Branding has always been something that I've really wanted to focus on more than I've had time to. Olivia Annabelle started off very slowly 4.5 years ago, I used my own name as a starter, hoping to change it when I found the right one, but now it's stuck and it actually really fits my brand. This was the same with my branding back then, I knew I wanted it to be vintage inspired, I wanted it to be a dusky pink, with a handmade look to it.

As my brand has progressed and grown over the years I realised I actually needed a desperate upgrade to my branding. The new font and branding for Olivia Annabelle had to be something that looked like it had jumped right out of the pages of a storybook, or an old map or transcript, in line with my themes and brand ethos. The swirly font that I had been using for the past 4 years just wasn't cutting it anymore. I made the decision to ditch the pink (cries) and remove my previous 'All-Seeing Eye' logo and replace it with the much more gentle, feminine and friendly 'Lover's Eye.' I enlisted the help of illustrator Gisela Gayleard, who I discovered on Instagram last year, I fell in love with her fun but very detailed way of working. We worked together to create our very own OA Lover's Eye design. 

The Lover's Eye really helps represent my brand; treasured heirloom, a special token, timeless, made and designed with love and very recognisable. Alongside the eye and the new historical font, I had some tissue paper printed with the new Eye logo which some of you may have noticed creeping into your orders. Packaging is a really big expense for small businesses as minimums and printing costs tend to be quite high so this was a big investment for OA to make. Wrapping your orders in the new tissue paper makes me so happy and just adds an extra special touch which I hope you all love!

Now that the eye, the font and the wrapping was sorted I knew that I had to keep all the other elements of the brand in check. I have always included themed postcards with every order which match the theme of the collection purchased. To do this I used to trawl through antique and vintage fairs to find the right postcard to reproduce for each collection. It's become difficult to judge how many postcards to order for each collection so I made the decision to change this and have an Olivia Annabelle postcard that goes out for all collections. Again I enlisted Gisela to help me come up with a design. I sent her the moodboard above with all my ideas, rambling thoughts and themes. We wanted it to look a bit like a book cover, 'Enchanting Tales of Olivia Annabelle' 'The Magical World of Olivia Annabelle' as I take a lot of inspiration from folklore, fantasty, myths, legends and classic novels. How many magical creatures can you spot? A few of them are wearing my OA Frilly Collars too! The end result is here below! I am over the moon with this design and I hope you will all adore it as much as I do! I still have a few more things to invest in packaging-wise but over 2022 you will start to see the new designs creep into your orders!

Thanks for reading! Olivia x

If you'd like to see Gisela illustrating the Lover's Eye click here!

www.giselagayleard.com