs without clashing. 

THE PACKAGING
I mean, I have so much to talk about here, I hope you're sitting comfortably and have something caffeinated to hand.

SO, I completely re-hauled the whole of my postal packaging - the only thing that stayed were the sturdy board envelopes that I use because they are brilliant and resilient. Long-standing ADS readers will recall that I used to hand-paint white stripes on my packaging, but eventually that came to be really labour-intensive, and I decided that though it was lovely, it didn't really fit the slicker look I was going for, anyway. Instead, I decided on a charming little phrase in my signature hand-lettering to greet you at the doorstep and makes for very happy happy-mail. 

Inside, I did away with the fragile tissue paper in favour of these stunning frosted envelopes that keep all your goodies wrapped up tight, water-resistant and tantalisingly visible as soon as you open the parcel. I seal those up with this amazing glittery tape. I bought enough of this stuff to last a lifetime. If there's a zombie apocalypse I'll be getting us out of it using sheer quantities of glittery tape.

I designed cute little thank-you cards for each and every order (because srsly, if you parted with your hard earned ££ to shop with me, I'm honoured, I LOVE YOU and you should know!) and a hella-cute Instagram card to remind you to share those fire insta flatlays afterwards.

THE SHINY
In favour of my previous plain branded stickers, I wanted something a little extra glam. Now each of my products come with an sassy signature glint of gold at the corner. LOVE. 

...can we just discuss how freaking cute these look on the shelf? 

What's more, I've updated some of the packaging on some of my products - in addition to the gold glints! As I sell out of things, I'm replacing them with simpler, snazzier packaging, like these cute, textured stickers for all future prints:

At the moment, there are still hints of my previous branding around (particularly on older designs) but I'm slowly updating things when I re-order stuff, and adding the new branding to all of my new designs. I'm so excited to share the next round of *things up my sleeve* and I hope you love it as much as I do!